^7_of_9
21st January 2003, 07:41 PM
May people have always wondered what a Blade Server is.
Here is one of the better ways of saying it as found from ZDNet.
Blade servers have been touted for some time as a solution that can improve server management and cut costs, and organizations are increasingly calling on blade technology to deliver on those promises
To meet the growing demand for such products, all of the big players--including IBM, Dell, and HP--have stepped into the arena and introduced blade server lines.
Many organizations have held back on making the jump to blade technology, however. Some simply haven't had the budgets to make the investment or had already invested in different technologies before blades became widely available. Others may still be unconvinced of the potential benefits of blade technology.
I'll give you some details about what blades are, how they achieve cost savings, and how they streamline management. By examining this solution from the vantage point of someone who has deployed it, I may help you decide if blade servers would be a valuable investment for your organization.
What's so great about blades?
The term "blade" refers to how thin the servers are. Blades resemble PC add-in cards rather than full-fledged servers. And, in fact, blades really aren't full servers until they're plugged into the enclosures.
Organizations are realizing benefits from blade servers in three key areas:
Reduced space requirements
Reduced energy consumption
Improved server management
Blade servers will be most welcome in large data centers where smaller space requirements and reduced energy consumption can translate directly into lower operating costs.
The basic idea behind blade servers is consolidation. By allowing servers to share resources provided by a single chassis--such as network connections, power, and cooling fans--the individual servers can be made much more compact. Just the CPUs, drives, and memory, for example, can be housed on a single blade. The design essentially allows you to cram a lot more processing power into a smaller space.
In terms of hardware, two components comprise the blade server solution: the blades themselves and the enclosures that house them. The enclosures essentially connect the installed blades to the shared resources, and you can configure the enclosures according to your needs. Because of this consolidation, a chassis can house a dozen or more servers. Vendors make various claims about how many blades can actually fit into a single enclosure--some say as many as 30--but this is highly variable depending on the functionality put into the enclosure.
Full story is 3 pages and can be read here at ZDNet (http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2897336,00.html)
Here is one of the better ways of saying it as found from ZDNet.
Blade servers have been touted for some time as a solution that can improve server management and cut costs, and organizations are increasingly calling on blade technology to deliver on those promises
To meet the growing demand for such products, all of the big players--including IBM, Dell, and HP--have stepped into the arena and introduced blade server lines.
Many organizations have held back on making the jump to blade technology, however. Some simply haven't had the budgets to make the investment or had already invested in different technologies before blades became widely available. Others may still be unconvinced of the potential benefits of blade technology.
I'll give you some details about what blades are, how they achieve cost savings, and how they streamline management. By examining this solution from the vantage point of someone who has deployed it, I may help you decide if blade servers would be a valuable investment for your organization.
What's so great about blades?
The term "blade" refers to how thin the servers are. Blades resemble PC add-in cards rather than full-fledged servers. And, in fact, blades really aren't full servers until they're plugged into the enclosures.
Organizations are realizing benefits from blade servers in three key areas:
Reduced space requirements
Reduced energy consumption
Improved server management
Blade servers will be most welcome in large data centers where smaller space requirements and reduced energy consumption can translate directly into lower operating costs.
The basic idea behind blade servers is consolidation. By allowing servers to share resources provided by a single chassis--such as network connections, power, and cooling fans--the individual servers can be made much more compact. Just the CPUs, drives, and memory, for example, can be housed on a single blade. The design essentially allows you to cram a lot more processing power into a smaller space.
In terms of hardware, two components comprise the blade server solution: the blades themselves and the enclosures that house them. The enclosures essentially connect the installed blades to the shared resources, and you can configure the enclosures according to your needs. Because of this consolidation, a chassis can house a dozen or more servers. Vendors make various claims about how many blades can actually fit into a single enclosure--some say as many as 30--but this is highly variable depending on the functionality put into the enclosure.
Full story is 3 pages and can be read here at ZDNet (http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2897336,00.html)