Bangalore, December 1, 2012 –  Xeon processor-based servers running Linux offer an ideal  migration path for  enterprises  upgrading their their server infrastructure from legacy  and proprietary UNIX/RISC environments,  said Nick Knupffer,  Intel’s Hong Kong-based Marketing Director ( APAC and China).  
Customers   experience experienced significant savings in  operational cost even while enjoying  better performance, he added.

Knupffer was  speaking at an Intel  media roundtable  in Bangalore last week.   According  to analysts IDC, the RISC-based server market based on systems like as IBM's AIX, HP's HP-UX, and TRU64,   has been shrinking to half its size between 2002 and 2010 – with the Intel x86 architecture, the principal  gainer.

Software-wise, the migration has been to open platforms like RedHat and SUSE.

Interestingly,  the Intel-HP developed Itanium  processor platform which is associated with many RISC systems continues to hold its own and find new customers at the high end of the server  spectrum. 

Anil Misquith, Intel’s Country Business Manager for Education and Government in India, pointed at some   successful migration stories  in India – like the Just Books chain of  lending libraries  which uses Zeon servers to  run its application for tracking all its books which are  fitted with RFID chips for instant tagging.

On hand to share his company’s experience at first hand was  Samir Khare, General Manager – Technology Business Solutions, Fullerton India one of the leading Non- Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) in the country. The change over from a legacy RISC platform to a Xeon E 7545- based Linux server is fuelling Fullerton’s 300-city  Loan Origination Platform, a crucial component of its reach out to customers.

 Fullerton projects the change-over  to  result 45% savings over a five-year period, without any dip in performance,  Khare added.