Scaling the Needs of Enterprise with Hpe Proliant

SCALING THE NEEDS OF ENTERPRISE WITH HPE PROLIANT HOW THE HPE PROLIANT DL325 AND DL385 CAN POWER ENTERPRISE WORKLOADS SECURELY WHILE SIMPLIFYING MANAGEMENT THROUGH AUTOMATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION PAGE 2

ROME – THE BUILDING BLOCKS PAGE 4

GETTING THE HYBRID CLOUD RIGHT THROUGH INTELLIGENCE PAGE 6

WORKLOAD AFFINITY – WHERE THE HPE PROLIANT GEN 10 SHINES PAGE 7

CYBER RESILIENCE ACHIEVED THROUGH SECURITY PAGE 10

ADDENDUM – HPE PROLIANT GEN 10 PLUS PAGE 15

DRIVING IMPROVED WORKLOAD PERFORMANCE PAGE 16

INTRODUCTION When Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) launched the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen 10 and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen 10 servers in 2017, based on the 1st Generation AMD EPYC processor, it marked the return of choice to the datacenter. IT organizations that sought to deliver performant platforms securely and lower total cost of ownership had a viable alternative that offered a unique set of capabilities. This choice also led to an increase in the pace of innovation in the server market stimulated by this new competition.

The value proposition of the HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 boils down to workload optimized performance, intelligent automation to simplify management, and the industry’s most comprehensive security, all delivered as-a-Service.

Performance optimization, security and automation are benefits that can be realized by any IT organization. However, these benefits carry greater significance for the IT organization living in a hybrid cloud world.

With the release of the AMD EPYC 7002 Series processor (based on the new “Rome” architecture), the HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 servers are poised to deliver more. More performance and power efficiency. More security. More automation. And, more savings.

How does the HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 further enable the IT organization operating and managing in a hybrid cloud environment? Where do these servers shine? What is the significance of the AMD EPYC 7002 Series architecture? The purpose of this paper is to explore answers to these questions.

THE UNIQUE NEEDS OF THE DIGITALLY TRANSFORMED BUSINESS Today’s enterprise IT environment barely resembles environments from just a few short years ago:

• New and emerging workloads and applications are being deployed across business units in a DevOps methodology designed to hasten time to value. • Data management platforms are no longer just relational database management systems (RDBMS) running on “big iron” servers. Structured and unstructured

data stores integrated with analytics tools power the digitally transformed business in its quest for first-mover status. • While virtualization rules the datacenter, cloud-native applications built as containerized services are becoming more mainstream. • Edge computing is gaining momentum as organizations capitalize on the data deluge being created by the internet of things (IoT). • Hybrid and multi-cloud environments are key elements to IT’s strategy to support the emerging needs of the business. • Software Defined Everything (SDx) requires a server platform that has both richness and balance of features to support any workload at any time in any location.

Enterprise IT is tasked with managing and securing the modern datacenter that powers the digitally transformed business. The boundaries of the datacenter now extend to the edge, with IoT/IIoT devices generating unprecedented levels of data that must be turned into actionable intelligence in real-time - securely. This data then travels to datastores in the cloud(s) and the core datacenter, where deeper analysis is performed and where storage and archival takes place.

IT ALL STARTS WITH THE SERVER It all starts with the server. This statement has been made many times, but, in today’s datacenter, these words have never been truer. Hybrid cloud introduces a level of complexity that the average IT organization can hardly afford to take on. Investing in intelligent server infrastructure with complementary toolsets from companies such as HPE can reduce the burden of deploying, provisioning, managing and securing throughout the lifecycle of server platforms.

The server is the cornerstone of the datacenter. Choosing the right server platform can help an organization meet the requirements of today’s market – speed (time to value) and agility. The HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 deliver a richness of features without increasing power, and specifically regarding security, HPE ProLiant Servers were found to have “unmatched capability that is unique in the server hardware industry.” 1

1 Jason Shropshire, CTO, InfusionPoints, September 2017

ROME – THE BUILDING BLOCKS Just as the server is the cornerstone of the datacenter, the CPU is the cornerstone of server technology. The cornerstone to the HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 is the AMD EPYC 7002 Series processor (codenamed Rome), built on the Zen2 microarchitecture, and there’s a lot of “new” for this generation of processor.

