RE: Hardware Comparison between SUN E6900 and IBM P570

bozon said: > We are buying new production servers. We are coming off our current > hardware platform and trying to decide between SUN and IBM servers. Our customers are on IBM or Sun or Windows, so we develop and test the same app on all three, and I have actually been able to make some comparisons. What I have found, though, it is the familiarity which plays a major role. In my company, I am almost the only person who does not hate Sun. I am also the only person who was trained on Sun before learning to use AIX, instead of learning AIX first. The Windows heads take a lot of time to convince that any UNIX is not too painful to use, despite the fact that it is faster, more reliable, and does not require rebooting at least weekly (usually daily in development). OTC has had horrible experiences with Sun, so he recommends AIX. Superboer has had frustrations with AIX and prefers Sun. Both agree that you should benchmark them, and I would definitely agree, if you can. I would also agree with Neil Truby and Basim Chafik that purchasing an independent benchmark are arranging time with the vendor lab is probably within your reach. Another important consideration is your relationship with your vendor. When something goes wrong, as it inevitably will, or you need an upgrade, who are you going to call, will you be able to rely on them, and will they be cost effective. At some point, you will have to trust your vendor. As an aside, this is why, as a LUG president, I usually recommend that small customers do not try to hook up directly with IBM to buy IDS, but get with a reseller; better prices and a better relationship. As an OEM vendor, we only resell within our app, so that's not a sales pitch. In our environment, both Sun and AIX are acceptable. We have determined, however, that AIX is preferable. Currently, IBM's hardware is superior to that of Sun Microsystems, in performance and scalability. The interoperability with volume managers and storage devices also seems far better and easier. As a personal choice, I also prefer to administer AIX rather than SunOS, finding the architecture more intuitive and the provided tools more convenient to use, but someone working in a predominantly Sun shop might not agree with this opinion. As Colin Dawson says, the ability to configure on-the-fly is very useful. The changes that make AIX seem more manageable may be why Thomas Ronayne says "AIX is not UNIX". On the other hand, in my office, folks say the same thing about Sun. However, I would like to add, in Sun's favor, that, since our customers are hospital pharmacies and significantly reluctant to upgrade, some of the Sun hardware is still chugging away long past its expected shelf life. It deserves high marks for reliability. I cannot say that the IBM hardware has lasted as long, nor will recent OS releases run on older chipsets. This may not be a consideration, but it is something worth noting. As for Linux on the pSeries, I have not tried it, so I cannot speak from personal experience. I have spoken with others who have, and I have heard, anecdotally, that it is easier to use than AIX and that IDS runs faster. I do not know if the last point has any basis in fact, but I would love to hear any experiences from the group. Sincerely, Christopher Coleman Steering Committee President Kansas City Informix Users Group http://www.iiug.org/kciug Database Analyst Pharmacy Division Mediware Information Systems, Inc.