IBM has decided it no longer wants Sun at any price, but Dell is taking another tack...
With Sun setting itself up for sale, a number of companies have started
gazing towards its direction. While some of them are fixing their
sights on the company itself as a whole, others are locking in on smaller, tastier prey -
Sun's customers. Dell is one such predator.
The
Dell ProConsult Infrastructure Consulting service
is now offering a seamless Unix to Linux migration for Sun's customers. The service is open to any company that's currently using a
Unix-based system but since Sun's uncertain future is providing the
environment for its customers to look for alternative server solutions,
Dell is squarely focusing on them now.
Dell claims that its opens-source, flexible, and standards based
PowerEdge Linux servers are much better
than those powered by proprietary platforms. With cash-strapped customers
looking for ways to cut down on costs, plus assure long term support with the spectre of Sun's
possible exit from the market (remember that talks with IBM have broken down), it
might be easy to decide on making that migration.
Customers who
decide to switch can upgrade to PowerEdge servers that run on the Intel
Xeon 5500 Series Processors. These are the latest processors from Intel
that boast of higher energy efficiency, best-in-class virtualization
performance, superior scalability, and a much simplified server
management. If you're interested in taking a look at some highlights of
record breaking results of these processors, just click on that link.
To help customers evaluate whether it would be best to shift or not, Dell will provide access to a set of
services, tools, and guidelines that include a Server Power and Space
Savings Calculator, a Unix to Linux Migration ROI calculator,
step-by-step migration guides, and others. Once the transition to Linux
is implemented, the customers are assured that they won't be left in
the dark as Dell is committed to using only open source drivers for all
PowerEdge servers.