The EPYC 7002 Series differentiation begins with its design. The EPYC processor incorporates a design approach known as chiplets. An AMD EPYC chiplet consists of 8 compute modules (each containing 8 cores) residing in an I/O die that connects all modules via high speed interconnect, called Infinity Fabric. AMD claims this chiplet design enables it to deliver higher performing CPUs at a lower cost, which should result in lower overall system costs from OEMs such as HPE.

FIGURE 1: ROME SYSTEM DIAGRAM

Source: Moor Insights

AMD produces the EPYC 7002 Series using a 7nm manufacturing process (7nm referencing the size of the transistor gates that make up the CPU). This is important to both performance and power. A reduction in transistor size means that companies can pack more computational power into a given space, utilizing less power. This, in turn, means server platforms such as the HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 deliver improved performance-per-watt-per-dollar, an important metric when measuring relevant server performance.

As with the first generation EPYC processor, the 7002 Series processor technical specifications lead the industry. The increased L3 cache size (256MB) of EPYC, combined with per core integer performance improvements, make this CPU even more compelling than its predecessor. Furthermore, the doubling of the floating-point performance and other microarchitecture improvements should expand the CPU’s relevance in the high-performance computing (HPC) market.

FIGURE 2: ROME SPECIFICATIONS

Source: Moor Insights

The EPYC 7002 Series processor also leads in security. AMD's emphasis on silicon- rooted security began with the release of its original EPYC processor. Its stance has been validated as EPYC processors were immune to the side channel exploits experienced by its competitor. The AMD Secure Processor is the heart of EPYC’s security solution.

During the boot process, the AMD Secure Processor validates the server BIOS. In addition to validating a pristine boot environment, the AMD Secure Processor performs other functions detailed below:

• Secure Memory Encryption (SME). AMD’s secure processor physically encrypts DIMMs (dual in-line memory modules), protecting against memory scraping and bad actors freezing and physically removing DIMMs from a server. • Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV 2.0). This technology encrypts and isolates virtual machines (VMs) from one another – and even from the hypervisor. This ensures absolute best protection from malware proliferation in an enterprise or cloud environment.

Consider the use case where malware exploits a line of business application. In a traditional environment, that malware can spread from VM to VM. With AMD SEV, the exploit is isolated and prevented from doing further damage.

One of the key upgrades in SEV 2.0 is the number of encryption keys that can be issued. In the previous generation of EPYC, SEV 1.0 supported up to 19 keys, which enabled 19 encrypted VMs per processor. In the second generation of EPYC, SEV 2.0 supports up to 509 keys. This should support the needs of the most demanding enterprise deployments.

GETTING THE HYBRID CLOUD RIGHT THROUGH INTELLIGENCE The modern datacenter has no physical boundaries. We live in a hyper-connected world where everyone and everything generates and shares data, and that data can provide invaluable insights. Whether on- or off-premises; bare-metal, virtualization or containers; in a public or private cloud, the modern datacenter must comprehend the full gamut of hybrid cloud possibilities.

This new hyper-connected world stretches IT like never before. IT organizations must transform the way they consume, deploy and manage infrastructure to securely enable the business that is competing in an ever-changing market. In the past, deploying, operating and managing infrastructure was a trial and error process. In today’s world, the pressure to “get it right” the first time is immense. IT Nirvana is infrastructure that can be deployed, optimized and managed intelligently. This enables IT to realize value almost immediately while freeing staff to proactively support the business.

Perhaps the biggest challenge faced by IT in this is hyperconnected world is the realm of security. The proliferation of IoT devices generating data on the edge is a contributing

factor as to why companies of all sizes are exploited on a near daily basis by hackers. Security must be intelligent, holistic and embedded in the silicon of infrastructure.

Companies also want to optimize their IT investment strategy to match their business strategy to quickly respond to changing market needs. In many cases, they are interested in first freeing capital invested in current infrastructure and then paying only for what is consumed. Consumption based computing solutions such as HPE GreenLake continue to grow at exponential rates as companies of all sizes realize the benefits of the shift from CapEx to OpEx.

