IBM servers to house third-party blades

Daily Newsletters

Sign up to ZDNet UK's daily newsletter.

NEWS
Nortel Networks will make specialised networking devices to fit into IBM's BladeCenter. These blades, built to fit the slots in the IBM chassis will be the first third-party blades for IBM's system, and will include LAN switches with traffic management. The companies have not announced delivery dates, so it is not clear whether these will be the first LAN switches for blade architectures, or whether HP, Dell or Sun will be beat IBM to the punch. However, along with the announcement of blades based on IBM's Power processor architecture, it represents a step towards IBM's effort to provide a company's whole datacentre needs within the chassis. "Our blade specification is an open industry standard," said Tikiri Wanduragula, IBM senior eServer consultant. "Other vendors are not licensing their designs. We will have fireall blades from Nortel and plan to have NAS blades." The company's Intel (xServer) division is selling a "blade-and-brick" combination, in which both blades and self-contained x440 servers fit in the same chassis. This will be sold primarily for consolidation, in which multiple servers are replaced by a single chassis, saving power, floorspace and administration. The combination will be more economic than current rack-based servers, says IBM. "The blade/brick combination covers 80 to 90 percent of company's Wintel/Lintel server requirements," said Wanduragula. "The game is changing. Last year, racks overtook tower systems. They have struggled to the top of the heap and then they will get clobbered." "We have a consolidation strategy, and blades give us an advantage" said Robin Porter IBM business manager at Repton, a reseller that also handles HP equipment. "We sell Linux proactively, and VMWare to virtualise systems." Repton has sold around 31 x440 systems, all but two of which have been for consolidation projects. Consolidation sales are based on saving money for users. Putting servers into one rack, with management through IBM's Director products, reduces the floorspace (and possibly chargers for rented space), power requirements, and management overhead of servers. Blades and bricks will continue to co-exist for some time, said Wanduragula, since they have different specifications. IBM's x440 servers include fast interconnect chips from the company's Sequent acquisition, which allow them to be attached together to make very large single systems. These interconnects are too expensive to put on blades, which must be built to a lower cost. So blades are connected by cheaper Gigabit Ethernet, and will be used as single systems. "Bricks are expensive and have fast connections, and blades are lower cost, with slower links," he said. "We can't bring the [Sequent] EXA chip down to an Ethernet price point. For the foreseeable future the technologies will remain distinct." Other BladeCenter partners include Cisco, Microsoft, Citrix,Nokia, BroadCom, and F5, so more third party blades are in the pipeline, said Wandaragula.
For a weekly round-up of the enterprise IT news, sign up for the Enterpise newsletter. Tell us what you think in the Enterprise Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

  • Login

Will not be displayed with your comment

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Dennis Nilsson

If we allow corporate interest to dictate the way our government circumvents due process against foreign entities then we should accept the same...

27 minutes ago by Dennis Nilsson via Facebook on ACTA stumbles in Germany
GHar123

I totally dislike pirating of works, I fear that artists will be deterred from creating works if they think that they are going to get ripped off....

2 hours ago by GHar123 on ACTA stumbles in Germany
JCB33

How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...

8 hours ago by JCB33 on ACTA stumbles in Germany
Moley

@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...

10 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint
greycynic

The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel. The first bug that I found was applying the median...

10 hours ago by greycynic on Ten flawed products that derail productivity
GrueMaster

Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...

11 hours ago by GrueMaster on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint
Frederick Wrigley

I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...

12 hours ago by Frederick Wrigley via Facebook on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint
bdantas

Excellent article. One small correction, though--although a fresh installation of Linux Mint 12 will, indeed, provide the user with a version of...

13 hours ago by bdantas on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint
Alan Ralph

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

13 hours ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material
Alan Ralph

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

13 hours ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material
Moley

For Gnome 2 die-hards, it is possible to add icons to the bottom panel (or top top panel, if you prefer) which provide the exact Gnome 2...

14 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint
ramwellian

Your comments would seem pretty naive and immature. Your 'solution' appears to be, "gee, let's all just give in to the hackers and give them...

14 hours ago by ramwellian on Cloud computing security: no more oxymoron?
BugStalker

"Interesting thought ... If you installed Win7 as a dual boot on a machine that previously only had Linux, and it wrecked your Linux installation,...

15 hours ago by BugStalker on Windows 7 Declares War on GRUB
whs001

This is an excellent summary of Ubuntu and Mint and the interface differences between them. Most such articles take a very partisan position for...

15 hours ago by whs001 on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint
Moley

@ewallace. Not so clear. Anyone can obtain the text, for example from here http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/2379. I support ACTA so long as it and...

15 hours ago by Moley on ACTA: Facts, misconceptions and questions
45283

I think WinRT is fantastic. I just wish it was an option for people that didn't want to go through Microsoft's App Store with its attendant...

18 hours ago by 45283 on Why Windows 8 needs architectural hygiene for WOA
Burn-IT

Nine people? £30m? Who's back pocket is that lot going in? And IF they say it is for new buildings, what about all the ones the government has...

19 hours ago by Burn-IT on Police set to launch three £30m e-crime hubs
ewallace

Just to be clear, nobody knows what is in the text of ACTA, here is a photograph of the text of ACTA http://twitpic.com/8h9iju as submitted to the...

19 hours ago by ewallace on ACTA: Facts, misconceptions and questions
fgvrg56

Unfortunately main issue is that ASUS is refusing to accept that they make some mistake on this version of asus Transformer prime. 1 - GPS sensor...

21 hours ago by fgvrg56 on Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime Wi-Fi & GPS problems?
Ben Woods

@Marcus A fair question. Just talked with Archos which said it was working on an announcement for next week....

22 hours ago by Ben Woods on Archos confirms G9 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule