NetNames Completes Datacenter Based on AMD’s SM15000 Server 

AMD today announced the completion by NetNames of a massively efficient, hyperscale data center based on AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 server.  NetNames is the largest and most trusted leader in Europe for online brand protection and digital asset management. AMD worked with the NetNames team to build out a new data center that simplifies operations, reduces power and removes layers of networking.

“NetNames’ goal was to fundamentally rethink how a data center should be built to provide best-in-class agility, scalability and economics,” said David Jones, chief information officer, NetNames. “The SM15000 server fabric reduces power, simplifies operations and eliminates layers of networking while accelerating our ability to introduce new services and provide a high quality service to our customers.  It was the only server that provided a positive return on investment (ROI) and made the project commercially viable.”

By deploying AMD’s SM15000 server, NetNames was able to achieve:

• More than $1.5 million in expected annual operating cost savings
• Reduction in physical server rack space by 83 percent
• Consolidation of 500 servers into four SM15000 servers
• Reduction in ongoing operating expense by 75 percent

NetNames was able to transform the data center using the SM15000 server as the foundation to create a new architecture from the ground up.  The design redefined the server building block leveraging the SeaMicro Freedom Fabric to disaggregate compute, storage and networking to build right-sized computing and storage nodes that are optimal to the applications being deployed.  Traditional server building blocks are more limited because they come in fixed configurations that cannot be dynamically provisioned as needed.

“NetNames is clearly a leader in its industry, and the new data center will provide them a strategic asset that should help them extend their market leadership,” said Dhiraj Mallick, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Data Center Server Solutions. “Overcoming space and power constraints will continue to be a critical operational issue for companies.  By using the SM15000 server to reimagine the data center, NetNames created enormous operational savings that was not possible with other servers.” 

AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 Server

AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 system is the highest-density, most energy-efficient server on the market. In 10 rack units, it links 512 compute cores, 160 gigabits of I/O networking and more than five petabytes of storage with a 1.28 terabyte high-performance supercompute fabric, called Freedom Fabric. The SM15000 server eliminates top-of-rack switches, terminal servers, hundreds of cables and thousands of unnecessary components for a more efficient and simple operational environment.

AMD’s SeaMicro server product family currently supports the next-generation AMD Opteron (“Piledriver” core) processor, Intel Xeon E3-1260L (“Sandy Bridge”), E3-1265Lv2  (“Ivy Bridge”), E3-1265Lv3  (“Haswell”) and Intel Atom N570 processors. The AMD SeaMicro SM15000 also supports the Freedom Fabric Storage products, enabling a single system to connect with more than five petabytes of storage capacity in two racks. This approach delivers the benefits of expensive and complex solutions such as network attached storage (NAS) and storage area networking (SAN) with the simplicity and low cost of direct attached storage.