As we said, the 2004 server market will be eerily similar to the 2003 server market, thanks to our old friend commoditization. Case in point: Many times, the big three vendors, Dell, HP and IBM, use the same chipsets, most often those from Broadcom subsidiary ServerWorks.
On the whole, this is a boon to customers. Today's servers are rock-solid and have many advanced features--including hot-swappable memory and two Gigabit Ethernet ports on the main board--that yesterday's servers could only dream about. Vendors know it's getting hard to differentiate the mainboard features of their systems, so they're competing with other differentiators: price, software and the specific features your organization is seeking.
For software, Dell, HP and IBM include some useful code with their systems to simplify access and maintenance, putting vendors that do not offer such ease-of-use software at a disadvantage. Point features include the comprehensiveness of the remote-management package, number of internal disks, and type and locations of ports on a given server. Price is the easiest: If everything else is equal, and you're satisfied with the companies bidding for your business, price can be a deciding factor.
As for specifications, there has been some movement on the slot-interconnect front. The PCISIG (Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group) is moving forward with two new specs that should be hitting in late 2004. The first, on the server front, is the new PCI-X 2.0 specification. This is the latest version of the popular PCI-X 1.0 spec commonly found in servers today.
The 2.0 version encompasses two new speeds, 266 MHz and 533 MHz, and is backward-compatible to the older PCI specifications with the exception of the oldest 5.0-volt PCI (5.0-volt PCI is rare these days, existing only on some very old PCI cards). This specification will help companies take full advantage of 10 Gigabit Ethernet and other high-bandwidth technologies.
The other specification to watch is PCI Express, which is targeted at desktops. With its maximum theoretical speed of 133 MBps, the current PCI specification for desktops is woefully inadequate considering the speed of today's hard disks and Ethernet connections. PCI Express will provide 2.5 GBps per lane and is software-compatible--but not electrically or mechanically compatible--with the current PCI specification. Keep an eye out for desktop systems equipped with this new technology.
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