IBM taps VMware, Citrix to create blade PCs

Effort goes beyond traditional thin-client computing.

By Jennifer Mears, Network World, 10/31/05

After spending the past few years on the sidelines, IBM has finally jumped headlong into the blade PC market, announcing partnerships with Citrix and EMC's VMware subsidiary to provide customers with the means to manage desktop PCs from a secure, centralized location.

With its Virtualized Hosted Client Infrastructure, IBM joins ClearCube and HP in the market that goes beyond traditional thin-client computing by moving the guts of a PC to blade servers hosted in a data center or computer room, providing what proponents say is better PC security and easier manageability.

Users have only a monitor, keyboard and mouse - and a specialized client device in the case of ClearCube and HP - on their desks to link back to the blade servers, where the intelligence of their systems resides. IBM executives say the company's new hosted-PC offering, which will be available through IBM Global Services, will link to any client device over Ethernet using standard protocols.

IBM also is enabling end users to tap into virtual PCs, rather than requiring each client link to a single, physical server, as is the case with ClearCube and HP.

"Typically, if you've got a single blade for a single desktop, those servers are going to be down two-thirds of the day after people head home - and that represents a pretty significant infrastructure investment," says Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT Research. "IBM is making the pitch that if you can support the same number of desktops with one-eighth the number of servers, you're going to end up with much higher utilization of your IT infrastructure."

Change of heart

IBM hasn't been hot on the PC market, selling its PC business to Lenovo last year. When it came to blade PCs, IBM was lukewarm, choosing to be a partner with market leader ClearCube.

But now IBM sees opportunity. By becoming a partner with VMware and Citrix, IBM is rolling out a blade PC of its own that enables users to run multiple virtual PCs on a single blade.

"It can range depending on workload and utilization, but some of the pilots we're engaged in have an average utilization of 12 to 15 virtual machines [per blade]," says Juhi Jotwani, director of xSeries and BladeCenter solutions at IBM.

With IBM's BladeCenter able to hold as many as 14 blades, users could pack more than 200 clients into a single chassis, cutting costs by as much as 60% and seeing a return on investment in as few as six months, IBM executives say.

VMware's ESX Server software enables users to slice each physical blade server into multiple virtual PCs running different operating systems. The Citrix Presentation Server provides the ability for remote users to tap into fully functional PCs including print capabilities and USB drive support.

Analysts say IBM offers an interesting alternative to ClearCube and HP's Consolidated Client Infrastructure because of virtualization.

In addition, because the offering is hosted, remote and mobile users can tap into the blade PCs, reducing the cost and time associated with supporting them.

IBM's Virtual Hosted Client Infrastructure, which will run on two-processor Xeon- and Opteron-based blades, is available for pilot deployments through IBM Global Services and will be generally available in the first quarter next year, Jotwani says. Pricing was not released.

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