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

i will have to replace my servers down the line with another operating system. It is the security (LOM, power management etc.), size and ease of management of the xserve that makes the pro a non-starter for the beginning. In a school environment and about t go one-one computing so feeling a bit let down like many others.

These are my thoughts, that I have a lot of reading and studying to do in the next couple of years to move to Microsoft or back to Linux.

The thing is:

- It doesn't matter if Apple will appear with the next great thing! It doesn't matter if they are right.
the problem here is that nobody from possible clients, to already satisfied clients will believe and hands 500k Enterprise contract with Apple in it.

- The other thing is that to many people, like me, that have done many projects to clients to use Final Cut Server using XServe and they're are already quoted and approved for Q2+ next year it is just not possible to change all the XServe to Mac Pros for 4 reasons:
1- Do not have a redundant power supply to minimize the downtime;
2- Do not have a Hot swappable hard drives;
3- It's 5U bigger (laid) and 11U standing;
4- Doesn't have LOM (turning on and off remotely).
So the bottom line is: One of your clients can live without some of these but not all. So for instance, one of my clients can't by all means have 5U density (not mentioning that only on 21" racks). The other will by all means not allow a non-redundant power supply server for it's critical Media Manager environment.
Many of you will say, so change to Linux, change to MS.... You're missing the point here people.... Because of this, the Final Cut Server, XSan and Final Cut Pro have weakened a lot!
So what would happen? Apple didn't gave me an answer. My clients are asking me for one. I'll have to do something that's not supported or moving away from this or loose my clients.

-When Apple discontinued XRaid they, at the same time, promoted (not even their product, and after that many other third party appeared), the Promise VTrak was equivalent (if not better then XRaid), there wasn't 4 missing points (elucidated above).
This time they simple said: Ok use Mac Pro and Mac Minis. Before some one says that you could (and I know that because I was doing this before apple even launched the Mac Mini with Mac OS X Server) for Enterprise, redundant, density and less downtime is critical and not an optional. So if my clients can't afford downtime what I'm suppose to do? Apple closed the way and by doing this, closed many deals not only for XServe but for Xsan, Mac OS Server, Final Cut Server, Final Cur Pro and I even extrapolate to say that for iDevices as well (because Apple bites in the edges, more bellow).

- They could, by not doing much, allowed Mac OS X Server to:
1- Virtualize in other hardwares;
2- Run natively in other hardwares;
3- Allow to cluster two (2) machines (in sync) to work as one. Having load balance and failover functionalities. This would be wonderful and would settle the "redundant" problems (but not others);

Some one can say: "You don't know if they'll not do that". Yes I don't know and I don't care because if even they do ALL of this stuff on monday, many ITs, CEOs etc will always remember the 3 day they spent in doubt, in darkness. I'm not overreacting I'm just getting real. It's not a clever move, and it's not a good move for both sides.

- I was supposed to get certified in ALL Snow program (101, 201, 301, 302 and XSan). That is 10k for Apple, not mentioning the T3. This is just me, 10k is nothing for them, but the amount I could "bring" to Apple by seducing and convincing many Companies to use their solution is not even in the book. With this move, Apple took away my reliability on them and now I'm not going the get trained in things that probably will sunk.
And for those that trained, studied, learned and payed a good fraction of theirs incomes to deploy safely Apple products in Enterprise. Their work will be (are been) affected a lot.

- The other point is that Apple was gaining space (slow, but was) in Enterprise market because many people was migrating little Apple things in their lives.. like iPods, iPhones, iMacs, Mac Minis... And they (and the IT department) started to see that was much of a hassle to support these devices then others, and things that just works is a dream for a company.
Now this is not going to happen anymore not at the same pace at least.

- The other way around is true as well. If a IT guy, believed in Apple and convinced his company to migrate the infrastructure, servers to Apple, the Directors would see on paper the results and benefits and will start to exchange clients as well. And clients working on Macs and seeing the benefits would be more inclined to buy iPhones and iPods and Macs for their homes (Enterprise influence on clients).
And not this will not happen anymore, not at the same rate at least.

