

NZ school goes open source - cuts server requirements by a factor of almost 50 - RyanMcGreal
http://www.cio.com.au/article/333686/nz_school_ditches_microsoft_goes_totally_open_source?fp=&fpid=&pf=1

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ryanwaggoner
Cut the uber-linkbait title. I'm no MS fan, but I was immediately skeptical of
such a claim. And here's the relevant info:

 _In 2010, Albany SHS will move into new purpose-built premises, which include
a dedicated server room. Brennan noted that the architects designed the space
based on standard New Zealand school requirements, including four racks each
capable of holding 48 servers for its main systems. The main infrastructure
only requires four servers, suggesting an almost 50-fold saving on hardware
requirements._

Actually, it suggests absolutely nothing of the kind. The fact that some
architect somewhere designed a room big enough to hold 192 servers hardly
means that you've saved 50-fold because you're only using 4. The office I
rented is big enough for six people to work in, so I'm apparently doing the
work of six people!

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smiler
NZ school standards are crazy. It's a 230 pupil high school and they require -
we'll assume when they say each rack can contain 48 servers they mean 48U, so
that's 192U of space.

I'm struggling to see how a 230 pupil school needs that much rack space...

