New HP ProLiant G6 range delivers unprecedented price/performance, cost-savings, says Tarsus PM

31 July 2009

Tarsus Technologies has announced the local arrival of the G6 range of HP ProLiant servers, bringing new levels of price/performance, flexible virtualisation practices and superior power-efficiency into the departmental, small business and large enterprise data centre environments.

Greg Pothitos, ESG product manager at Tarsus, says that much of the new functionality offered by the G6 stems from HP's integration of the new Intel Nehalem architecture into the server platform's overall design. “The Intel Nehalem-based Xeon 5500 family not only offers the increased performance of the latest eight-core (four physical cores and four virtual cores) architecture from Intel, but makes use of new power-throttling technology that allows the system to perform substantially better than its predecessors, even when processor cores are running flat-out,” he says.

“When it comes to being more frugal with power the load isn't maxed out, however,” he continues. “Yet another power-throttling technique allows the processor to shut down the cores that are not being used, essentially halving or quartering the power consumption normally associated with a four-core processor,” he explains.

Besides the obvious benefits brought to the table by the inclusion of Intel's Nehalem processors, Pothitos says that HP has built new heat-management technology into the server platform, and redesigned its power-delivery components to use a common interface.

“These two enhancements make it easy for customers to select a power supply that fits their exact requirements, further cutting down on wasted electricity,” he adds.

“Because the power components are uniform, however, this practice doesn't negatively impact the servers' scalability. As and when power requirements increase – either through the implementation of additional processors or other system components – companies can easily swap their power supply out for one with increased power capabilities,” he explains.

These benefits only scratch the surface of what is possible. Pothitos says the combined effects of the new technology innovations brought to market with the G6 server range are astounding.

“If we tackle virtualisation first,” he says, “utilising the Virtual Connect Flex-10 enclosures for the blade versions of these servers, customers can consolidate 75% of their IT equipment at 66% of the cost and effect an astounding 65% power-saving.

“Furthermore,” he adds, “even though the back-plane of this enclosure currently costs the same as most 1Gbps fabrics, it in fact offers full 10Gbps performance.

“That is excellent value for money and good future planning,” he says.

Pothitos says that the figures get pretty crazy when compared to previous generations of HP ProLiant servers.

“For example,” he says, “to deliver the same level of performance as a single DL380 G6 server, a company would need three DL380 G5 systems and nine DL380 G4 systems.

“By going for a single G6 server, however, and upgrading from the G5 and G4 systems respectively, they stand to save in the region of $2 500 to $10 500 in annual operating expenses, respectively.

“Considering the average life cycle of servers today, most IT decision-makers will agree that this is a proposition that is difficult to pass up,” he concludes.