Hardware Unix and NetWare are technologies that have been around for a long time, and although they once played a much more prominent role in many networks, the results above show that they still have their place. Another technology that fits into that category is the mainframe. As Figure E shows, mainframes still own a spot on 19.5 percent of networks. Figure E A few years ago, hardware designers made a clever move that took advantage of the decreasing footprint of hardware -- they started making mass market servers that could easily be turned sideways and mounted on racks. This improved both server management and space utilisation. The trend has clearly been embraced by many IT departments. As Figure F shows, almost 70 percent of those IT professionals surveyed said that their networks included rack-based servers. Figure F Figure G We also asked about another new server technology, Itanium servers. Although the move to these 64-bit servers has tremendous potential, especially for processor-intensive database functions, our survey showed that few networks include these cutting edge systems (Figure H). Figure H Final word
This survey showed -- yet again -- that IT departments tend to stick with what works and are slow movers when it comes to new technologies. Overall, Unix and NetWare continue to hold some territory, while Windows servers now have a spot in virtually every server room. In addition, rack based servers are becoming a standard, while Itanium and blade servers have yet to make much impact despite their merits.