Apple has announced plans to discontinue the Xserve product line, the company's rack-mounted server. According to Apple, Xserve provides everything you need to serve Mac, Windows and Linux clients, right out of the box.
A small yellow note on the corner of the US Apple Xserve site links to a 'Transition Guide' PDF explaining the decision.
"Apple is transitioning away from Xserve. Xserve will be available for order through January 31, 2011. After that date, customers looking to upgrade, replace, or supplement existing Xserve systems with new Apple hardware have the following two server solutions to choose from," Apple notes.
The Mac maker offers the Mac Pro with Snow Leopard Server and Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server as alternatives.
Current Xserve models sold running up to January will have Apple's full standard one-year warranty. "The AppleCare Premium Service and Support program for Xserve is available as an option at time of order to extend complimentary technical support and hardware service coverage to three years from the Xserve date of purchase," Apple claims.
Currently Apple's Xserve starts from £2,451 for the Quad-Core model and £2,941 for the 8-Core version.
"Apple intends to offer the current shipping 160GB, 1TB, and 2TB Apple Drive Modules for Xserve through the end of 2011 or while supplies last. Apple will continue to support Xserve customers with service parts for warranty and out-of-warranty service," Apple adds.
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Comments received
treadmill said on Fri, 05 Nov 2010
Woah! What happened there? Not making enough money I guess.
bizk said on Tue, 09 Nov 2010
Maybe this demonstrates that the 'lower spec' machines are just as capable as the Xserves? At least they are continuing with the server software! The headline about the 'end of the road for Xserve' made me twitch a bit! Glad they have decided to keep the software going for now!
WillT said on Tue, 09 Nov 2010
This did come as a shock. What about Apple's educational clients that have invested thousands in servers? My guess is that Apple is going to try to move 'everyone' towards cloud servers (note re: its server farm of over 500,000 sq. ft. in North Carolina). So, this is a first step, and it also means that Apple will at some future event, probably next year, announce a new service for home/office and commercial use for online back-up (including video). That's my guess anyway. I'll check this comment in about a year's time to see if I was correct.
Alex Rentoul said on Tue, 09 Nov 2010
I am one such educational customer with several X-serves. I guess it shows Apple retreating from enterprise servers. Our data centre for our central back-up offsite will not host non-rackable kit. No LOM - I think - on non X-serve models. What it says to me is that Apple is retreating from serious computing towards being an entertainment and mobile phone company. We shall start to evaluate other solutions.
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