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Acknowledging that slim is in, Fujitsu Technology Solutions announced two new midrange servers Tuesday specifically designed for the tight confines of data center racks.
Fujitsu Technology designed its latest eight-way and 16-way systems, the PrimePower 650 and 850, respectively, without internal storage space, resulting in a more compact chassis better suited for use in industry-standard server racks.
“Theres been a long-term industry trend to drive down the space taken up in a rack,” said Richard McCormack, vice president of marketing for Fujitsu Technology, in Sunnyvale, Calif. “A lot of our customers want that continued reduction in floor space.”
In recent years, rack-mounted servers have become the fastest-growing segment of the server market. The systems, designed to be stacked atop one another, offer customers the ability to pack more compute power into their data centers than previously possible using older, boxier configurations.
To slim down its midrange servers, Fujitsu eliminated internal storage, contending that customers using rack-mount servers are increasingly relying on external storage systems to handle such tasks anyway.
“What we had previously were combination products [offering CPUs and storage] that were not optimized to work in a rack,” McCormack said. “These devices are specifically designed to take up a minimum amount of height-units possible, assuming that the customer has connected all the storage via Fibre Channel externally.”
Depending on configurations, the new servers will be available in 8U to 17U chassis sizes (approximately 14 inches to 24 inches tall).
The PrimePower 650 and 850 feature Fujitsus 675MHz SPARC64 GP processors and are designed to run the Solaris operating system designed by Sun Microsystems Inc.
Both systems will be available at the end of December. Prices vary greatly based on specific system configurations. The PrimePower 650 with four processors and 4GB of main memory starts at $180,000.
Fujitsu Technology Solutions was formed last November by Tokyo-based Fujitsu Ltd. as part of its effort to boost its presence in the U.S. server and storage market. Currently, the parent company enjoys its strongest sales in Asia and Europe.