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What platform should be employed for Linux database serving in midsize companies? There are new answers to this question.
In less than five years, Linux has moved from a niche to a mainstream operating system among midsize companies. Linux servers are increasingly moving beyond Internet and intranet applications to host enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence (BI), e-commerce, and other core business systems.
As this occurs, organizations that have built Linux infrastructures around “commodity” Intel-based servers are encountering new challenges. Intel-based platforms remain viable for such functions as application and Web serving. But the requirements for core database serving are significantly different. Database serving requires higher levels of performance, scalability, and availability than other server functions, and management of business-critical databases means that new tools and practices must be adopted. If servers are consolidated, virtualization technologies must also be capable of supporting heterogeneous database environments in an effective manner.
Challenges are compounded by data growth. In most midsize businesses, the amount of raw data is already increasing by 30 to 60 percent per year and, in some industries and applications, increases exceed 100 percent per year. Growth rates are expected to accelerate.
How will these challenges be met? The answer to this question is not a matter of technological detail. It engages the entire business.
Databases house the most powerful competitive resource of the 21st century – information. As conventional forms of differentiation erode, the effectiveness with which organizations use information is becoming an increasingly critical determinant of business performance. That effectiveness, in turn, depends in no small measure upon database infrastructures and the platforms that support them. No component of IT strategy is more important. For organizations than have deployed, or plan to deploy core business systems on Linux servers, new approaches are needed.
This report looks at one such approach – the use of IBM Power servers for core database serving. There are a number of reasons to consider the Power platform:
1. In performance, scalability, and key functional capabilities, it offers a more effective solution.
2. It provides state-of-the-art virtualization capabilities in a manner that is less complex than VMware and Xen technologies.
3. It may cost less.
Costs
Once regarded as an option primarily for large users, reduced instruction set computing (RISC) platforms have grown increasingly affordable. This is particularly the case for the new IBM Power 520 and 550 Express servers, which offer a cost-effective alternative to Intel-based platforms for Linux serving. This is illustrated by four profile-based comparisons of pharmaceutical, distribution, and apparel and automotive parts manufacturing companies presented in this report. In these comparisons, three-year costs for Power server deployment scenarios for Oracle databases range from 24 percent to 40 percent less, and average 37 percent less than Intel-based equivalents.
Three-year costs include hardware acquisition and maintenance, license, and support costs for systems software, Oracle 11g databases, system administration personnel, and facilities overhead. Intel-based server scenarios include use of VMware Infrastructure 3 tools.
Hardware, maintenance, and software license and support costs were calculated using “street” prices (i.e., discounted prices actually paid by users). The basis of these calculations is discussed in the Detailed Data section of this report. Actual prices and costs experienced by individual organizations may vary. Cost disparities, however, are only part of the picture. Distinctive Power server capabilities in performance, scalability, virtualization, system and workload management, availability, and complexity reduction – also contribute to the business case for this platform.
These capabilities are discussed below. Later sections of the report deal in more detail with the business importance of core database serving in midsize organizations, and with the distinctive technical characteristics of Power servers that make them appropriate for this role.
The Power platform is a recognized industry performance leader. Industry benchmark tests, as well as user experiences, show that Power servers outperform Intel-based equivalents by wide margins. This reflects not only the capabilities of POWER6 processors, but also broader design parameters. System-level performance potential has been optimized at all levels of design and implementation – including microelectronics, module- and subsystem-level components, internal communications, I/O, and system-level hardware and software.
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