Sun UltraSPARC T1-based servers coming to DLS

Of the three platforms Blackboard supports for the Vista LMS (Windows/SQL Server on x86, Linux/Oracle on x86, Solaris/Oracle on SPARC), Solaris running on SPARC hardware has always been the preferable platform for us because 1) we already had an investment in SPARC hardware, 2) the higher costs (in licenses, administration overhead, training, migration) of Windows is a non-starter for us and 3) Java performance on Solaris smokes the other platforms.

The high (relative) cost of SPARC hardware is always the bear, and one of many reasons I'd been hoping that Vista would start supporting Solaris on x86 hardware (BEA does support WebLogic on Solaris x86). Sun's AMD and Operton-based servers are a class above other x86 platform offerings -- reading SmugMug's evaluation of Sun's AMD servers makes me kinda drool -- and we would, of course, love to spend less money.

Now, though, we have a couple of Sun's new-ish T1000 servers sitting in our machine room, just waiting to be installed. (These will be doing duty as Vista 4.2 application servers.)

The specs (hardware and financial) are impressive: a single CPU with up to 8 separate cores, and each core with 4 threads, for a base price of $4000. That's 32 simultaneous threads, in a single rackspace! Compared to even dual-core or quad-core UltraSPARC IV or AMD/Intel chips, the application density possibilities are staggering.

One way we measure price/performance is this: for Vista 3.0, the recommended spec is two CPUs and 4 GB RAM for each application node, where 1 node can support 250 simultaneous users. The T1000, having so much CPU and memory capactiy, can run multiple instances of Vista on a single physical box. Based on list prices (i.e. not what we actually pay), here's the breakdown comparing the Sun Fire V240 (our current mainstay) and the 6-core T1000 we've bought:

And frankly, that's on the conservative side -- my estimate is that we can get at least three nodes per 6-core T1000, bringing the price per 250 users below $2000. That beats the prices available on Linux and Windows on x86 hardware.

We also win by having fewer physical systems and operating systems to maintain. Putting more nodes on smaller boxes also means less server room real estate and less power consumption. All in all, it looks like a winning scenario.