companies running a Linux environment, x86 servers have long been a suitable infrastructure option that offers many of the capabilities of robust enterprise-level hardware at an affordable price. However, as applications place increasingly demanding workloads on infrastructure, companies that opted for x86 are beginning to examine their strategy more closely. Performance, reliability, and security are becoming concerns for running newer, more performance-hungry, business-critical applications on x86 Linux. Also, the costs of managing and powering an x86 server farm are not as competitive as they once were, especially as IT leaders consider the total cost of ownership.