Five years ago the average person had a cell phone that took photos, and might have had access to the Internet that was paid for on a MB system.  Then the iPhone was introduced and society was altered forever.  In the years since the introduction of the iPhone technology has crept its way into nearly every nook and cranny of the average persons’ life.  Now smartphones dominate the market, and it’s a rare person who doesn’t have multiple tech gadgets on hand: tablets, music players that use the web; TV’s and gaming systems that are connected, and even appliances that have the capability to alert you when your milk is low, or can play the morning news while you brew your coffee.

Along with this massive increase in technology comes an exponential increase in data and the task of storing, transferring, and learning from that data, and it needs to be made more efficient.  This has drummed up demand for hyperscale technology and software-driven hardware interactions, leading to the launch of HP’s Moonshot—a stronger, faster and more power-efficient server.  It uses software to make it programmable into the datacenter architecture and is disruptive and adaptable; everything the consumerization of IT demands.

According to HP, when compared to traditional servers, Moonshot uses 89 percent less energy, 80 percent less space, 77 percent less cost, and 97 percent less complex addressing a lot of the concerns of users today all with one server.  Moonshot is going to revolutionize technology today as the first hyperscale server and will work its way into the lives of the average consumer, but for the time being that is going to be through interaction with business that are able to utilize Moonshot to give a better user experience.

Maria Deutscher of SiliconAngle writes, “The server stands out thanks to its relatively open architecture: it includes a first-of-its-kind cartridge mechanism that enables customers to slot in their processor of choice.  This allows users to customize the box for their specific workloads, whether Big Data or cloud.”  This could mean the customer’s cloud access and storage is more efficient, and due to the lower cost and less energy usage could translate to lower costs for the consumer.

 Adapted to our connected lifestyle

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Adaptability and intelligence are so important to our connected lifestyle due to the rapid transformation of our tech, how we use our devices, and the evolution of how our devices become more and more ingrained into our lives.  The smarter our devices get, the more efficient we get, and HP’s Moonshot server is the latest example of the innovation of hyperscale and how to bring that to the consumer.

The trickle-down effect Moonshot will have for customers is certainly evidence.  HP has begun using their new server to support their website, HP.com which the company says receives about 3 million hits per day and while the server comes with a hefty price tag, it runs the entire site on the same amount of power as a couple of light bulbs.  The ultra low-power chips that are used create less energy translating to massively cheaper cooling bills as well.  CEO Meg Whitman notes, “To put that into perspective, if just 10 large web services providers switched their traditional x86 servers to Moonshot, they could save a combined $120 million in energy operating expense and nearly one metric tons of CO2 per year.  The equivalent of taking over 180,000 cars off othe road for a year.”

Barry Morris, CEO of NuoDB, the company providing the first SQL database for Moonshot, told PC Magazine that, “NuoDB’s database for the Linux-based Moonshot environment would be fully scalable for cloud services like Amazon’s and capable of ‘supporting 72,000 databases running one Moonshot box,” with this incredible capability benefits the consumer helping to speed up the transferability between the cloud and their devices cutting down on lag time.

Hyperscale tech is a relatively new idea that HP has embraced and used to turn the tech world upside with its new Moonshot servers.  While the server is extremely expensive and won’t likely be found in any homes anytime soon, our ever-increasing volume of connected devices all rely on servers to function.  When the overall of purchasing, maintaining, and servicing these servers drops the customer sees the benefits; and when the speed, reliability, and efficiency of the servers increases, the customer is greatly benefited and in todays world of tech, consumers want their information and they want it quickly.

photo credit: Mickipedia via photopin cc

photo credit: Robert Bejil Photography via photopin cc