In the December 2006 Metal Market, enterprise-class application server hardware prices from major vendors converged tightly on the $6,000 mark. In June 2007, prices from the same vendors for nearly identical products scattered considerably. Cost-conscious buyers should investigate AMD Opteron-based units from IBM and Gateway to discover vendor discounts.

The Metal Market

In June 2007, standard application server prices exploded across the spectrum. Comparable hardware/software selections reveal a $3,000+ spread, six times greater than in December 2006. The price range for all surveyed sample server configurations spread from $541 to $3,663. The average price increased nearly $500 to $6,630.

HP’s and MPC’s Intel-based prices are now high enough that Apple’s Xserve becomes cost-competitive. While prices on Intel Xeon-based servers rose sharply, prices on AMD-based servers fell.