AMD consolidating data centers with cloud, hardware upgrades

Agam Shah | April 27, 2012

Advanced Micro Devices is cutting costs and reducing the number of its data centers worldwide with the help of the cloud and hardware upgrades, an AMD executive said Thursday.

"It's not cost-effective to do it externally," Dana said.

Over the past few years, closure of data centers has resulted in huge savings, Dana said. The company is retiring old data centers as contracts end and as hardware retires, replacing it with new equipment and hardware, which requires the same level of investment as upgrading existing data centers.

Idle CPU cycles cost the company, and server upgrades have netted AMD millions in savings, Dana said. Socket compatibility provides a cost-effective way to upgrade to faster and more power-efficient chips without buying extra hardware.

"For socket upgrades you have to do your homework," Dana said. Upgrades could be done to cut costs or add performance, or to test out new chips, he said.

But as servers move to the next generation, it's better to change the motherboard, Dana said. Hardware depreciation could range from three to five years.

"It's more cost-effective to change the board than to put the processor on top of it," Dana said.

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