WORKLOAD AFFINITY – WHERE THE HPE PROLIANT GEN 10 SHINES HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen 10 servers are dual and single- socket servers, respectively, based on the AMD EPYC 7002 processor. Both the HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen 10 servers are well positioned to support the majority of workloads and applications that populate the enterprise datacenter. In addition to this broad appeal, HPE sees a deeper affinity for the following workloads:

• Virtualized Infrastructure: For companies looking to maximize VM density, the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen 10 server is designed to lead the market. The EPYC 7002 Series should enable the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen 10 server to complement 4TB of DDR4 RAM with enough compute (128 cores/256 threads) to drive peak operating efficiency. Industry benchmarks demonstrate the performance gains of the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen 10 server. In the most recent SPECvirt_sc2013 results, the server shined, posting a score of 5449@305 virtual machines – the highest yet seen from a two-socket server.

The richness of PCIe (128 lanes) allows IT organizations to outfit the HPE ProLiant DL385 with GPUs—making it a compelling platform for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

The HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen 10 server can be a smart choice for IT organizations looking to deliver rich VM density while minimizing licensing costs. Virtualization solutions such as VMware ESX are licensed per socket. With 64 cores/128 threads, the HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen 10 server can deliver the

unprecedented VM density of previous server generations at roughly half the cost, without sacrificing performance.

• Software Defined Storage (SDS): Storage workload consolidation is a strategy that, in conjunction with virtualization, is being successfully used to improve the efficiency of IT operations – software defined storage is another area where the HPE ProLiant DL325 and HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen 10 servers shine. Storage performance is less constrained now by the capacity of storage in a server and is more dependent on the performance of the processor that can manage data in real-time—from deduplication to inline encryption. Additionally, now that Non- Volatile Memory (NVMe) is standard in storage, its performance puts more burden on the CPU core to perform faster. By deploying a server with a high number of performant CPU cores and a rich memory configuration, the HPE ProLiant DL325 and HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen 10 servers can deliver fast read and write performance.

In fact, the HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen 10 server showed strong results in VMware’s VMmark 3.1 benchmark utilizing vSAN. The server scored the highest single socket score; competitive with two socket servers. Further, this configuration results in a 50% savings on VMware licensing.

• Big Data and Data Analytics: Big data (unstructured data) distributions such as Cloudera Hortonworks drive the digitally transformed business, from the edge to the core datacenter. Big data platforms benefit from lots of compute cores, rich storage capacity, and high memory footprints.

Big data analytics distributions benefit from per core performance, memory capacity and memory throughput. The ability to store bigger datasets in memory and move data faster between memory and CPU cores is critical to the real-time analysis that drives the digitally transformed business.

The HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen 10 servers based on the AMD EPYC 7002 further extend this platform's affinity for big data through the doubling of cores per socket, memory architecture efficiencies and a larger L3 cache. Additionally, the latency associated with moving data between memory and many cores across multiple compute modules is greatly reduced since the EPYC memory controller resides in its I/O die.

The HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen 10 server in particular has shown to be a performance leader in big data as the platform scored the highest performance in the TPC big data benchmark (TPCx-HS V2). In fact, the HPE ProLiant DL325 has shown a 37% EPYC generation-over-generation performance gain and a 34% gain in price/performance 2 at the 30TB scale factor.

• Structured Data Management: Relational database management systems (RDBMS) are the underpinning of many enterprise line of business (LoB) applications. Core count, core performance and memory capacity/throughput are vital to the performance of database platforms, as they are with unstructured data management. L3 cache size is a key factor in the performance of database environments.

With twice the L3 cache in the AMD EPYC 7002 Series processor than the previous generation, the HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen 10 servers should be positioned well for RDBMS platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and PostgreSQL. While the dual socket HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen 10 server can deliver best absolute performance, the single socket design of the HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen 10 server can enable IT organizations to tailor performance and cost-based on database distribution and its utility.

• High Performance Computing: The initial launch of the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen 10 server found success in HPC workloads that relied heavily on memory capacity and throughput. The doubling of the AMD EPYC 7002 floating point performance and improved branch prediction should expand the HPC workloads that can benefit from the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen 10 server.

