Stratus Technologies has announced the next-gen of its Stratus ftServer fault tolerant computing platforms. Offering up to 25% greater performance, Stratus’ latest generation platforms promises more CPU cores, increased processor power, and expanded networking connectivity. Stratus ftServer platforms combine compute power, reliability, and virtualisation, making them ideal for deploying advanced software and support edge-core-cloud data architectures.
“This new generation of Stratus ftServers is our most powerful ftServer platform yet. With this release, we are supporting the current and future compute needs of our customers,” said Jason Andersen, Vice President, Strategy and Business Line Management at Stratus. “Building on unmatched uptime, ftServer platforms now offer more versatility and performance for the increasing demands of a variety of applications and use cases from transaction and payment processing to industrial automation.”
Companies are increasingly deploying complex software solutions at the edge to improve efficiency, agility, and productivity as they modernise IT and operational technology. This includes the building of edge-core-cloud architectures to connect edge operations with cloud services as a part of digital transformation initiatives. Stratus ftServer platforms provide a compute platform that ensures continuous availability of critical applications and services and helps companies realise the full benefit of these initiatives.
Backed by Stratus’ fault tolerance, proactive health monitoring, and support for simple, protected, and autonomous operations, the virtualisation, and performance of Stratus’ ftServer platforms promise to provide organisations with the ability to build edge-in architectures to modernise infrastructure, improve productivity, and increase operational efficiency and visibility.
Enhancements of the 12th generation ftServer Platform
The 12th generation Stratus ftServer platform continues to strike a balance of power, performance, and reliability, making it possible to serve a range of organisations’ use cases, Stratus claim. Enhancements include:
• Updated Intel Xeon Processors – The latest ftServer platforms incorporate updated Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, supporting 2.3 GHz and 2.4 GHz speeds and 10 to 44 CPU cores increase performance across the platform for volume transaction processing as well as compute intensive workloads such as AI and IoT.
• Increased bandwidth for Storage Area Networks (SANs) – This generation ftServer platform adds 32 Gb Fibre Channel PCIe card, doubling the bandwidth available, to increase performance when connecting to SANs typical in most corporate data centres.
• Expanded networking options – The ftServer platform has increased flexibility and performance with the addition of optional 10 Gb Ethernet in the Stratus ftServer 2920 platform via a new PCIe card that supports both copper and fiber/optical, allowing customers to use their preferred Ethernet technology.
• Operating system support – ftServer platform supports VMware vSphere 7.0.3, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8, and both Microsoft® Windows Server® 2022 and Windows Server® 2019, providing customers with security enhancements and patching.
12th Generation Stratus ftServer platform configurations
The Stratus ftServer Platform is available in four configurations with several memory and disk storage options:
• Stratus ftServer 6920 Platform – Stratus’ highest performing ftServer platform raises the ceiling for serviceability, fault tolerance, and virtualisation for the most rigorous data- and transaction-intensive use cases, including AI, ML, and payments processing. The Stratus ftServer Platform 6920 is ideal for large data centres and other facilities requiring the highest levels of performance.
• Stratus ftServer 6910 Platform – This currently available high-performing ftServer platform is ideal for data-intensive or transaction-intensive applications in large remote plants or regional data centres.
• Stratus ftServer 4920 Platform – Intended for medium-sized facilities, plants and remote offices.
• Stratus ftServer 2920 Platform – Designed for running applications in smaller facilities, plants and shop floor locations.
Upon release, this new generation of Stratus ftServer platforms will support VMware vSphere 7.0.
12th generation Stratus ftServer platforms support a wide range of use cases
Enhancements to the Stratus ftServer platforms support both industrial use cases (e.g., industrial automation, smart manufacturing) and non-industrial use cases (e.g., payments processing, transportation management, building automation) where downtime results in direct business costs, environmental or safety risk, and/or loss of reputation. Status claim the ftServer platform is easy to install by end users or systems integrators, meets IT requirements for interoperability, supportability, cost, and security, and is easily managed by OT or IT.
Stratus’ platforms are backed by gold standard customer services that include 24x7x365 monitoring and management services via a secure, private network – the Stratus ActiveService Network (ASN). Additional services cover access to “availability experts” for support, including custom application development and infrastructure design consultation, via Stratus Managed Services; and comprehensive support for end-to-end, multi-vendor environments addressing compliance and security management, system upgrades and migrations, as well as turnkey backup via Stratus Professional Services.
There’s also plenty of other news editorials at IoT Insider’s sister publication, Electronic Specifier. And you can always add to the discussion at our comments section below or on our LinkedIn page here.