Greg Edwards-268690 (1/27/2010)
I kind of like the idea of tying SQL Server hardware to a SAN that is tuned to match.A bit on the spendy side, but see where you are buying preconfigured performance.
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/parallel-data-warehouse.aspx
Our SAN admin only cares about the disk footprint we are using.
So they have the 'cost center to be reduced' view in sight, not what's the best return on investment for the buisness.
Greg E
Sounds a bit like where I am working. Have to admit, however, that the blade servers + new SAN (at the moment) is a lot faster than the current production environment (rack mount server + old SAN). Current production backups (SQL Server 2005 with HyperBac compression) run 45 to 60 minutes. On the blades, SQL Server 2008 with native compression, under 10 minutes. We'll see if that holds as they go into production.