• Telecommunications/Network Function Virtualization (NFV): Today’s telecommunications networks are overwhelmed by a deluge of data, voice and video. With the emergence of 5G and the growth of edge computing, a corresponding explosion in data further strains the limits of the legacy networks that support many telecommunications providers. The HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen 10 server is a good building block for this new environment. The server’s dense compute capabilities coupled with a wealth of PCIe makes it an optimal fit for

2 The HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10, with the AMD EPYC 7502p delivers a 34.3% better (lower) price- performance advantage at the 30TB scale factor, than the first-generation AMD EPYC 7551p.

Telecom Data Plane Applications with 25GbE and high throughput packet processing.

FIGURE 3: HPE PROLIANT DL385 AND DL325 GEN 10 SPECIFICATIONS

Source: Moor Insights & Strategy

CYBER RESILIENCE ACHIEVED THROUGH SECURITY In today’s hybrid world, infrastructure is exploitable and data is vulnerable. This is a fact. Even organizations with the most comprehensive approach to securing access to its network are exposed. Because the most exploitable resource in an organization – its people – can’t be replaced. Phishing emails have evolved from a Nigerian Prince promising riches to appearing as legitimate emails from partners and fellow employees. Before an employee realizes they are being exploited (if they realize), malware buries itself deep in the infrastructure and data is hijacked by a community that is more clever than ever.

HPE points to security as a key differentiator in the server market, and the HPE ProLiant has been recognized as the world’s most secure industry standard server lineup. With the combination of HPE’s silicon root of trust and the AMD Secure Processor, the company certainly makes a strong case as the combination ensures lock

tight security from the manufacturing process and auditing of supply chain to initial boot to end of life.

FIGURE 4: HPE AND AMD SECURITY

Source: Moor Insights & Strategy

When the server is powered up and the HPE iLO 5 silicon comes alive, HPE silicon runs a hash which verifies the HPE iLO5 firmware. The HPE iLO5 firmware conducts a verification of the AMD Secure Processor and will stop the boot process if any malware is detected. Once the AMD Secure Processor is validated, the EPYC processor boots. Then the AMD Secure Processor does a complementary authentication of the HPE BIOS. Then, via the silicon root of trust, the server BIOS validates the option ROMs and the operating system boot loader. The result? An HPE ProLiant server that has booted to a pristine and immutable state. For a deeper view of HPE's holistic security, download the Moor Insights & Strategy research paper here.

Cyber Resilience is more than just preventing and mitigating cyber threats and disasters. A comprehensive cyber resilience strategy must include the ability to respond to cyber events with immediacy and force. This is perhaps where HPE distinguishes itself in the market.

Server System Restore (part of the HPE iLO Amplifier Pack) helps IT organizations recover from cyberattacks in “single click” fashion. Server System Restore makes

recovery simple, secure and scalable. Whether an organization has one hundred, one thousand or ten thousand servers, IT administrators can configure Server System Restore to do the following, automatically:

• Remove corrupt firmware • Reinstall validated firmware (and apply proper settings) • Securely restore operating systems • Restore applications • Restore data

It is impressive that a single click results in complete restoration, whether those servers reside in the datacenter, in a remote office or on the industrial edge.

The last element of HPE’s security portfolio is One-Button Secure Erase. When servers reach end-of-life and are ready for retirement - or repurposing - One-Button Secure Erase delivers NIST level crypto-erase to ensure no data can be recovered for nefarious purposes.

Each element of the HPE security portfolio is a critical component of an IT organization's cybersecurity readiness strategy. When integrated, this portfolio is holistic, complete and end-to-end.

AUTOMATION – THE KEY TO MANAGING THE HYBRID CLOUD Many IT executives commonly complain about their inability to get beyond the reactive "break-fix" function of IT and into the consultative partner role the business requires. The HPE suite of management tools is designed to aid in this transformation by providing tools that automate the management process of HPE ProLiant server lifecycle - from deployment and provisioning to monitoring and managing datacenter infrastructure.

HPE integrated lights out (iLO) management controller and software are designed to simplify the process of server lifecycle management through seamless and automated tools for configuring, monitoring and updating server environments.

HPE OneView console enables the ability to monitor and manage at the datacenter level. For IT organizations on the operational transformation journey, HPE OneView can

enable levels of autonomy by automating many of the tasks that pull IT from its core mission of driving innovation for the business.

