Which BIG sites were you referring to? WWW.SUN.COM?
Yes. Amazon.com has UE1000 running Solaris but they also
have other UNIX platforms, as well as Windows NT. EBay.com is in the process of replacing their Sun servers with HP and IBM gears. Sun servers can scale up with the RISC architecture and the super computer technologies they purchased from SGI. Microsoft is a software company and they don't control how the box makers design their hardware. Scaling out is the only way that Microsoft can compete in the marketplace for the scalability because it is software driven. If you check the docLab test results, IIS running on Windows NT is way more scalable than ANY UNIX platforms. In the recent TCP/C benchmark, Windows 2k/COM+/SQL Server 2k has demonstrated a much higher scalability than any platforms, breaking the record that was held previously by SUN/Oracle. I don't see there is anything wrong with scaling out using software. If MSFT can centralize running thousands of servers with their software, I think this model will work better under the DoS attacks. It is easier to bog down one server than thousands of them, don't you think? It was why www.microsoft.com, www.msn.com, and their communities had been less affected by these DoS hackings. In terms of TCO, I don't see why SUN's solution is better. Essentially, everything you buy from SUN is proprietary. A SCSI tape drive will cost you thousands of dollars, not mentioning others. With PCs, you have a lot more choices and competitions so you can buy things at a much lower cost. And, you have much bigger pool of talents you can access so your staffing costs are lower. And, I can just keep going ...
*nixes? When I was in graduate school, my first year project was to write a UNIX kernel on PC. Of course, I didn't become Mr. Linus 8-) But, technically, Linux cannot be compared with Windows or even Solaris. It is a 20 years old kernel ported to PC platform. It DOES NOT scale, period. And, which serious e-commerce site is running on *nixes? B.T.W., there is NO security in *nixes. Even the UNIX creators, such as Ken Thompson (spell?), disagree that Linux is even comparable to the genuine UNIX. I may want to use Linux to run my web site for thousands of users a day. Anything beyond that will probably choke Linux. Well, there are always people who like driving a 1970 Bug and think they are driving a Porsche. If the only purpose is to commute from point A to point B, there is no problem at all; in fact, it may feel a big self-satisfying as people praise how smooth this old car can run. If you have kids or want to drive across the continents, you probably want to consider a newer car, which gives you a reliable, safe, and comfortable ride with advanced technologies. Remember nothing is free! |
