Previously, I covered the arrival of the AMD EPYC processor era in the channel and the commencement of a revolutionary journey in the datacenter. Today I’m pleased to give an update and highlight a few of the key areas of advancement in the AMD EPYC channel journey.

The Time is NOW for an On-Premise Virtualization Refresh!

AMD is gaining momentum by offering our partners more options to solve their customers’ problems and driving a refresh of their aging virtualized on-premise server platforms.

According to IDC1, the average two-socket server is now more than 5 years old, bringing lower performance, more overhead in maintenance costs, and increased downtime of an outdated datacenter. These servers can also be more susceptible to security vulnerabilities with potential costly mitigation. IDC further states that 6 out of 10, two-socket servers in the industry are due for an upgrade in the next 12 months, and this is an immense opportunity for a modern EPYC solution.

Many of these refresh opportunities will encompass older, 8-10 core dual-socket products which now can easily be replaced with a single-socket, EPYC 16-32 core processor at a similar price point. This is the game changer that should make a CIO with an aging and expensive two-socket system consider an upgrade. For example, a Dell PowerEdge 7415, is a vSAN ready node that can reduce your TCO by up to 20% and cut your licensing costs in half2.

In a VMware virtualized environment, a move to AMD EPYC processors can reduce total server count and reduce TCO over three years by up to 45% with up to 2.8 times greater VM density3 supported with industry leading 2 TB’s of memory per socket4.

And our Commercial Channel Partners are Listening …

AMD has worked closely with our OEM and Channel Partners globally to help drive EPYC solutions in the Commercial Channel. To further entice our partners to continue the momentum as they engage in the refresh opportunity, AMD has introduced the EARN EPYC™ Rewards incentive program for select HPE ProLiant servers. Initially, it will be implemented in North America and Europe with plans to expand to Greater China and across Asia. EARN EPYC™ Rewards provides incentives to our Distributor and Value-Added Reseller (VAR) partners selling select HPE ProLiant DL325 and DL385 servers to help maximize marketing and sales activities. We are focused on solving the customers’ need to refresh their virtualized servers and our partners are fully on-board!

Giles Norris, vendor relations and marketing manager at Bechtle Direct Ltd., says it best “The Earn EPYC Rewards program gives us a unique opportunity to simultaneously boost our margins, save our customers money, and recommend a best-fit solution. We’re very pleased to be part of the program.”

Stay tuned for more information as we introduce Dell EMC PowerEdge and other partner platforms into similar incentive programs.

If you want more information on the Global EARN EPYC™ Rewards Program, click here.

EPYC System Integrator Partner Program reaching around the world

In the Component channel over 40 System Integrators in North America and Europe have enrolled into our inaugural System Integrator Partner Program and are enjoying benefits such as earning incentives for deploying EPYC processor solutions.

Peter Chen, President of Elite partner Exxact Corporation, says, “Our valued partnership with AMD and the AMD EPYC Partner Program has enabled Exxact to provide a new portfolio of innovative and scalable HPC platforms that are equipped for industry-leading performance.”

And, as EPYC continues to make its mark globally, we are expanding our channel program with System Integrator partners in South Korea and China! Stay tuned for more!

If you want more information on the Global EPYC System Integrator Partner Program, click here.

Educating, enabling, & promoting the revolutionary benefits of EPYC across the channel

Continuing our dedication to supporting AMD’s valued channel partners, we have released two value proposition tools to partners and are evangelizing the undeniable value of an EPYC single- and dual-socket solutions.

The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) tool compares a complete EPYC processor solution to a competitor for a given workload, including server, socket, core and memory. The comprehensive analysis also includes power & cooling, space, and IT administration costs and can be easily emailed & shared in presentations. Click here for AMD's EPYC TCO Tool!

The new CPU Selector Tool offers a price, core and SPECrate CPU-to-CPU comparison suggesting the optimum AMD EPYC processor versus an equivalent competitor product. This includes recommending AMD’s “No Compromise” single-socket options head to head vs competing dual-socket solutions.

If you happen to be at Canalys in Barcelona next month sign-up for my “Liberate your customers!” workshop to learn more about EPYC processors in the channel.

I hope you find these additions to the AMD Channel Program for datacenter products helpful. Please join us in bringing the sea-change that AMD EPYC offers to the world!

