Blades attack data center

Blade servers can ease management and optimize space, but might not be ready for high-end processing.

Dwight Gibbs, director of technology acceleration at Capital One in McLean, Va., says the combination of blade server hardware and management software allows him to deploy new Web servers in minutes, and to do automated patch management on 20 servers at once.

Appro Systems, an application service provider specializing in financial lending applications, is using high-density blades to fit the processing power of 20 servers into the space that previously held three rack-mounted servers. This allowed Appro Systems to increase the capacity of its data center from 350 to more than 600 customers, without adding space or power.

And blade server technology allowed Gator.com to add more than 400 new servers without having to lease additional collocation space, for a savings of $24,000 a month.

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

Dwight Gibbs, director of technology acceleration at Capital One in McLean, Va., says the combination of blade server hardware and management software allows him to deploy new Web servers in minutes, and to do automated patch management on 20 servers at once.

Appro Systems, an application service provider specializing in financial lending applications, is using high-density blades to fit the processing power of 20 servers into the space that previously held three rack-mounted servers. This allowed Appro Systems to increase the capacity of its data center from 350 to more than 600 customers, without adding space or power.

And blade server technology allowed Gator.com to add more than 400 new servers without having to lease additional collocation space, for a savings of $24,000 a month.

These companies and others are turning to blades to shave server management costs, trim space requirements, and cut the tangle of cables and wires in the data center.

Early blades appeared in fall 2001 from Egenera and RLX Technologies, and focused on high-density, low-power processing for driving front-end applications such as Web serving. Blade technology earned its stamp of approval when HP, IBM and Dell came out with blades last year. Sun released a blade server earlier this month.

Individual blades have evolved from one- to two-processor systems and have added management features that automate server processes. Today, blades are capable of replacing traditional 2U servers for a variety of applications. And IBM announced plans to ship a four-way Intel blade later this year.

John Madden, senior analyst for Summit Strategies, says blades address a variety of customer issues. "Customers are looking for more flexibility and better use of space," he says. He adds that improved management features help customers deploy servers quickly, and perform remote management, metering and monitoring.

Longer term, some analysts see blades taking on basic network routing and server load-balancing functions. For example, IBM plans to embed a Layer 4/Layer 7 LAN switch module in its blade chassis.

Having the network and storage connections included in the backplane is significant, says IDC analyst John Humphreys. "The fact that these systems have switches in them . . . replaces a whole tier of switches in your data center."