Large multi-processor computing systems used to be the backbone of every large business out there, but with the rising surge of the Linux and Windows operating systems, the traditional large proprietary boxes worked themselves into a corner. Now only used by about 42% of data centers, according to a TechTarget purchasing survey last year, large SMP servers are nevertheless the OLTP engines that power the backend databases for many medium to large organizations.

In the past, you had to buy proprietary hardware and software to get that sort of horsepower. That is no longer the case, as alternatives have come aboard to run the applications that large SMPs are accustomed to on more popular platforms. Windows and Linux continue to grow and are dominating the data center -- multi-processor computing systems that take advantage of that seem to have the best chance of avoiding the quicksand, or at the very least, can continue to wade in it.

Can they still matter? Of course. The x86 servers proliferating in the market are great, but they don't provide the same level of RAS (reliability, availability and serviceability) features that are engineered into larger servers. So in these winners, you'll see a healthy mix of holding onto the pluses of the old -- security, horsepower, availability -- with the pluses of the new -- open systems, Windows.