HPE InfoSight for servers is a predictive analytics tool that optimizes server performance as well as predict and prevent problems before IT operations are impacted. HPE InfoSight for Servers combines the cloud-based machine learning of HPE InfoSight with the health and performance monitoring of HPE Active Health System and HPE iLO.

Integrating such capabilities delivers comprehensive infrastructure automation. IT executives are no longer awakened in the early morning hours by a failed server or to find a bad actor has hijacked data. Rather, the IT executive now arises to be informed of how these issues were detected and resolved in real-time and that operations are restored to normal.

DELIVERED AS-A-SERVICE – GETTING HYBRID COSTS UNDER CONTROL At the end of the proverbial day, IT must do more with less. Jumping headfirst into a hybrid multi-cloud environment can overextend an IT budget very quickly. Edge computing will introduce similar cost challenges. And over the next few years, another disruptive technology will signal yet another inflection point in the industry.

Because of these challenges, HPE recently announced its intention to offer its entire product portfolio as-a-Service (XaaS) to help organizations control the costs associated with deploying new technologies in the datacenter. With this model, IT organizations can shift cost burdens from the capital side of the ledger to the operational, which makes cost control more manageable. This move also enables businesses to leverage emerging technologies faster, with less risk.

Moor Insights sees HPE as a pioneer in the consumption-based infrastructure market with its HPE GreenLake offering. The service has been implemented at organizations of all sizes and across a number of industries across the globe. Because of this, HPE Greenlake has an advantage over its competitors in that it’s been finely tuned to support a range of deployment models.

SPEEDING UP TIME TO VALUE WITH POINTNEXT The hybrid, multi-cloud environment combined with edge computing is the wild west of IT. There is no hard science or best practice around deploying and optimizing for peak efficiency as of yet. Each deployment is unique and dependent on several variables. Because of this, Moor Insights recommends organizations that plan to deploy hybrid multi-cloud environments consider partnering with HPE Pointnext Services.

HPE Pointnext has a depth and breadth of experience in deploying hybrid cloud environments with a focus on capacity planning, workload performance optimization and cost controls utilizing the entire HPE suite of management and cost control tools. HPE Pointnext also has a depth and breadth of experience in helping organizations of all sizes achieve maximum cyber resiliency by deploying, configuring and optimizing the integration of HPE and AMD security technologies.

CALL TO ACTION The digitally transformed business cannot succeed without an IT organization that itself is transformed, and that transformation cuts across process, organization and technology. Transforming infrastructure begins with deploying server technology that is powerful, open, and optimized to support any workload in any condition, and without putting an organization’s most precious commodity – data – at risk.

The HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 servers are uniquely positioned to help IT organizations deploy secure, performant infrastructure that can support the needs of today and tomorrow. The heart of the HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 servers is the AMD EPYC 7002 processor. This CPU enables HPE to claim performance leadership positions both in terms of specifications and real-world performance in the most secure fashion. The HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 should find leadership performance across the range of workloads powering the modern datacenter. From virtualized infrastructure to the most demanding analytics engines driving real-time insights.

The launch of the HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 on the 1st Generation AMD EPYC CPU (codenamed "Naples") signaled HPE introducing AMD back to the datacenter and the servers found success in many areas. With the new EPYC 7002 Series processor powering HPE, IT organizations of all sizes across all verticals would be wise to evaluate the HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325.

ADDENDUM –HPE PROLIANT GEN10 PLUS HOW THE HPE PROLIANT DL325 AND DL385 GEN10 PLUS SERVERS DRIVE HIGHER PERFORMANCE FOR THE WORKLOADS THAT DRIVE THE MODERN BUSINESS

INTRODUCTION – IT’S ALL ABOUT PERFORMANCE WITHOUT COMPROMISE Due to significant improvements in computation power, enterprise customers have shown strong demand for the 2nd Generation AMD EPYC processor. The doubling of CPU cores from 32 to 64 makes the 2nd Generation AMD EPYC Processor (codenamed “Rome”), coupled with high memory capacity and bandwidth, an ideal server for virtualized environments.

