What is the benefit of blade servers ?
What is the benefit of blade servers ?
I think I know but an not sure and do not want to be embarised in an interview. I can find white papers out there with reams of information but nobody wants to put in in a sound byte.
I think I know but an not sure and do not want to be embarised in an interview. I can find white papers out there with reams of information but nobody wants to put in in a sound byte.
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You can not swap out a 12 processor database server for a 2 x 6 blade rack ? They are pretty much just a "PC per card" with a pretty fast communicatation between bades but not fast enought to do SMP between blades ?
With miniaturisation and virtualisation these days i cannot see many benefits for blade servers any more;
they are quite static.
- with 1 unit servers, it's also possible to stack lots of servers in a small space
- with a virtualisation layer(vmware), you can go much further then with blades or multiple servers. Have a look at the vmware specs & demos and a new world of dynamic possibilities opens.
I think blade servers are passé and only for hardware focussed people. If you really need multiple servers and you really don't have the space, blades can be a solution.
The biggest problem with blades is the cooling: server components require a lot of cooling these days, you can imagine what happens when you put lots of them in 1 housing. The cheaper blade vendors only have 1 central cooling for all blades so forget about adding larger or extra processors afterwards; cooling will become a problem.
Just my 2 cents.
they are quite static.
- with 1 unit servers, it's also possible to stack lots of servers in a small space
- with a virtualisation layer(vmware), you can go much further then with blades or multiple servers. Have a look at the vmware specs & demos and a new world of dynamic possibilities opens.
I think blade servers are passé and only for hardware focussed people. If you really need multiple servers and you really don't have the space, blades can be a solution.
The biggest problem with blades is the cooling: server components require a lot of cooling these days, you can imagine what happens when you put lots of them in 1 housing. The cheaper blade vendors only have 1 central cooling for all blades so forget about adding larger or extra processors afterwards; cooling will become a problem.
Just my 2 cents.
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Lieven:
I read what you wrote after I returned to the site and did not scroll down. What you said makes alot of cents and I would have liked to give you some points for it. The white paper pretty much covered what I needed but you also brought more to the table.
I read what you wrote after I returned to the site and did not scroll down. What you said makes alot of cents and I would have liked to give you some points for it. The white paper pretty much covered what I needed but you also brought more to the table.
I'm thinking they are, again, focused more on modularity and ease of installation.