AMD says virtualisation will win SMB hearts
PrintUses Barcelona as chat up line
Posted in Small Biz, 25th July 2007 15:36 GMT
Free whitepaper – Out-of-box comparison between Dell, HP, and IBM blade servers
AMD is extolling the virtues of virtualisation for small businesses (SMBs).
The chipmaker said today it hopes to step up its presence in the SMB space within the next 18 months as it brings Barcelona – the firm's four-core version of the Opteron server chip – to market.
It said the best way to do that was through responding to the growing shouts and screams coming from the little guys who see virtualisation, alongside power efficiency, as key issues driving their business needs.
To underline its interest in the SMB space, AMD has kicked off a new strategy named Common Core, aimed at "simplifying systems management".
Opteron product manager Steve Demski claimed that, in contrast to arch-rival Intel, AMD offered a more "stable, consistent roadmap".
He said: "We aren't churning through our OEM product lines as quickly as our competitor does. It makes it from a business standpoint easier for them to support their lifecycles so it's more like a three-year longevity."
The firm also proudly touted its "same socket infrastructure", which it reckoned could help reduce costs and disruption for companies not wanting to upgrade all hardware each time a new chip hits the market.
However, Demski pointed out: "One of the drawbacks with this approach is that people tend to look at us as less innovative."
The chipmaker also confirmed that Supermicro will be releasing a 4P blade platform in the final quarter of this year.
It will be shipping 1.9GHz and 2.0GHz versions of its four-core processor to system builders in August, with the product line hitting the channel and disties sometime in September.
Unsurprisingly, given AMDs recent hammering in what has effectively been a two-horse race with Intel, Demski defended the firm's market position, and said: "We believe that we are delivering just the same level of innovation but we are doing it within an infrastructure that is a little bit more customer friendly." ®
The Register Agile Data Center Summit
Automating the Acquisition Process with Enterprise Level CRM
10 Strategies for Choosing a Midmarket ERP Solution
Managing desktop software for fun and profit
10 Steps to a Successful CRM Implementation
Dirty, dirty PCs: The X-rated picture guide
Top 500 supers - rise of the Linux quad-cores
Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter