Q: A Sad day.. Xserve discontinued...

After two years of slow meticulous manipulation, I finally got approval to move everything over to Apple gear. which was going to make every ones lives so much better. Now . . . Apple thank you for wasting my time . . . and Windows it looks like we're stayin'. Oh and all our International associates and trade organizations that just switched over will be reverting. Can't do business on platform hardware that isn't going to be there. So much for Apple professing to want to get more involved in the Enterprise side.

Now Steve this is where you jump out and do an Oprah . . .

or . . .

Bill, I've got a couple million to spend 1Q2011. Let's have lunch.

Like everyone I'm quite disappointed especially at the two months notice Apple have given. Apple's marketing influence product decisions, so make sure you leave feedback for the Xserve and Mac OS X Server products at: http://www.apple.com/feedback/. Numbers are what move priorities, so make sure you include those. If you work with an Apple sales manager etc make sure you talk to them.

From some chats I've had with someone who worked on the itunes music store around it's beginning, the front end was hosted on Mac OS X, while databases etc were on Solaris. He said that they wanted to deploy the front end to Linux but "management" insisted it had to be Mac OS X.

Anyway, just reiterating everyones sentiments in that the suggestion of a Mac Pro and Mac mini is a smack in the face of any serious IT operation. Guess I had better get up to date on other *NIXs.

Does no one really believe that Apple has a replacement product for the Xserve?

It is bizarre that they would not introduce this when they announce this when they cancel the old product. Knowing Apple and how they introduce products it would almost fit in this tradition.

But I do not believe that Apple will just pull out of the rack server market.

Message was edited by: The_Jules

There's no way they would be so epicly stupid as to announce the demise of the Xserve w/o announcing it's replacement at the same time. People are already cancelling orders, and making decisions of what do with planned purchases. There's big ill-will and loss of trust over this with a lot of people, and Apple would have known all that was going to happen.

Make no mistake, there's nothing else coming. It's a done deal.

There might be kind of a hint in the PDF - "Customers looking to upgrade, replace, or supplement existing Xserve systems with new Apple hardware have two options" - at least this phrasing allows kind of speculation (they could have omitted "Apple" completely). We'll see.

Regards, Roman

Nah, that just refers to the Mini and the Mac Pro systems with OS X Server pre-installed.

A blade version of Xserve server or a finely re-shaped, thinner Mac Pro? Hmmm...I think Apple is on the way moving toward the cloud computing. Steve, we are expecting on it. We see Microsoft and Google are actively and extremely developing in this field. For Mac lovers, we certainly don't want to see Apple falling behind this race. Apple's new North Carolina Data Center is also ready. A true cloud computation for enterprise solution is around the corner?

Well, let's see how Apple will progress with selling iPhones to enterprise now. What IT department can now trust a company that treats its enterprise customers like that? I know from personal experience, that it was Mac IT guys in those companies who are the first to advocate within organizations to adopt iPhone, and now they all feel betrayed and really ******.

{quote:title=beatle20359 wrote:}As there is a little bit of anonymity on this forum we can post what plans we did have for Apple server hardware here and see if the bean counters total it up... I'm loathed to let this product just die without a fight.{quote}

Unfortunately, your fight is now not with Apple but with your employer. Even were you to convince Apple over the next few weeks to keep the Xserve, after such a short-notice bombshell Apple dropped on everyone, you'd never be able to convince your employer/client to trust Apple again, not without a seriously long watch-and-wait time. Your efforts are, I expect, a wasted effort at this point for that reason alone.

Jobs is a truly one-of-a-kind CEO in that he was able to take a company that arguably would have been liquidated within 6 months and within a decade turn it into a corporation that is, as of today, ranked number 3 in the world by market capitalization. That's what I call CEO performance. But inerrant he ain't, and full of all the typical human foibles we are all blessed with he is. This sort of "just dump it and move on" dismissive attitude to a particular market is so typical of him it's almost boringly predictable. After Jobs leaves the company, you may see a more moderate, dedicated sort of approach to markets in which Steve just wasn't interested; unfortunately, the current mindset at Apple as a whole is that if Steve isn't interested, it isn't worth our time. Thus, the situation we have today.

