Still, if the blades work as expected, there are exceptional benefits to be reaped. In addition to reduced costs, blade computing provides better performance, more scalability, increased versatility and better systems management, proponents of the technology say. Though the computing architecture is only now starting to take hold, and many Wall Street firms are just beginning to test its parameters, the deployment of blade servers may be about to explode.
According to John Humphreys, a research manager who covers the server space for market research firm IDC in Framingham, Mass., spending on blade servers reached $650 million globally in 2003. He asserts that by 2007, spending on blade technology will be "north of $7 billion." One of the factors driving growth, he says, is that there's now a "nice ecosystem of vendors" - major firms like IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems have joined the blade battle, along with players like Marlboro, Mass.-based Egenera and RLX Technologies in The Woodlands, Texas.
Servers have evolved from decentralized satellites located throughout an organization to more centralized administration hubs. The traditional method for consolidating servers was to stack them in bulky towers. In recent years, however, thinner servers have transformed those towers into slimmer racks. The setup saves space and provides easier access for administrators, but each server typically requires its own power access, network and switching. And the configuration can be a cabling nightmare. According to industry experts, the use of blade servers, which can eliminate many of those obstacles, is the next stage of server consolidation.
The lingo of blade computing is somewhat ambiguous. A blade server is usually considered the chassis or rack - which is designed to optimize the computing process - that in turn stores a number of server blades, which are hot-swappable devices. Each server blade is essentially an independent server that has one or more processors and its own memory and network controllers. Server blades have their own operating system and run their own applications. Individual server blades slide into the chassis - comprising a blade server - and then share a common infrastructure with other blades. Shared components could include a power supply, fans and cooling systems, Ethernet connections, and switching.
Simply, blade technology allows IT managers to pack more computing power into less space. For example, the Egenera BladeFrame System can hold 96 high-end Intel processors in a 24-inch by 30-inch by 84-inch chassis. IBM's BladeCenter T chassis allows firms to pack 80 processors in an 84-inch rack. Traditional server racks typically hold no more than 42 devices.
Tim Dougherty, IBM's director of blade strategy in Armonk, N.Y., says blades "enable you to simplify your data center." By combining things like servers, switching and Ethernet inside "the same enclosure, you not only get savings in power and space," but it makes it easier to manage the entire system, he asserts. "It's a much easier infrastructure to deploy than the rack-mount servers." And it's cheaper.
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