Windows Server 2008 cuts power costs, claims Microsoft
Compared to Windows Server 2003 that is
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Microsoft spat out a white paper earlier this week in which it claimed that its Windows Server 2008 product cuts power consumption by about 10 per cent.
It’s no surprise to see Redmond leaping at the opportunity to proclaim that its new software can help cut customer’s increasingly hefty 'leccy bills. But how did it draw those conclusions? Why, by testing Windows Server 2008 against Windows Server 2003, of course.
The firm compared power consumption between two installations on the same server, but tellingly it didn’t test its software against any Linux-based offerings or rival virtualisation products on the market.
Microsoft bods installed Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition with Service Pack two as well as hot fixes onto a system with two dual-core processors and 4GB of RAM. They then formatted the hard drive before loading the server with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition.
They concluded that Windows Server 2003 guzzled 10 per cent more power that Windows Server 2008.
Two significant changes set the platforms apart, said Microsoft. The first being better power management features that have been enabled by default in Server 2008, while the second was all about the dirty virtuous V-word.
Virtualisation is a major component of Windows Server 2008 which was released late February this year. Microsoft stated the obvious about the technology’s benefits:
“If multiple virtual machines can run on a single physical machine without consuming significantly more power than a standalone server while keeping comparable throughput, that means you can add virtual machines at essentially no power cost, as dictated by your hardware and performance needs.”
Microsoft even took the opportunity to put the boot in to its rivals. “Hyper-V can still throttle the amount of voltage to the CPU based on load – which is something VMware and Xen can NOT do today,” it said.
However, most significant of all is the fact that Hyper-V hasn’t landed yet. The software giant was forced to delay the product’s scheduled arrival, which should have been neatly tied-up with Windows Server 2008 at its Heroes Happen Here launch earlier this year.
Microsoft still insists that it's on schedule to pump out a full final version of Hyper-V by mid-August.
In the meantime, customers can play with release candidate versions of the hypervisor to test Redmond's 10 per cent Windows Server 2008 power saving claims. ®
COMMENTS
@Spiteful God / @AC
I've used pretty much every commercial OS since MS-DOS 3 and a wide variety of Linux / UNIX flavours, and have to say that by far and away, Vista is the worst operating system I have ever used. It even makes WinME look good.
Strangely, however, most of the things that make Vista so bloody awful, seem to have been removed from 2008; and aside from a few little irritations, like that bloody network and sharing centre (what's wrong with going straight to the connection management utilities I ask you!) it's a phenomenal piece of kit.
In terms of finding an OS which "natively supports wireless connections from numerous vendors", I seem to spend a large amount of time configuring Windows systems to just f@*!ing connect to my AP, which hardly strikes me as native support.
Meanwhile, Ubuntu helpfully popped up with a simple "enter the key" type box and I was away.
@Anonymous Coward
Yeah, tell me about it when you have an OS with natively supports Wireless connections on hardware from numerous vendors were you don't have to resort to numerous ndis commands!! I ain't saying shit because as I previously stated whatever comparable facts there are on the differences, improvements or bugs between the different OSs it's always drowned out by.... MS are shit, blah blah blah, baby killers.
I doubt I will be frequenting el reg much longer as you can find better technical articles in other places with comments from people who actually use the OS and have constructive criticism or warning about them and have actual jobs in IT and development, not a load of ill informed mutants who barely know how to use a home PC and like jumping on the latest hate MS craze
Re: Waste of time
Although, on the other hand, Bill gets his money from MS, and he's giving millions to help those who can't afford education, etc...
Although the point still stands... We do all spend obscene amounts on IT gear and self pleasure when there's people out there that would be happy just to have dinner tonight.
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