Despite the growing capabilities offered by Intel and Microsoft for enterprise computing environments, many customers are unaware of the value that IntelŪ ItaniumŪ 2 processor-based systems running Windows Server offer over UNIX infrastructures for hosting critical workloads. To illustrate the motivating factors that led enterprise companies to choose this open standards-based solution over the proprietary UNIX architecture, Ideas International (IDEAS) conducted a study of real-world business cases. The participating enterprises expressed a multitude of reasons for migrating to Windows Server on Itanium 2-based servers. They were attracted to Windows Server due to the ability to leverage their existing desktop skill sets across a broader range of applications, and they perceived that their software costs would be reduced. The Itanium 2-based platform was appealing to these users because it offered maximum scalability for Windows Server workloads, and it was perceived as having a long-term future with much room for innovation and improvement.
The studied users had positive experiences with the reliability of the Windows Server platform and agreed that reliability has improved dramatically in Windows Server 2003 over earlier releases. They also felt confident that Itanium 2 processor-based systems would continue to deliver high levels of reliability over time due to ongoing system vendor innovations. Scalability was also a key concern for users who deployed Windows Server on Itanium 2-based servers, and in general, they have been satisfied with the achieved results. Most of the studied users established that Itanium 2-based systems running Windows Server would meet their performance needs by conducting benchmark tests based on their own workloads with specific goals. In all cases, the users were satisfied that the goals were being met.
Although UNIX and Windows Server are fundamentally different operating systems in many ways, interoperability between the two systems did not present major difficulties for the users who had migrated from one to the other, especially when their workloads were based on third-party software that supports multiple platforms. Financial considerations are often a key factor in driving the migration from UNIX to Windows Server, and indeed, users who have completed the migration have identified cost benefits as a result. Some savings might be apparent at the time of acquisition due to lower hardware costs deriving from the use of industry-standard processors, while other savings might be "softer," resulting from manageability improvements gained by standardizing on one operating system. The combination of Windows Server and Itanium 2-based servers clearly opens up compelling avenues for users to simplify their infrastructure by consolidating and reducing the number of operating systems and hardware platforms that they have to manage. By simplifying their environment, users reduce their operation costs. Simplification also makes the environment much easier to integrate, and thus much more responsive to business-processing needs.
