Sunday, March 11, 2001

Computer Server Blades "Revolutionary"

The changes that took place in the entry server market last year pale in comparison to what's coming. According to IDC, server blades will rock the market and make last year's developments in server density, power consumption, I/O, dynamic workload provisioning, and system management developments look like child's play.

"We expect blade technology to revolutionize the server landscape," said Mark Melenovsky, manager of IDC's Standard Intel Architecture Server research program. "Server blades offer significant improvements in three main areas. They'll save space in the datacenter. They'll conserve power, and they'll improve dynamic workload management. The combination of the first two factors will drive demand. Because the server blade architecture could allow datacenters to deploy hundreds of CPUs in a rack and consume less power, not only are datacenter needs for managing power consumption addressed, but the processing power per square foot is dramatically increased."

All of these enhancements are becoming increasingly important to Internet-centric businesses, and within five years, IDC expects demand for server blades to explode. Demand among service providers, however, will be more immediate. IDC expects they will begin to implement the technology this year. "For a variety of reasons, which include reduction in capital and operating expenses, under-utilized infrastructure expenses, and profitability pressures, service providers that have already begun to adopt a more dynamic model will tie demand with available resources," said John Humphreys, an analyst with IDC's Standard Intel Architecture Server research program. "Server blades will provide a vehicle that easily allows them to do this."

IDC believes the use of server blades will bring service providers closer to a utility model while allowing for increased flexibility and efficiency of their server architecture.

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