Today’s IT managers face immense pressure for a variety of reasons: they need to activate new revenue streams, develop strategies to support changing workforce requirements, and integrate new capabilities to improve efficiency within the business.
While upgrading to new servers can alleviate these issues, cost is often perceived by many as a barrier. But what if I told you the cost of these new servers could be recouped in as little as two months?
In this short blog, I will share these and other key takeaways from our recent white paper, Modernize Your Data Center Virtualization with AMD EPYC™ Processors.
The average age of today’s data center servers is over five years. Legacy infrastructure can pose significant issues, including:
- Requiring more servers to deliver a given level of performance, leading to more energy consumed and higher maintenance/operational costs,
- Outdated process technology that can decrease energy efficiency, increase unplanned downtime, and are more prone to security vulnerabilities
Server refresh, which may have been difficult to justify in the past, is becoming increasingly justifiable. AMD EPYC processors address these issues, offering a cost-effective pathway to modernization without sacrificing performance. As you’ll see below, by upgrading to AMD EPYC-powered servers, IT teams can boost performance while consolidating their servers, optimizing software licensing costs, and enhancing overall data center efficiency.
- The Economics of Upgrading to AMD EPYC Servers are Compelling
Consider a setup with 1,000 servers, each running the widely deployed dual 28-core Intel® Xeon® 8280 processors and delivering an aggregate VMmark® 3.1 matched pair performance score of ~9020. Upgrading to just 336 servers with dual 48-core AMD EPYC 9474F processors delivers similar performance while reducing the number of servers by nearly two-thirds.
This upgrade lowers energy usage by an estimated 47% and slashes licensing costs by up to 42%, providing a swift payback period – which can be as short as two months[i].
Software licensing expenses make it increasingly costly to continue operating legacy infrastructure. Modernizing can slash costs, boost performance, and create space for emerging applications, such as AI.
- AMD Offers Simplified Migration in Collaboration with VMWare
For many IT managers, the perceived complexity of migrating virtual machines from Intel-based servers to AMD EPYC processor- based servers causes concerns. But the truth is that migrating from Intel to AMD servers involves similar effort as upgrading from legacy Intel servers to new ones.
To further simplify migration to AMD EPYC servers, AMD offers the VMware Architecture Migration Tool (VAMT), developed in collaboration with VMware. This PowerShell-based tool leverages VMware PowerCLI to automate virtual machine migrations across x86 architectures, helping reduce migration risks and downtime. The four-step process includes selecting which AMD EPYC processors align with current workloads, downloading and configuring VAMT, tagging the virtual machines, and then executing and validating the migration.
This tool offers a straightforward, reliable route to modernization without sacrificing workload continuity.
- Moving to AMD EPYC Processors Instead of Intel Xeon Alternatives can Provide TCO Benefits
If you compare the choice of using the 4th Gen AMD EPYC processors with 5th Gen Intel Xeon processors, you’ll find impressive total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits when you move to AMD EPYC processors.
Building on the example above of switching out 1,000 legacy servers, an enterprise would need 328 2P Intel Xeon Platinum 8592+ compared to 336 2P AMD EPYC™ 9474F servers. The EPYC choice gives you an estimated 24% lower TCO over five years, up to 33% lower hardware CAPEX, up to 23% fewer cores, and up to 23% lower VMWare licensing costs.SP5TCO-073A
- Managing and Mitigating "Blast Radius" Risks
A common concern with high-core count servers is the potential for a larger “blast radius” — the number of virtual machines affected by a single system failure. Two primary technology advancements mitigate blast radius concerns: software resiliency and enhanced hardware reliability. Most modern, distributed application architectures, such as those found in VMware® vSphere®, can be built to run multiple instances of each software application at once, so that if one VM fails, services remain uninterrupted as the application fails over to the other VM. From the perspective of hardware reliability, AMD EPYC processors include robust Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS) features, designed to minimize downtime through advanced error correction and detection mechanisms, such as Advanced Memory Device Correction (AMDC).
These innovations provide a resilient infrastructure capable of maintaining application uptime even during hardware issues, significantly reducing concerns about potential downtime or failure impact.
- AMD Supports the Advancement of Your Data Center Efficiency Goals
Choosing AMD EPYC processors for high-performance computing enables organizations to advance their data center sustainability goals by helping reduce energy consumption. These processors allow companies to decrease their environmental footprint and cut costs through reduced server quantities and licensing fees. Ultimately, opting for AMD EPYC processors over Intel Xeon offers impressive total cost of ownership benefits, supporting both your financial and sustainability objectives.
Conclusion: A Future-Ready Path with AMD EPYC Processors
The AMD EPYC processor-powered modernization approach offers a compelling case for any organization looking to boost performance, reduce costs, and meet efficiency targets. From significant savings in licensing and energy costs to enhanced reliability features, AMD EPYC processors pave the way for a seamless, future-ready data center.
