Blade servers vs. rack servers

Product Test and Buyer's Guide This newsletter is sponsored by Arsenal Digital Solutions Solving the Distributed Data Protection Problem Hackers, disgruntled and careless employees, equipment failure, broken pipes, fires, and natural disasters all pose threats to your data. Savvy IT and business managers have recognized that in order to deal with these challenges, they need to deploy a company-wide data protection infrastructure. Click here to read this whitepaper today! Product Test and Buyer's Guide, 07/10/07 Blade servers vs. rack servers By Tom Henderson, Rand Dvorak In the world of data-center computing, there's a lot of contention over whether deploying rackable servers is better than deploying blade servers to host consolidated or virtualized applications. Wireless Products Buyer's Guide From wireless adapters to WiMax repeaters, we've got detailed information on hundreds of products that will quickly help you pinpoint the hardware or software you're looking for. We've categorized each product into one of 10 specific wireless market segments, so you can drill down, compare and contrast products in only the areas you need. Click here for more.> Because IBM has been a top performer in recent server tests, for this hands-on exploration of blades vs. rackable servers, we tested IBM's state of the art in both categories -- the HS21 and HS21 XM blades and the x3550 and x3650 rackables -- and focused on performance, power consumption and manageability. Because blade offerings have at least some things in common, we believe these test results are applicable generally to blades from other vendors -- Dell and HP, for example -- though there may be vendor-specific considerations in assessing products from others. We found that blade servers reduce but don't eliminate redundant hardware components requiring electrical power, a pivotal consideration in total cost of ownership (TCO). That said, while IBM's blade servers equaled the performance of its rackables, the blades were more power efficient and potentially much easier to service. While rackables are less expensive than blades when buying only one or two servers, because you have to factor in the cost of the blade chassis, a fully configured blade chassis is the more economical hardware buy than purchasing the same number of rackable servers. On the other hand, adopting a blade configuration demands a vendor lock-in that rackables don't, because they can be added one at a time as needed. Also, blades fall short for applications that require large amounts of on-board storage. For more on this test, please click here.

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Contact the author: Henderson is principal researcher and Dvorak a researcher at ExtremeLabs in Indianapolis. They can be reached at thenderson@extremelabs.com and rdvorak@extremelabs.com. This newsletter is sponsored by Arsenal Digital Solutions Solving the Distributed Data Protection Problem Hackers, disgruntled and careless employees, equipment failure, broken pipes, fires, and natural disasters all pose threats to your data. Savvy IT and business managers have recognized that in order to deal with these challenges, they need to deploy a company-wide data protection infrastructure. Click here to read this whitepaper today! BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007