He said the drivers of new growth will be the convergence of 64-bit computing and the ability to put dual SCSI drives in the BladeCenter chassis. IBM promises that a fix to the existing SCSI drive problem is on the way.
"We understand that for some people, this was a limiting factor," said Tim Dougherty, director of IBM eServer BladeCenter marketing. He said that IBM plans to offer in the fourth quarter a redesigned BladeCenter board that accommodates dual SCSI drives without sacrificing server density.
"It turns out that it was a design issue, not a heat issue," Dougherty said. "What we needed to do is to get to a small form-factor SCSI, which is a recent phenomenon. You solve the problem by replacing the current [dual] IDE drives with SCSI drives. [The solution] is a new board that will go into any BladeCenter."
IBM's plans to build new momentum in the blade center market come as HP seeks to reinvigorate its own blade business with new channel rebates. Last week, HP added blade servers to its Enterprise Server and Storage (ESS) Elite rebate program. An HP spokesman said ESS Elite partners can get rebates of up to 4 percent for every blade product sold. The promotion runs from Aug. 1 through Oct. 31.
"At one point, HP owned the blade server market, and now it's IBM's market," said Bruce Geier, president and CEO of Technology Integration Group, a solution provider in San Diego. "HP's lack of focus on the market and no real reimbursements to partners to sell [blades] has moved people to selling IBM."
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