Just been published in Virtualization Journal! See No RAC, No RISC, No Problem | Virtualization Journal.

Having fended off challenges from Linux for several years now, the RISC-Unix platform is now under siege on another front – x86 servers. Long dismissed as workgroup and departmental servers, or as platforms for low-level enterprise applications, x86 servers are making serious inroads into corporate data centers. Earlier this year, analyst firms Gartner and IDC issued studies showing that sales of and revenue from RISC-Unix servers were continuing their slide against x86 boxes. The Gartner study showed a 28.5 percent decline in the number of units shipped and a 26.9 percent drop in revenue from them. The IDC study released in May of this year cited a “perfect storm” of circumstances, including the recession, the purchase of Sun by Oracle, and potential hardware upgrades by other vendors inducing delays in purchase decisions, all leading to the lowest level of spending on RISC servers IDC has ever recorded. Also encouraging the move away from RISC-Unix for many applications is the combination of a gathering virtualization groundswell in the data center and the rapidly improving performance capabilities of the x86 platforms…

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