To meet the demands of its customers, HPE embraced its “first to market” relationship with AMD by outfitting the existing HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Servers with the 2nd Generation AMD EPYC Processor. This strategy appears to have been wise as AMD has seen 50% growth in CPU shipments since the release of the CPU codenamed “Rome.”3

The launch of the HPE ProLiant DL385 and DL325 Gen10 Plus servers sees HPE fully unleashing the capabilities of the 2nd Generation AMD EPYC Processor. This addendum will explore how HPE has enabled its customers with HPE ProLiant Gen10 Plus featuring the 2nd Generation AMD EPYC Processor.

FIRST, WHAT’S NEW IN THE HPE PROLIANT GEN10 PLUS SERVER The HPE ProLiant Gen10 Plus servers appear to be a thoughtful redesign of the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 servers to best map the 2nd Generation EPYC processor capabilities to the needs of the market. Both servers have undergone a chassis and motherboard redesign, enabling more resources to be optimized.

3 https://www.crn.com/news/components-peripherals/amd-ceo-lisa-su-epyc-sales-grew-50-percent-after- rome-s-launch

The redesign begins with a chassis and motherboard design capable of fully supporting the 7nm “chiplet” design process of “Rome.” This includes the following:

• Enabling PCIe 4 support on the motherboard, doubling the I/O bandwidth of PCIe devices such as application accelerators (ASICs and GPUs) as well as network adapters. • Increasing the storage capacity of the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 servers - across form factors and media type (HDD, SDD, NVMe). • Supporting the highest memory speed and highest capacity memory DIMMs on the market (3200 Mega-Transfers/second (MT/s) 256GB DIMM support).4

In practical terms, the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus servers should deliver real-world performance improvements to the workloads that power the modern business, including virtualization, big data analytics, high-performance computing (HPC), software-defined storage (SDS), and telecommunications.

Deploying the HPE ProLiant Gen 10 Plus servers should lead to a noticeable improvement in service level agreement (SLA) enforcement. The enablement of PCIe 4 and higher memory speeds should lead to considerable application performance improvement. Additionally, supporting higher memory speeds should improve the performance of virtualized environments.

Total cost of ownership (TCO) can also be materially impacted by deploying HPE ProLiant Gen10 Plus servers. The increase in memory speed and memory capacity should enable a higher number of virtual machines to run without a degradation in performance, resulting in fewer physical servers.

DRIVING IMPROVED WORKLOAD PERFORMANCE The features of AMD EPYC, combined with the design of the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus, results in servers that can support

4 HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus support for 256GB DDR-4 DIMM support is based on public availability in 1H2020

virtually any workload. However, HPE believes five workloads, in particular, will find significant benefit by running on these servers.

VIRTUALIZATION High core count has always made AMD EPYC a robust server processor for virtualized environments. With improvements in memory and PCIe 4 support, both the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus servers get stronger.

The newly designed HPE ProLiant servers enable memory speeds of up to 3200 MT/s. Additionally, the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus server can support an effective doubling of memory capacity (based on the availability of 256GB DIMMs). These improvements in the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus servers should support more virtual machines, running faster.

If organizations are looking to utilize the HPE ProLiant DL385 to support virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments, upgrading to the HPE ProLiant Gen10 Plus model would be a wise consideration. This server supports up to eight singlewide or doublewide GPUs over PCIe 4. This is significant as PCIe 4 doubles the speed of the bus that carries data between the GPU and CPU, resulting in support for more simultaneous VDI instances with more responsive graphics.

SOFTWARE-DEFINED STORAGE (SDS) Three elements can define the strength of a software-defined storage solution; storage capacity, the speed at which storage is accessed, and the speed at which data can be managed. The HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 server scored strong results in VMware’s VMmark 3.1 benchmark utilizing vSAN, a good proxy for real-world SDS performance. While numbers are not available for the HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus server, we would expect to see these numbers score considerably better as the PCIe bandwidth is doubled from 8GB to 16GB with the implementation of PCIe 4.

The HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus should also deliver better SDS performance based on its ability to support faster, richer memory configurations. Mapping improved performance with the powerful Zen2 core built in the 2nd Generation AMD EPYC Processor will have performance implications on data management functions such as deduplication and inline encryption.