All of this armchair psychology is just to say that you're wasting your time. Steve isn't interested. You could show him your personal budget for buying 5,000 Xserves planned in February 2011, and you could get 50 other people to do the same thing; you could put together signed letters of intent to purchase to amount to 100,000 of the things in 1Q2011, and Steve wouldn't be interested because in 1Q2011 he's going to sell 100,000 iPhones in about 2 days when Apple rolls out the iPhone on Verizon and TMobile in the U.S.

Sigh. So much work down the drain. Well, at least we have the existing install base to keep us going for another few years. One potentially good thing to come out of this is that any Xserves bought in the last few months are going to be highly capable for a number of years yet, and they just might be had on the aftermarket now for a substantially cheaper price as larger enterprises dump their recent purchases.

Steve,

This is a stupid move

Steve now needs to change the EULA
– Officially allowing us to install "Mac OS X Server" onto ANY hardware.

Or so that we can Virtualise it onto ANY Hardware…

At least that would provide a way forward…

If Apple are NOT interested in selling 1U servers, fine…
– As long as we have comparable alternatives…
– Which Apple SHOULD have elucidated BEFORE announcing the demise of the Xserve…

Pulling the rug on the Xserve without officially endorsing a mechanism for providing a comparable alternative is not an acceptable outcome.

– If we break the EULA – will Apple then provide us with Technical Support if we ask for it ?
– Even if we have existing support contracts ?

We need an acceptable resolution to this issue…
And we don't need Apple leaving us hanging for an answer until late next summer…
Apple need to communicate about this now…
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I currently have 14 Xserve's – What shall I replace them with ?
I also have two MacMini's as low bandwidth servers – which I was intending to move onto more robust hardware…

As it is we are already looking at introducing server Virtualization
– This seems to be a useful route to follow…

What is the future of "Mac OS X Server" software ?
– Will this continue to exist ?

We need answers to these questions…
– Since we need to decide what services we are going to run on which OS platforms and on which hardware – Both as we introduce new services this coming year, and with existing services.

In the short term we can continue with our existing solutions – But that's only the short term…

Other are in a similar situation – We need to plan for the future…
How much of our plans should include Apple ?

(MacPro's & MacMinis's are too limited a solution space)
Withdrawing Xserve in this manner – without offering a viable alternative
leaves us with a credibility gap…

We can get by for a while – But now have to start looking to fill this void…

We need a "proper answer" from Apple on this situation…
– Not just a stop-gap solution…

Former ACN member.
ACTC all versions to 10.4
ACSA 10.3/10.4

Saw the writing on the wall a long time ago. I went to MacWorld in 2006 and the xserve guys had no space...not even a console. I asked the guy why he didn't even get space for a console to demo his gear, and he said it was because "Apple is a consumer company...that comes from the top."

I tried keeping Apple in the Enterprise in my GMA, at great personal and professional expense, but I'm not doing it any longer. This is simply a reaffimation of what I had already experienced.

I now run a Windows network and am doing my MCITP(Server Enterprise Admin) and maybe the CISSP. If you want to work in the server room, better get reading.

I am so very deeply sad about this. I really believed Apple could do good in enterprise hardware solutions. I was so happy with our Xserves and Mac OSX Server, even recommending it. Good design, fairly good computational power and great software to help administrating it. Thanks to that I had time to concentrate on things other than service configuration and compatibility issues. Can't do with Mac Pro since as you all said it is not a rack solution with all the "must have" features like LOM, power supply, front loading disks, locks ... and don't make me laugh with Minis, they are good to get tiny extra computational power when they are used by employees and are almost idle but come on, I can't seriously rely just on that to achieve good performance for real web services.

I am so very sad right now.