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Dell's new strategy in blades is one equals one and a half. The Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker will unveil a new blade server system in the fourth quarter that will allow customers to put one and a half blade servers into the same space that a 1U rack-mounted server takes up now, but include the vast majority of features such as redundant power supplies and fast processors that are found on 1U (1.75 inches thick) boxes, said Paul Gottsegen, vice president of worldwide enterprise marketing at Dell.
The new blades are designed largely to better balance the functionality, density and price premium on blades, he said. Blade servers are thin systems that slide into a chassis like books into a bookshelf; the chassis has shared components such as power supplies and external network connections.
Some of the early, extremely dense blades, which allowed PC makers to put hundreds of servers into a space that traditionally could accommodate about 80, did not come with redundant drives and depended on notebook processors. "Customers have said 'Don't come and talk to me until they have the same functionality as your rack mounted blades,'" he said. At the other end of the spectrum, beefier blades with dual Xeon processors end up not saving much space. Blade systems also cost around 30 percent to 40 percent more than standard rack-mounted servers, he said.
News source: C|net
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