-Let's be real as well. In the year the Apple profit more than ever, hit all marks and is growing as possible: allowing more months, or even partner with a third party solution FIRST and then announce the discontinuity, to allow clients migrate more smoothly is not even a % of the fuel Steve Jobs car. Even if XServe was drastically giving 100% loss to Apple.
Saying that Apple is a company and they will cut off things that doesn't make profit it's not an answer because then it doesn't make sense to maintain Apple Remote Desktop (a really good product by the way), Final Cut Server and behold! Since they do not sell "Operating Systems" Mac OS Server would be a much less fraction that was and will fall to the same bulk to be ditched.

And to summarize a big post.
If you stop and think, Apple never does that (leaving clients floating in the darkness around -with nothing, I'm not saying like floating for the next rumor, they are marketeers, they take advantage of the tiniest point to advertised and in the case of XRaid not even their product. This time is different. this time is more likely the "not blu-ray" attitude. With great geniality comes great flaws and Steve is not away from them. On is this stubbornism that is good for a lot of points... some can go wrong... like this one.... (people, again,.. it doesn't matter if tomorrow they come up with something great, the damage is done).
I was always against others saying that Apple guys were "following" Apple like a cult.
I'm asking myself now if this is not at least a tiny bit true.
Common, MS is horrible and we all know that, but seriously? Saying to use Mac Mini or Mac Pros in DataCenters for all things (for some it's ok to use, but all?) is almost as saying to use Windows Vista on Servers! A can't even come up with a parallel to that. It's unique and people are not seeing like it.

Sorry... it's an outflow.
Hopes to all of us!

missing:

-The post from Eric on XSanity was deleted by himself after he had posted that Mac OS X Server dev was going to be maintained.
What is that about?
I say we DO deserve more than one line in one post of one forum.
We need a Road Map!!!! Some one said (sorry I don't have the link and the name) that when Apple made a transit from PPC to Intel, Steve talked about RoadMap repeatedly!
And this same person sent an email to Steve Jobs about RoadMaps for ProApps and Steve's answer was: "Final Cut Pro is going to have a huge upgrade on the beginning of next year".
Seriously? This is not a iPhone person, this is not a developer this is not a child or a teenager, this is a seriously enterprise consultant (that sells apple products to others) and his career, credibility and his clients are at stake here! That's not a serious and grown up answer, I'm sorry.
And now I know why so many of us (IT personnel) didn't want to Apple to go to the iDevices.
They are mixing it up, exchanging responsibilities, seriousness and what really matters to some answer like appstore devish.

I'll take many of this posts back if Apple showed their data centers with Mac Minis (at least we should know why mobileme is not that great). But NOT! Their data centers is not based on Macs at all!
So with this statements they are saying we're out of this market for sure, don't be fooled!

Another point…
Without virtualization to 3rd party hardware (ie change of OS X Server EULA)
It does also make you wonder how Apples iDevices might be supported…

The software I have seen so far for doing this runs on Apples Xserve…

So the options are:
1: (Run it on MacMini, or MacPro)
2: Run it on Non-EULA 3rd Party Hardware
3: Don't run it… Don't support iDevices in the Enterprise…

Apple need to offer a proper rackable alternative to the discontinued Xserve

There is also a similar discussion going on: – On the Xsanity website:

http://www.xsanity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10953

This all shows that a better response on this from Apple is required…

Hi, Peter,
after reading the thread, there is only a question left. Will Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs create a big Red Apple in the server market? We'll see. But just imagine their combination, it is like LeBron James teaming up with Dwyane Wade. We'll never know.

Thank you Steven Jobs,

you have killed my Job and my Company

Steve Jobs: Hardly anyone was buying them.

That is the response of Steve Jobs.

http://www.macgeneration.com/news/voir/175852/xserve-pour-ainsi-dire-personne-ne -les-achetait-steve-jobs

Apple didn't ditch the enterprise market. The enterprise market ditched apple.

