Re: Minutes from Feb 21 LSE Call

Jeff Garzik
2003-02-22T23:47:52Z

On Sat, Feb 22, 2003 at 03:15:52PM -0800, Larry McVoy wrote:
> or rackmount cases. I fail to see how there are better margins on the
> same hardware in a rackmount box for $800 when the desktop costs $750.
> Those rack mount power supplies and cases are not as cheap as the desktop
> ones, so I see no difference in the margins.

Oh, it's definitely different hardware. Maybe the 16550-related portion
of the ASIC is the same :) but just do an lspci to see huge differences in
motherboard chipsets, on-board parts, more complicated BIOS, remote
management bells and whistles, etc. Even the low-end rackmounts.

But the better margins come simply from the mentality, IMO. Desktops
just aren't "as important" to a business compared to servers, so IT
shops are willing to spend more money to not only get better hardware,
but also the support services that accompany it. Selling servers
to enterprise data centers means bigger, more concentrated cash pool.

Jeff