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Realizing the
Need for Speed
May 17,
1999
Award: Enterprise Server
The Dell PowerEdge
6300 is a best-of-breed enterprise server. From the ground up, the
6300 was built to bring balance, speed and versatility to the
enterprise environment. A relative newcomer to the market, the 6300
doesn't try to reinvent the wheel with a slew of proprietary
hardware. What it does have is some of the best hardware the market
has to offer, and best of all, it's available for an unbeatable
price.
So what are the ingredients that make the 6300 such a tasty
offering? Start with a tool-less access 7U rack-mount or
free-standing chassis. Then populate it with Quad Pentium III Xeons
and up to 4 GB of ECC RAM. Add a 64-bit Intel Pro/1000 gigabit NIC
and an Adaptec- based AAC-364 64-bit RAID controller with up to 128
MB of cache. Optimize file I/O through the use of triple-peer PCI
and I2O-compliant peripherals. Let boot for approximately one minute
and serve hot.
The 6300 also does a fine job addressing of both management and
fault tolerance. The server comes with a special edition of
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s OpenView Network Node Manager (NNM) for its
console alerting. Additionally, an optional Dell Remote Assistant
Card can be installed for those times that the server may not be
responding. The 6300 also incorporates important fault monitoring
for fan, voltage and thermal conditions, and automatic recovery in
case of lockup.
--Dave Fetters
Award: Network-Attached Storage
While the
so-called experts debated the death of SCSI and the rise of the
Storage Area Network (SAN), a relatively old technology with a new
mission stole the thunder in the storage arena last year. Network
Attached Storage (NAS) quickly became a hot topic with its ability
to connect petabytes of data directly to any network, bypassing
server I/O bottlenecks and putting huge amounts of storage instantly
online.
When we examined the network storage market, it became clear that
there were at least three distinct categories of products: small
business NAS devices with about 20 GBs of storage; departmental or
workgroup devices with less than 100 GBs; and full-blown enterprise
devices with more than 100 GBs. We looked at several of the
enterprise class devices, and the clear overall winner was Network
Appliance's Network Appliance Filer 760.
The rack-mounted and thoroughly modular NetApp Filer not only
served up superior performance on our benchmarks, it also delivered
a host of administrative control. This $176,400 system served up 232
GB of data storage and 1 GB of RAM. The system had SCSI, FC-AL,
10/100BASE-T and RS-232 ports, plus a pair of quad 10/100BASE-T
adapters. With support for both NFS and CIFS protocols, the unit is
ready to rock with Unix or Windows in an instant.
Despite the complexity of the system, setup was remarkably easy,
thanks largely to an excellent set of administrative tools and
well-designed components. Overall, we cannot think of another
product that comes closer to delivering nirvana on a set of platters
for enterprise storage administration.
--David Harvey
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Windows-Based
Terminal |
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Winner |
ThinSTAR 200, Network
Computing Devices, (800) 800-9599, (650) 694-0650
http://www.ncd.com/
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Finalists |
Viewpoint TC, Boundless
Technologies, (800) 231-5445, (516) 342-7400
http://www.boundless.com/
Neoware
NeoStation 220 Windows-based Terminal, NeoWare Systems, (800)
NEOWARE, (610) 277-8300
http://www.neoware.com/
| Award: Windows-Based Terminals
Truth be told,
Windows-based terminals are not terribly exciting devices. They lack
the power of high-end workstations and the multimedia capabilities
of traditional PCs. However, they are serving an increasingly
important role in many organizations that are moving away from
character-oriented dumb terminals or looking for ways to simplify
the desktop computing environment for workers who spend most of
their day working on two or three different applications.
Network Computing Devices' ThinSTAR line represents the state of
the art in this product class, offering an intelligent balance of
features and performance at an affordable price. Available for as
little as $399, the ThinSTAR 200 runs Windows CE and provides
support for Microsft's RDP protocol as well as Citrix ICA protocol.
The ThinSTAR 300 is the first WBT built to conform to Intel's Lean
Client specification. Under the ThinSTAR umbrella, NCD also offers a
number of add-on software components, including terminal emulation,
audio support, and server load-balancing. And its management
software lets administrators easily maintain a large geographically
dispersed installation of ThinSTAR devices. NCD's recent acquisition
of Tektronix's thin-client business, coupled with strong product
offerings in its Explora network computer line, makes the company
the leading provider of thin-client solutions.
For honorable mention, we chose Boundless Technologies Viewpoint
TC and the NeoStation 220 from Neoware Systems. Boundless' Viewpoint
WBTs, when combined with the company's recently introduced low-cost
Capio line, gives the vendor a strong and diverse product line.
Neoware offers aggressive pricing and a hardware architecture that
supports a variety of thin-client operating systems.
--Dave Molta
Award: Workgroup Servers
Although designed for
the workgroup environment, Compaq Computer Corp.'s ProLiant 1850R
inherits many features from its older siblings. In a market that has
largely overlooked rack-optimized workgroup servers, the 1850R
stands out. With its small 3U form factor, the 1850R eliminates the
need for bulky towers. The features and performance of this tiny
titan make it ideal for centralized data centers or any other
high-density server applications.
Unlike the previous generation 850R, the1850R boasts sliding
rails and front-mounted status LEDs. Scalability is addressed with
support for two half-height removable media devices along with four
internal PCI slots. Compaq's familiar Insight Manager handles
management along with an integrated remote console. The 1850R
emphasizes fault tolerance with its Smart Array RAID controller
coupled with three 1-inch hot-swappable drive bays. The server also
makes use of two hot-plug redundant power supplies.
Some of the performance features that make the 1850R shine
include dual processor Pentium II capability and support for up to 1
GB of ECC memory. To handle file I/O, the 1850R integrates a dual
channel Wide-Ultra SCSI-3 controller. The 1850 also features an
embedded 10/100TX NIC.
Both Cubix Corp.'s Desity Server 1000 and Dell Computer Corp.'s
PowerEdge 2300 receive honorable mention.
--Dave Fetters
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