HP Kinetic energy server loses Oracle despair

March 23, 2011, Oracle announces the end of all software development for the Intel Itanium (Itanium) processor platform, which means HP's Kinetic server (Integrity) will not be available to Oracle's new products in the future.

In common sense, Hewlett-Packard, the main supporter of Itanium, is a big competitor to Oracle after Sun, but not its main competitor, because it does not have its own enterprise-class applications (Oracle's biggest competitor is IBM, and the product lines are evenly matched, So there is no one who asked who the problem, see Oracle in the CPU authorization to power on the "concessions" know it, so it is also very easy to controlled, if from a competitive point of view, Oracle "Strangle" Itanium, in the case of love is reasonable. But in Oracle's official press release, we see another reason why--intel and HP are going to give up Itanium, so I don't have Oracle to play with you.

In fact, whether from the needs of competition, or the market itself to update the needs of the future, Intel and HP do not have a good reason to abandon the Itanium product line, so fundamentally, we can not deny that Oracle's approach to kill HP UNIX server idea.

Of course, Oracle's vibrations in the software ecosystem of Itanium mean the only one. As early as 2009, the Linux main provider Red Hat announced that it would no longer launch a Linux operating system that supports a new generation of Itanium, and Microsoft was then on April 6, 2010, on the eve of HP's next-generation Kinetic server based on Intel's latest Itanium 9300 processor, Announced since the Windows Server 2008 R2 version, no longer supports Itanium, and then look at HP's new supported operating system list, only HP's own UX.

However, Oracle's actions apparently gave HP much more stimulus, shortly after Oracle announced that HP is willing to take legal action as a means to "justice" to Oracle, both sides are playing a user card, HP said Oracle Abandon Itanium, is the user of the kinetic energy server is the biggest irresponsible, and Oracle accuses HP and Intel to build "Itanium's false exuberance" to deceive customers and let customers suffer losses.

But in any case, the prospect of losing Oracle-backed HP's kinetic server is bound to be seriously affected. Despair, however, has also speeded up the transformation of its key business systems sector (bcs,business unacknowledged system, subordinate kinetic server and high-end x86 server product line).

In short, it is the future of the integration of IT architecture, combined with its own advantages, out of a new development route, this is the November 22, 2011, Hewlett-Packard's "Odyssey" (Odyssey) program. The thrust of this program is to integrate traditional UNIX and x86 key business servers to meet the growing number of customers who want to juggle UNIX and x86 key business needs on a single platform.

The biggest bright spot in this program is the Superdome 2 cabinet with an Intel Xeon Processor Blade server (code-named "Dragonhawk") and an extensible C-class Blade server (code-named "Hydralynx"), and in the next two years, HP will also be compatible with the enhanced Windows and Linux environment with HP-UX innovative technology. Dragonhawk Blades from Superdome2 blade compatible, scalable to 32 socket systems, while hydralynx blades originate from bl860/870/890c i2 blades, up to 8 slots, this scalability is very rare in the current x86 field, The ability to handle and reliability is needless to say, coupled with HP's integrated infrastructure concept, providing users with a new choice to improve the flexibility of the deployment of key business applications.

In short, HP through the Odyssey can bypass Oracle's blocking, using curve to save the way, the new Oracle database and the middle of the deployment of the Dragonhawk and hydralynx blades, And the original HP-UX application smoothly migrated (currently IBM and Dell's x86 server does not match the Dragonhawk and Hydralynx products). The same application pattern applies to Microsoft, Red hat software vendors who no longer support Itanium. Eduardo Rosini, vice president of Microsoft's SQL Server market, and president Paul Cormier of the Product and Technology Division, the executive vice president of Red Hat, said on the day of the news that their critical application environment would reappear in HP's BCS high-end x86 platform, To provide better service to customers.

Of course, there is no denying that the Odyssey program itself is not materially helpful to the revival of Itanium, and that the kinetic server is still miserable in the UNIX industry, and that Oracle's decision will still have a greater impact on future users (especially when the user specifies that non-UNIX is not necessary), But HP's Odyssey program allows the industry to take a critical view off the CPU platform, but to re-examine it from a global system level. This is also in line with HP's integrated infrastructure (CI) concept, no matter what the key applications, in the future can be provided in the new platform Odyssey, and to provide customers with reliable services.

So the future of the Itanium platform seems less important. All in all, from the BCS overall of the kinetic energy server, the Odyssey plan is undoubtedly a positive move that offers HP the possibility of a revival of a new BCS server from the "encircle" of software vendors and rivals. Of course, this ultimately depends on HP's implementation capabilities and customer maintenance capabilities.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)