it - "data storage"

Unisys is releasing several virtualization services and its first server based on AMD processors, the company announced Wednesday.Unisys was historically an Intel-only shop because Xeon processors are ideal for transaction-intensive database applications, says Colin Lacey, vice president of Unisys systems and storage. Unisys decided the time was right for an AMD-based server after getting wind of the Rapid Virtualization Indexing technology in quad-core Opteron processors. These chip enhancements allow virtual machines to more directly manage memory, thus improving performance of virtualized applications.The result for Unisys is the new ES7000 Model 7405R, an eight-socket, quad-core server that can support 128 virtual machines. (Compare server products.)While Unisys will continue to sell its numerous Intel-based servers, Lacey says, "We see an interesting intersect here with quad-core and [AMD's] Rapid Virtualization Indexing." Pricing for the AMD-based server starts at $21,0