AMD Servers, An Intel Alternative

TheInfoPro has released Wave 1 of its Server Study. According to in-depth interviews with leading-edge Server professionals the Wintel (Windows-Intel) market stranglehold on x86 architecture servers may be broken. Users report new found interest in adopting servers from IBM, HPQ, and Sun based on AMD's Opteron processor as an alternative to Intel offerings such as Pentium, Xeon, or Itanium.

TIP's patented Technology Heat Index(TM) factors in the current and planned usage of over 30 different Server hardware and software technologies, including Server Virtualization, Blade Servers, Infiniband, Grid Computing, Embedded Storage Switches, and Load Balancing Software, prioritizing them based on the immediacy of planned implementation and near-term spending. Standalone or pedestal servers based on AMD processors were ranked near the top of the Heat Index, while Blade Servers based on AMD followed immediately after. These were the highest rankings of any discrete server platform in the study. While the Heat Index does not correlate directly to volume shipments of servers, it reflects users' interest, excitement, and intent to install.

In the one-on-one interviews TIP asked users many detailed questions about units of technology installed at Year-End 2004, followed by "new units likely to be installed in 2005". The rise of interest in AMD systems was significant.

Roughly 60% of reported NO standalone AMD servers installed at Year-End 2004, while only 20% expected to end 2005 without installing AMD servers.

Over 50% of users expected to install between 1 and 49 new standalone units in 2005, while roughly 10% expected to add between 50 and 99 units.


Over 15% expected to add between 200 and 499 standalone units in 2005.

HP was the most often cited standalone AMD server provider, followed IBM and Sun.

The Server Study captures decision makers' technology roadmaps, vendor performance ratings, detailed commentary, and spending plans on over 50 Server providers, from Hardware and Operating Systems, to Server Networking, Server Storage, and Server Management offerings. Vendors mentioned in the study include: IBM, HP, Dell, Sun, AMD, Intel, Egenera, Brocade, McDATA, QLogic, Cisco and Broadcom, Microsoft, EMC/VMWare, Red Hat, SUSE/Novell, Opsware, RLX, Network Appliance, Emulex, 3Com, Citrix, and Foundry.