AWS now renting monster HPE servers, even in clusters of 7,680-vCPUs and 128TB
- Reference: 1734421574
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/12/17/aws_hpe_server_instances/
- Source link:
HPE [1]bills the server, launched in 2023, as ideal for applications such as large in-memory databases – a workload the Silicon Valley pioneer learned to handle in the late 1990s and early 2000s. At the time it was devising the Superdome architecture it offered as the highly scalable platform on which to run its HP-UX operating system.
Superdome persists as an architecture that allows modular scaling and memory pooling – if you use the right HPE servers – not the sort of trick AWS's commodity servers can perform. Some customers appear to be frustrated by that, because the cloud champ's [2]announcement of the new offering declares "customers that currently run on-premises with HPE servers have also asked how we can help them migrate to AWS to take advantage of cloud benefits while continuing to use HPE hardware."
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Other punters want SAP-certified rigs in the Amazonian cloud.
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Installing the HPE servers solves both problems – it's well and truly ready for SAP and is the same hardware HPE offers on-prem.
[6]AWS says AI could disrupt everything – and hopes it will do just that to Windows
[7]We'll answer any questions DoJ has, HPE CEO tells us as Feds probe $14B Juniper buy
[8]HPE lets loose VM Essentials to run on third-party platforms
[9]BlackBerry squashes plan to spin out its IoT biz
The result is the poetically named U7inh instance type – each of which offers 1,920 vCPUs and 32TB of memory. Just like HPE's model 3200 server, the cloudy machines run fourth generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors. HPE's [10]promo for the machine states it can host up to 16 CPU sockets, each capable of hosting 60 cores. With 1,920 vCPUs on offer, it appears these rent-a-servers are fully loaded.
The instances are U7inh certified to run Business Suite on HANA (SoH), Business Suite S/4HANA, Business Warehouse on HANA (BW), and SAP BW/4HANA in production environments.
The machines can also be clustered into groups of four – a scenario in which they are certified to run what AWS describes as "scale-out SAP HANA OLTP workloads such as S/4HANA."
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The Amazonian cloud's "Nitro" platform is in place alongside these servers, providing its usual combination of isolation and security services.
These are not pay-as-you-go boxes, nor the sort of thing you can whistle up for some elastic capacity: AWS will only offer them on three-year Instance Savings Plans. At the time of writing, Amazon's pricing tools don’t list the U7inh instance type, but we can’t imagine it will be cheap, or plentiful. For now they're only available in the US East (N. Virginia) and US West (Oregon) AWS Regions. ®
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[1] https://community.hpe.com/t5/servers-systems-the-right/empower-data-first-modernization-with-the-new-hpe-compute-scale/ba-p/7195617
[2] https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-amazon-ec2-high-memory-u7inh-instance-on-hpe-server-for-large-in-memory-databases/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z2FZ1nKFsntpXb-3spw9VwAAANc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z2FZ1nKFsntpXb-3spw9VwAAANc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z2FZ1nKFsntpXb-3spw9VwAAANc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/04/amazon_leans_into_ai/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/20/hpes_neri_regulators_juniper/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/20/hpe_vm_essentials_greenlake/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/12/blackberry_cancels_split_plan/
[10] https://community.hpe.com/t5/servers-systems-the-right/empower-data-first-modernization-with-the-new-hpe-compute-scale/ba-p/7195617
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z2FZ1nKFsntpXb-3spw9VwAAANc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Possibly, but thats not what the potential customers were asking for.
"customers that currently run on-premises with HPE servers have also asked how we can help them migrate to AWS to take advantage of cloud benefits while continuing to use HPE hardware."
Be interesting to know what exactly the 'cloud' benefits are when it relates to limited availability dedicated assets that involve something you've made a fixed 3 year commitment to.
It's not really 'cloud' at that point, it's just a fully serviced rental.
And, given the size and niche of the machine, it is something only needed by companies which could easily run their own datacentres at the same service level AWS offers. At same or less cost. They'd lose at buzzword bingo, though...
If your SAP instance has to interact with other stuff that is aleady (or that you want) at AWS, it may benefit you to have the HPE instance there. Also, these companies can strongly negotiate with amazon. Which in turn hetsa sweetheart deal from HPE. So, while not cheaper than on prem, it will be competitively priced.
More cloudybollocks
So, while not cheaper than on prem, it will be competitively priced.
It would have to be, for now at least.. I'm no server expert, but..
Installing the HPE servers solves both problems – it's well and truly ready for SAP and is the same hardware HPE offers on-prem
I was expecting this beast to be at least a 9' rack with lots of blinking lights.. But it's kinda small, and says it'll scale up to 4 chassis, probably in a single rack. May need a sparky and plumber to keep it fed and cooled though. But if you're the kind of business that needs this kind of grunt.. why would you want to trust it to AWS instead of buying a chassis scaled to your business requirements and upgrade as needed?
I'm sure by 'competitively priced' will mean priced to look like it'll be cheaper than running it on-prem. For now. But then AWS will have you locked into a 3yr deal, and probably with an option to relentlessly jack up the prices, or charge for additional services? I have no idea how much these beasts cost, but if you need one, I'd suggest it's a good time to be looking very carefully about migrating stuff out of the 'cloud'.
AWS will only offer them on three-year Instance Savings Plans
In my experience, if you're buying three-year reserved instances you should be looking at instead at buying your own hardware as it's usually much cheaper.