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Touting nearly 50 takers on its opened BladeCenter specification since last month, IBM (NYSE: IBM) said it is promoting the blade server platform further with new capabilities to boost performance and capacity.
The company indicated this week it is now providing support for two small form-factor SCSI drives in five new BladeCenter HS20 systems. The new capability will allow BladeCenter to handle 14 SCSI-based blades, providing as much as 85 percent more speed and 83 percent more capacity than previous drives, according to IBM.
Other improvements include more input/output (I/O) expansion and new power management software.
IBM is trying to capitalize on the growing blade server market. Although it generates less revenue than other server market segments, the blade segment is increasing in volume and value to vendors, IDC analyst Jean Bozman told TechNewsWorld.
Blades Get Bigger
Bozman said that by 2006, blade servers -- which perform networking and storage roles in a small and thin form factor -- are expected to represent nearly 20 percent of all server sales. In 2004 blades accounted for a high number of shipments but only 8 percent of actual server revenue.
Bozman credited the growth to efforts such as IBM's bolstered blade offerings and its announcement with Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) last month to open the design specifications for the eServer BladeCenter platform, an effort to encourage more hardware support for blades.
"We do see them ramping up," Bozman said of blade servers. "It's getting up there and it's getting noticeable not just in units but in revenue as well."
Keeping Blade Lead
Bill Claybrook, president of New River Marketing Research, told TechNewsWorld that IBM will probably keep or grow its share of the blade server market -- estimated by both IBM and analyst firms at more than 40 percent -- because competitors are not being as aggressive in the space.
"It seems like IBM's BladeCenter product has taken off more than any others," Claybrook said. "IBM is really the only company I know of that is really pushing [blades]."
Claybrook, referring to blade offerings from HP (NYSE: HPQ), Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) and others, said the technology's appeal may be limited -- particularly for smaller businesses -- by the prospect of having to buy an entire blade server chassis.
More Blades Better
Calling its BladeCenter improvements "a design breakthrough," IBM said support for as many as 14 SCSI-based blades exceeded the density of any competing product. The company said customers will also benefit from the ability to mirror each blade's operating system, simultaneously attaching to a storage area network (SAN) to run high-availability applications.
IBM also highlighted new I/O expansion flexibility in the BladeCenter HS20 that would allow the addition of two hot-swappable SCSI disk drives while doubling the number of Ethernet or fiber-channel port connections to each blade.
IBM also introduced new PowerExecutive power management software, aimed at reducing power use by evaluating each blade's power use and reducing infrastructure costs through better management of redundant power systems.
Maturing and Improving
Claybrook indicated that even though blade servers offer space and energy savings, IT managers and administrators are still learning how to maximize the servers.
"The real problem is people haven't really been able to figure out how to use them as much as they can," Claybrook said. "It's an immature technology, but it's a very cost-effective one."
Claybrook referred to management, heat control and other improvements in blade server technology, reiterating that as time and experience with the smaller form factor servers continues, so will market significance.
"There are big improvements being made on them," Claybrook said. "It's
really a matter of IT managers figuring out how best to use them."
