The pundits have been predicting that Internet traffic will triple this Christmas. Fortunately, help is on the way. A trio of companies claims to have developed the world's fastest commercial server. Together, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft have configured a cluster of 32 servers that can perform 440,879 transactions per minute. According to those involved, that's three times as fast as other commercial servers.
For an idea of its performance, note that the cluster can manage a database containing 116 Tbytes of online storage. That's the equivalent of a stack of paper 3480 miles high. In addition, this system is expected to lower the cost per transaction over any other server by a third.
The companies say that the new server clusters are scheduled to be delivered by December 1, but that may be too late to play a role this Yuletide season.