we are planing new server purchase, and wondering which of this server maker/models performs better, ibm or HP?

for example:
- HP DL360, DL380, DL500x, StorageWorks, etc
vs.
- IBM 305, 326, 446, x3556, eServer series, etc

the comparism we want to make are GENERALLY which maker:
- puts up better operational performance?
- is easier to maintain?
- has longer life cyle?
- more resiliency?

I can tell you that HP supports more distributions of Linux (HP supports Debian on their hardware in addition to RHEL, and Suse)


Performance - who knows.. I don't see any head to head benchmarks from independent third parties.. everything I find is several years old.

maintainance - not sure what you are looking for here..

Life cycle - that shouldbe in the specs, or the sales droid should be able to tell you how long you can purchase support for a particular piece of hardware. If you can buy support for 6 years, then figure that as the lifecycle of the hardware.

resiliency - Depends how you spec the machine.. dual power supplies vs single supply, hot swappable components, etc..


My suggestion is to call them both and ask a lot of questions about what you want to know about their hardware.