BIG DATA ANALYTICS Servers that can pack more highly performant cores are ideal for big data management. Big data analytics require those highly performant cores to be attached to big memory footprints, with a lot of bandwidth (i.e., memory channels). These workload requirements made the HPE ProLiant Gen10 server built on the 2nd Generation AMD EPYC Processor a natural fit for big data analytics. Industry testing validated this belief as the HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 scored very strong in TPCx-HS v2 (TPC big data benchmark). The strong performance was a combination of the high core count and new memory architecture and large L3 cache found in both the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 servers.

The HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus servers are outfitted with faster memory and the ability to deliver faster performance from analytics accelerators due to its PCIe 4 support. When 256 GB DIMMs become commercially available, we should expect to see even more performance from these servers.

HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING (HPC) HPC was a workload where the initial HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 server (based on 1st Gen AMD EYPC Processors) found success. The HPE ProLiant Gen10 Plus servers should see a considerable boost in performance for a few reasons: • Support for AMD's top-end 7002 series processor (EPYC 7742) • Higher memory speed (3200 MT/s) • Higher memory capacity (up to 4TB) with the availability of 256GB DDR4 DIMMs • PCIe 4 support, doubling the I/O bandwidth dedicated to accelerators • Support for a higher number of PCIe slots, enabling more accelerators • Substantially higher NVMe storage capacity

Moor Insights & Strategy is particularly interested to see the adoption of the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus server, as the HPE redesign seems to make this server a good fit for HPC workloads. Additionally, as the Cray acquisition evolves, we will look to see how AMD EPYC is further leveraged across the range of industry-specific supercomputing workloads.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS/NETWORK FUNCTION VIRTUALIZATION (NFV) Supporting the routing of data, voice and video in the age of edge computing, and 5G is about speed. The HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 server, based on "Rome” made it an optimal fit for Telco data plane applications with 25GbE and high throughput packet processing.

The HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus server should deliver even higher performance. PCIe 4 support means lower latency between the 7002 Series processor and network interfaces, and higher speed memory married with the highest-end AMD EPYC CPUs should deliver unprecedented speeds for packet processing.

Figure 5: Comparing the HPE Proliant DL385 and DL325 Gen 10 Servers with the HPE Proliant DL385 and DL325 Gen 10 Plus Servers

Source: Moor Insights & Strategy

IN CLOSING When AMD launched its 2nd Generation EPYC Processor, HPE was ready to enable many of the features through its HPE ProLiant Gen10 servers to meet the general

needs of its customers. Higher core counts and better performance per watt resulting from the 7nm chiplet design benefitted virtualized infrastructure considerably. This proved to be a wise move as AMD saw a 50% improvement in shipments in the first quarter of product availability.

The company seemed to take a wise approach with the HPE ProLiant DL385 and HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus, as these servers seem to be optimized for the workloads that matter to IT organizations of all sizes. The mechanical and motherboard redesigns are evidence of the thoughtfulness that went into the design process.

Moor Insights believes HPE will continue to find success with both servers. The HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus should continue to win fans with Enterprise IT organizations driving virtualized infrastructure without compromise. The HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus server should also help the company expand its footprint in HPC.

Meanwhile, the HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus server should accelerate the adoption of single-socket servers in the market. The performance in this server shouldn't just rival legacy two-socket servers – it should exceed - all while reducing software licensing costs.

IT organizations of all sizes would be wise to evaluate the new HPE ProLiant Gen10 Plus servers for fit in the datacenter. The potential ROI and TCO savings alone make these servers worth a look.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PAPER

CONTRIBUTOR Matt Kimball, Senior Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy

PUBLISHER Patrick Moorhead, Founder, President, & Principal Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy

INQUIRIES Contact us if you would like to discuss this report, and Moor Insights & Strategy will respond promptly.

CITATIONS This paper can be cited by accredited press and analysts but must be cited in-context, displaying the author's name, author's title, and "Moor Insights & Strategy". Non-press and non-analysts must receive prior written permission by Moor Insights & Strategy for any citations.

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DISCLOSURES This paper was commissioned by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. It was first published in October 2019 and then republished with Addendum in December 2019. Moor Insights & Strategy provides research, analysis, advising, and consulting to many high-tech companies mentioned in this paper. No employees at the firm hold any equity positions with any companies cited in this document.

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