IBM's chief competitor in the blade market, Hewlett-Packard, says it doesn't believe that IBM's simply opening up its specification will lead to a new standard in the market.
"This is a specification they've been trying for a year to sell without a whole lot of success," says Rick Becker, general manager of VP of blade systems at HP. "You can't create an industry standard from one company. Standards must come from a standards board with support of the industry and looking for long-term product stability."
Becker says HP seeks to work with best-of-breed vendors in all key technology areas, including switches and storage, and seeks to ensure that any system to be used with its blade products will work from an integration perspective. "With the model IBM just announced, I don't know where the customer will go when something goes wrong," he says.
IBM and HP are engaged in a heated battle for supremacy in the blade-server market. HP was the first major vendor to enter the blade market in 2001; in 2003, it led IBM in worldwide market share 39% to 31%, according to Gartner. But this year, IBM has taken the lead, according to IDC, accounting for nearly 44% of shipments in the second quarter, with HP at around 32%.
Overall, Gartner sees blade-server unit shipments growing at a compound annual growth rate of more than 30% over the next five years. IBM says server blades have been the fastest-growing server technology in the history of the company.
Discover the benefits of scalable backbone and network services for application and cloud providers.
Network automation is gaining momentum. Here's how you can drive this powerful technology to its full potential.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
