* HP redoubles efforts in selling blade servers to small businesses
HP announced last week it is extending its blade servers to small and midsize businesses in hopes of recapturing the lead in market share from IBM.
HP was the blade server leader in 2003, according to IDC. In 2004, IBM overtook HP with a 44% market share. HP accounted for 32%.
The SMB initiative, which will be initiated in May 2005, will be called Blades for Business. It includes services to implement blades in these businesses and a lower-cost chassis targeted at them.
Blades for Business is intended for customers that are adding or replacing five servers per year. The BladeSystem chassis will have a single less-expensive 220-volt power supply rather than the dual-port fault-tolerant supply of other blades. HP claims that using a single power supply will save hundreds of dollars.
HP is also going to offer blade planning and implementation services, and service and support through its partners.
Blades for Business is part of HP’s Smart Office programs for SMBs, which offer services, education and guidance. Another Smart Office program is Rack Advantage, which offers SMBs a variety of rack-based servers and storage as well as management software. Smart Office also includes Simple Affordable Computing for small businesses with no IT personnel.
Gartner conducted a study of blade server use and found that 20% of SMBs want to deploy blade servers, while 35% of midsize companies want to do the same.
HP claims it will cost a small business about $12,000 to deploy five blade servers, a chassis, power supply and networking capability.
HP says that 40% to 50% of the company’s blade server sales are to SMBs.
The company’s move into blades for SMBs mirrors IBM’s introduction last fall of a 7U chassis that holds 14 blades and IBM’s announcement of a Business-in-a-Box bundle of servers for Windows and Linux.
For IBM, which leads in blade server market share, SMBs are also big business. As much as 30% of IBM’s blade sales are to SMBs.
