Some of the loudest sunshine during the keynote speech that sound off off this week ’s Worldwide Developers Conference were n’t for the previewed features in Leopard or for the Intel Xeon - free-base Mac Pro . Rather , the news that brought whoop of upheaval from the assembled developer involved the Xserve , Apple ’s server offer , and the fact that the forthcoming Intel - based computer hardware has added excess force supply .
The enthusiastic reaction to the updated Xserve exemplify a particular challenge Apple has look in its exploit to capture more server business . While the fellowship has won praise for its 1U rackmount server , it ’s also receive considerable critique for missing a feature article such as redundant office supplies , look at by many to be a requisite in the host distance .
Apple needs to serve to distinct markets with a single server , executives say . Many citizenry are happy with the hardware , tell Apple senior manager of server and store hardware product selling Alex Grossman , but want a more simplified interpretation of the keep company Mac OS X Server software . Still others recall OS X Server was fine the way it was , but wanted a stronger hardware product .
Apple took both considerations into account when updating the Xserve and the Leopard version of Mac OS X Server , Grossman say .
“ We ’ve contrive these machines so they will turn tail just as well in a data center as they will in someone ’s water closet , ” Grossman added . “ Our users range from organizations that use the Xserve in mission critical environs to schools and individuals . They all tend to practice it in dissimilar ways . ”
On the software side , Apple worked to give exploiter a choice of what type of surround they design to deploy ; once that ’s select , the software program only shows the administration tools and features that are relevant to that option . That eliminates unnecessary muddiness for a specific section of Xserve users .
That sort of streamlining should gain individual users who require a sinewy , affordable server , Apple say . It also direct small businesses that may want to work more of their swear out in - house , but are disturbed about on-going upkeep .
“ multitude desire to use the server but they think they will have to hire IT stave , ” said Eric Zelenka , Apple ’s senior product blood manager for waiter and storage software . “ We have really simplify the waiter setup and give [ user ] slightly unlike tools for unlike setups . ”
Configurable with two Dual - Core Intel Xeon mainframe function at speeds of 2 , 2.66 or 3GHz , the Intel - based Xserve is more than five times as fast as its PowerPC predecessor , consort to Apple ’s trial . Apple says the updated server will become available in October .
The update Xserve plump for up to 32 GB of 667MHz DDR2 ECC FB - DIMM computer storage with twice the capacity and three times the bandwidth of the Xserve G5 . Two eight - lane PCI Express expansion slot furnish up to 2GB / s of throughput each . The Xserve admit support for up to three 3Gb / s SATA or SAS drives , for up to 2.25 TB of hot - plug store . Thermal management capabilities take advantage of the downhearted big businessman of the Intel processor , running as low as 65W.
schedule to embark at the same time as the single - user variant of OS X 10.5 , Mac OS X Leopard Server includes many of the same new feature . Of particular grandness is enhanced 64 - bit reenforcement . Zelenka said that Apple is doing more than talk when it make out to 64 - piece support — Apache 2 , MySQL 5 , Postfix , Cyrus , iChat Server and QuickTime Streaming Server have all been updated with 64 - bit support .
Other fresh feature in the server software system include iCal Server , which take a leak it possible to apportion calendars , schedule meeting and plan events ; a Wiki waiter that allow user cooperate and share information ; Spotlight Server , which find content on servers ; and Podcast Producer , designed to help help podcast product .