Not true troll. We were adding new users and services all the time. Anyone who can get one, moves to Mac over PC. The services on Xserve were a kind of flying flag that we are here. The enterprise takes years of constant drilling to get noticed and it seems as soon as real momentum was starting, the anchor was pulled.

While I am 100% in favour of making as big a ruckus about this as possible until January 31, 2010, I'm forced to confront the grim likelihood that Apple in the rackmount ecosystem is a dead parrot.

That said, I find myself hoping that the market will step up to provide alternatives. Axiotron has been modifying MacBooks into touchscreen "ModBooks" for years now, and making a viable business out of it. So I find myself wondering how likely it is that some enterprising individuals will manage to find a away to hack Mac Pros or Mac Mini Servers into a more XServe-like design. Adding hardware monitoring would be an issue, but if all you're looking for are redundant power supplies, 1-2U mounting, and swappable drive bays, it may be possible to come up with something elegant enough to do the job.

Just when I was setting up a 3 Xserve system with 40TB of storage, Xsan and Final Cut Server does Apple throw a monkey wrench into the works. Our new, primary Xserve has a 3 year lease, hopefully Apple will snap out of this madness and pull out of the nose-dive. Maybe enterprise servers are not huge cash cows for Apple, I can't imagine they are selling them for a loss. As often as they re-engineer logic boards it's not like there is a huge cost involved to design and build one.

If there is a new line that will dazzle and praise Apple as an enterprise contender, inform us. Do not leave us twisting in the wind. Do not force us to move to another platform after begging, pleading and finally getting the hardware installed in corporate America. Neither offering that Apple offers meet the basic requirements of an enterprise level server. Redundant power supplies are not design overkill, we use multiple power grids and occasionally one or the other needs to be shut down for work to be performed. Removable hard drives are not an extravagance, neither offering allows for hard drives to be removed with power applied, the Mac Pro specifications prohibit it and the mini is physically incompatible with rapid drive swaps.

What other CEO pulls a stunt like this? I appreciate the genius that Mr. Jobs has brought to the table but to lop off a market segment with no more than 'Your business is insignificant, here are two totally unsuitable solutions, be happy with it' is ludicrous. Maybe it is time for other, more informed individuals to make the decisions. At least it would be nice if those within Apple who know the segment would speak up.

I own an small enterprise, we employ 20 people, we use SLS on a macpro, with a raid of 1 TB drives, used for collaboration services, OD in particular iCal and mail. Ethernet performance for our calendars is important. We also run accounting software server, 20 users. It is hot, noisy and uses lots of electricity, sits next to the 'fridge in the store room.

We also run SLS on a macmini server, another website and a vanilla forum, small, quiet, energy efficient, good for internet services. No good for intensive ethernet traffic.

We had thought of an Xserve, but against it was a big expense for an small business, environmental impact (noisy), and high energy cost to run.

Most of you talk about big setups and render farms, Universities and complicated installations, but the majority of the worlds commerce is carried out by small firms. Big firms don't pay retail prices, and big firms certainly do not pay what small to medium enterprises pay for energy costs. Small business's are sensitive to costs and expenses, and relative to the operating cost of our organisations energy costs and consumption are increasing.

So we have small enterprises, who either have to use a mini or an Xserve/Macpro with design dictated to by the esthetics of a single box, with everything stuffed into it, the macmini for example now has 2 drives and internal power and both Xserve and Macpro able to be stuffed to the gills. The onebox design creates packaging dilemmas and thermal conflicts between the different bits, so that power is consumed just to keep all the crammed in bits cool.

What would suit us would be a CPU box with an internal SSD system drive, internal battery. Mega fast i/o to external data raids and networking, and external power supply. With a low economic and environmental foot print. Low thermal output. The Xserve is a big iron, Xsan paradigm, which seems to be at odds with the economics of small business, particularly when SLS is mainly used primarily for collaboration services. Apple analyses what it sells, who buys it, and what they use it for, and develop its business to suit.

So the landscape is changing, what is greater concern is what will happen to SLS and Lion server and thereafter.