Blade server

The principal benefit and justification of blade computing relates to lifting this restriction so as to reduce size requirements.

At the same time, the increased density of blade-server configurations can still result in higher overall demands for cooling with racks populated at over 50% full.

[7] Blade servers generally include integrated or optional network interface controllers for Ethernet or host adapters for Fibre Channel storage systems or converged network adapter to combine storage and data via one Fibre Channel over Ethernet interface.

[8][9] While computers typically use hard disks to store operating systems, applications and data, these are not necessarily required locally.

Many storage connection methods (e.g. FireWire, SATA, E-SATA, SCSI, SAS DAS, FC and iSCSI) are readily moved outside the server, though not all are used in enterprise-level installations.

As users deal with larger and more diverse workloads, they add more processing power, memory and I/O bandwidth to blade servers.

Although blade-server technology in theory allows for open, cross-vendor systems, most users buy modules, enclosures, racks and management tools from the same vendor.

Eventual standardization of the technology might result in more choices for consumers;[13][14] as of 2009[update] increasing numbers of third-party software vendors have started to enter this growing field.

Early models stored programs in EPROM and were limited to a single function with a small real-time executive.

CompactPCI was actually invented by Ziatech Corp of San Luis Obispo, CA and developed into an industry standard.

What this new architecture brought to the table was a set of new interfaces to the hardware specifically to provide the capability to remotely monitor the health and performance of all major replaceable modules that could be changed/replaced while the system was in operation.

[citation needed] PICMG expanded the CompactPCI specification with the use of standard Ethernet connectivity between boards across the backplane.

The Second generation of Ketris would be developed at Intel as an architecture for the telecommunications industry to support the build out of IP base telecom services and in particular the LTE (Long Term Evolution) Cellular Network build-out.

PICMG followed with this larger and more feature-rich AdvancedTCA specification, targeting the telecom industry's need for a high availability and dense computing platform with extended product life (10+ years).

AdvancedTCA promote them for telecommunications customers, however in the real world implementation in Internet Data Centers where thermal as well as other maintenance and operating cost had become prohibitively expensive, this blade server architecture with remote automated provisioning, health and performance monitoring and management would be a significantly less expensive operating cost.

[17] RLX, which consisted primarily of former Compaq Computer Corporation employees, including Hipp and Kirkeby, shipped its first commercial blade server in 2001.

These blades could then operate independently within a common chassis, doing the work of multiple separate server boxes more efficiently.

In 2011, research firm IDC identified the major players in the blade market as HP, IBM, Cisco, and Dell.