1Based on AMD Analysis of IDC Quarterly Server Tracker historical shipments and revenue of 2 Socket Systems applying an average server lifespan of 3.7 years assuming 60% of 2 socket servers are virtualized and 60% of those servers are on premise or not “public cloud based.”

2Up to 20% Lower TCO and Lower Licensing Costs: Demartek test report commissioned by Dell: Dell EMC PowerEdge R7415 AMD EPYC VMware vSAN Mixed Workloads Performance – April 2018 www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_PowerEdge_R7415_vSAN_Mixed_Workloads_Evaluation_2018-04.html

3 Compares 3-year total cost of ownership for 320 virtual machines of 1 virtual machine per core with 8GB of DRAM per core with similar performance. VM Density of 2.8X is calculated based on 320 VM’s via 14 2U rack mount servers (first configuration below) for a total of 320/28U versus the same 320 VM’s via 10 1U rack mount servers (second configuration below) for a total of 320/10U.

Configuration comparisons include

(14) PowerEdge R740 Configuration Chassis with up to 8 x 3.5" SAS/SATA Hard Drives for 2CPU Configuration, with (2) Intel® Xeon® Gold 5118 2.3G, 12C/24T, 10.4GT/s, 16.5M Cache, Turbo, HT (105W) DDR4-2400, Performance Optimized Memory Capacity of (12) 16GB RDIMM, 2666MT/s, Dual Rank Dimms, Hard Drives including (1) 120GB SSD SATA Boot 6Gbps 512n 2.5in Hot-plug Drive & (6) 480GB SSD SAS Mix Use 12Gbps 512n 2.5in Hot-plug Drives, No Operating System 3 Years Basic Hardware Warranty Repair: 5x10 HW-Only, 5x10 NBD Onsite Deployment Services, No Installation. Configuration priced on 8/30/2018 at www.dell.com for $14,271 per server; $199,794 total Hardware Acquisition Cost. Facilities and administration costs include $16,004 for power and cooling, $540 for space, and $42,880 for IT administration costs for a total of $59,424 over 3 years - calculated based on AMD EPYC™ TCO calculator at https://uatfast.valuestoryapp.com/AMD/sales. SW Licensing costs include (10) vSphere with Ops Manager Ent Plus, 2 CPU License,5Yrs ProSupport + Subscription for $12.163 each for a total SW licensing costs of $121,638. Pricing obtained at www.dell.com on 8/30/18. Total 3 yr. Cost of Ownership of $429,511.

10) PowerEdge R6415 Configuration Chassis with up to 8 x 3.5" SAS/SATA Hard Drives for 2CPU Configuration, with (1) AMD EPYC™ 7551P 2.00GHz/2.55GHz, 32C/64T, 64M Cache (180W) DDR4-2666, Performance Optimized Memory Capacity of (8) 32GB RDIMM, 2666MT/s, Dual Rank Dimms, Hard Drives including (1) 120GB SSD SATA Boot 6Gbps 512n 2.5in Hot-plug Drive & (6) 400GB SSD SAS Mix Use 12Gbps 512n 2.5in Hot-plug Drives, No Operating System 3 Years Basic Hardware Warranty Repair: 5x10 HW-Only, 5x10 NBD Onsite Deployment Services, No Installation. Configuration priced on 8/30/18 at www.dell.com for $13,585 per server; $135,850 total Hardware Acquisition Cost. Facilities and administration costs include $5,438 for power and cooling, $540 for space, and $34,304 for IT administration costs for a total of $40,282 over 3 years - calculated based on AMD EPYC™ TCO calculator at https://uatfast.valuestoryapp.com/AMD/sales. SW Licensing costs include (10) vSphere with Ops Manager Ent Plus, 1 CPU License,5Yrs ProSupport + Subscription for $7,820 each for a total SW licensing costs of $60,810. Pricing obtained at www.dell.com on 8/30/18. Total 3yr Cost of Ownership of $236,942

4 A single AMD EPYC™ 7601 processor offers up to 2TB/processor (x 2 = 4TB), versus a single Xeon Platinum 8180 processor at 768Gb/processor (x 2 = 1.54TB). NAP-44.

Jerry Gadbois is the World Wide Channel Market Manager for AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied. GD-5

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