Blade Servers - Infoworld

From Facebook's data center to yours: 'Open source' hardware

Savio Rodrigues — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:00:00 +0000

The Open Compute Project Foundation recently announced results from Facebook's attempts to build an efficient data center at the lowest possible cost. The foundation claims to have reduced the cost of building a data center by 24 percent and improved ongoing efficiency by 38 percent versus state-of-the-art data centers.

Those numbers are impressive, but don't expect to be able to deploy the foundation's technology in your data center just yet.

Oracle's Sparc SuperCluster due by year end

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:03:38 +0000

Oracle has launched its new Sparc T4 processor, along with new hardware that it hopes will turn up the heat on server rivals Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

CEO Larry Ellison was, as usual, in feisty form when he took to the stage at Oracle's headquarters Monday to launch the products. He made several bold performance claims and said he's "looking forward" to competing for IBM's customers.

5 priorities for HP in data center switching

admin — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:09:30 +0000

HP and Cisco are currently embroiled in a war of words, market share, and revenue in Ethernet switching overall, but can HP really put up much of a fight in the data center?

Cisco expands data center networking gear

admin — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 23:22:47 +0000

Cisco this week expanded its Unified Computing System networking portfolio in an effort to improve the scalability and performance of the data center consolidation system.

Blade servers and convergence pick up steam

Matt Prigge — Tue, 31 May 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Last week, IDC released the latest version of its Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker. Above the fold, you'll find news that the server market is continuing to heat up in a very big way. For the first time in more than two years, all sectors of the server market have posted year-over-year growth in the same quarter (Q1 2011), representing aggregate growth of 12.1 percent to $11.9 billion.

Cisco advances on HP with blades spinning

InfoWorld Tech Watch — Thu, 26 May 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Last March, HP CEO Léo Apotheker dismissed Cisco as neither a threat nor even an annoyance in the battle for server market share.

Dell hopes to speed up virtualization with four-socket blade

admin — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:34:22 +0000

Dell on Monday announced a four-socket blade server with up to 48 processor cores for deployment in virtualized environments.

The PowerEdge M915 blade will run on Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron 6100 processors, which include up to 12 cores, said Mike Roberts, senior product manager at Dell. The high number of cores helps expand the number of virtual machines available, and the blade is also capable of running high-end applications such as databases.

IBM refreshes Power systems to keep Unix sales edge

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:18:24 +0000

IBM has updated its Power systems lineup with higher-density blades and faster processors for its mid-range Power 750 server, looking to keep its momentum in Unix sales as the market inches back to life.

IBM has been outselling both Oracle and Hewlett-Packard in the Unix market, helped by its introduction last year of the eight-core Power 7 processor, and by lingering doubts about the roadmaps of its two biggest rivals, said IDC analyst Jed Scaramella.

Xiotech plans to integrate storage management on blades

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:02:43 +0000

Xiotech plans to incorporate management functions into an entry-level version of its ISE (intelligent storage element) storage blade for SMBs (small and medium-size businesses), a company executive said.

The new ISE blade will integrate functionality provided in controllers, such as thin provisioning and replication, directly onto the blade, rather than require a separate controller, said George Symons, chief operating officer at Xiotech, in an interview in Bangalore on Wednesday.

InfoWorld's 2011 Technology of the Year Award winners

Doug Dineley — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Dek:

The InfoWorld Test Center picks the year's best hardware, software, and development tools

Source:

InfoWorld

Oracle defies skeptics with Sparc T3 servers

admin — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 11:58:39 +0000

Oracle has announced new servers based on the Sparc T3 processor, a chip that began life at Sun Microsystems and which some said might never see the light of day.

Known previously by its code name, Rainbow Falls, the Sparc T3 has 16 processor cores, twice as many as Sun's current high-end chip, the UltraSparc T2 Plus, which was released about two years ago. Oracle appears to have made a slight branding change, shortening UltraSparc to simply Sparc.

Cisco's data center blitz

Pete Babb — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Dek:

Cisco's newest products include switches, servers, software, and modules designed specifically for scalable virtual environments

Source:

Network World

Dell provides graphics cards to boost blade server performance

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:32:17 +0000

Dell on Wednesday announced it will offer graphics processing units with a new blade server to boost overall application performance.

The company is providing optional graphics cards with the new PowerEdge M610x blade servers, said Brian Payne, director of server product management at Dell. GPUs are quicker at executing certain general-purpose and high-performance computing tasks than traditional CPUs, which could reduce the strain on computing resources, HE said.

Dell targets data centers with new Juniper gear, EqualLogic updates

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:17:12 +0000

Dell is set to roll out significant enhancements to its EqualLogic storage line on Wednesday, along with its first rebadged Juniper Networks products and other updates to its storage and networking lines, all part of a mission to carve out a place in the rapidly evolving world of enterprise data centers.

HP moves high-end Superdome server to blade platform

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:53:04 +0000

Hewlett-Packard has unveiled some major updates to its Integrity line of Itanium-based servers, including a new edition of its top-end Superdome system based on HP's blade server architecture.

HP to overhaul Integrity servers next week

admin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:32:09 +0000

Hewlett-Packard is gearing up for a major refresh of its Integrity server line, an important step for customers using those systems and also for the future of Intel's high-end Itanium processor.

IBM unveils Power7 blades, low-end edition of AIX

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:49:18 +0000

IBM is beefing up its server lineup with the first blades based on its Power7 processor, the company announced Tuesday. It is also introducing a new, low-end edition of its AIX operating system for smaller businesses and enterprises doing consolidation projects.

The future belongs to the young and nimble

Eric Knorr — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Last week's blade server shoot-out -- an InfoWorld Test Center comparison of Westmere blades from Dell, HP, and IBM -- provides

Blade server review: HP BladeSystem c7000

Doug Dineley — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

One look at the HP BladeSystem c7000 blade chassis and you understand why HP sells a lot of blades. The unit is aesthetically pleasing, extremely solid, and well appointed, with an LCD panel for chassis monitoring and control, eight half-width I/O slots in the back, six 2,400-watt power supplies, and 10 fans. As with the Dell, all of this is tightly power controlled, as the chassis can dynamically turn power supplies on and off to best meet the electrical load, while reducing energy consumption during lighter loads.

The InfoWorld Westmere blade server shoot-out

Eric Knorr — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

On March 16, Intel introduced its new Xeon 5600 series, code-named Westmere, which offers a dramatic performance leap over the year-old Xeon 5500 series known as Nehalem-EP.