It’s hard to imagine a product category that fits the mantra of “Simplify and Save” better than blade servers. And now, with new, third generation technology, they make more sense than ever – even for companies that operate as few as six servers.
The ideas behind the first generation of blade servers make obvious sense. With blades, you deal with fewer racks, which means you get better use of limited data center floor space. (You may even be able to put off building a new data center – at an average cost of over $1000 per square foot!) With blades, you also deal with fewer chassis, which means you reduce extra connections while maintaining redundancy – making management easier. And finally, blades eliminate a lot of cable sprawl issues, and can save significant money with port aggregation.
The third generation of blade servers, as represented by our industry-leading PowerEdge M-Series Blades, make even more sense. In a word, we’ve simplified.
For starters, M-Series blades come pre-assembled right out of the box. With FlexIO, customers get flexibility allowing them to scale with I/O demands without creating change in network infrastructure. Additionally, FlexAddress limits downtime by maintaining persistence of network identity and easily integrates with existing network management tools.
Those are some examples of the “simplify” part of the equation. The “save” part is just as compelling, with dramatic improvements in performance per watt. Our M-Series blades consume up to 19% less power and get up to 25% better performance per watt than other blade systems on the market. So if you’re concerned about rising energy costs, blade servers can certainly be part of the solution.
Ziff-Davis just released a terrific new eSeminar on second generation blade servers, with plenty of detail. Whether you’re running 6 stand-alone servers or 6,000, it’s worth watching.