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Blade server vendors planning common format
Despite denials, are standardised blades in the offing?
By Manek Dubash, Techworld | Techworld
Published: 15:02 GMT, 18 December 07
Blade server vendors are discussing some form of common format, according to Fujitsu Siemens' European Marketing manager Bernhard Brandwitte. This is despite denials in the past year from several of the leading vendors that they were discussing, or would be likely to discuss any such thing.
Brandwitte said that he could "confirm that the main blade vendors are currently talking to each other about finding smart ways of standardisation for the blade ecosystem". He said that they had been talking about it for between 12 and 18 months.
He was unable to say any more - such as to whom FSC, which is party to these talks, is speaking - but he did discuss the two main rivals for leadership of the blade server market: HP and IBM. Attempts to persuade either HP or IBM to make a statement came to naught.
A proprietary blade format is a key weapon in the vendor's armoury. Currently, they sell the chassis at a relatively low price, confident that the profit can be clawed back on the servers and other items that enterprises need to buy to slot into the box. It's a business model akin to that deployed by printer manufacturers.
But, as market leaders, IBM and HP would presumably be reluctant to collaborate for fear of losing their top dog status. And HP argued when asked a few weeks back that it would cause confusion and finger-pointing if different makers' blades could be mixed and matched in a common chassis.
On the other hand, Sun and Dell, both of which are looking to make deeper inroads into this lucrative, fast-growing market, as is FSC, would presumably be more amenable to such a move. They have less to lose, and it gives them a differentiator. Sun in particular already co-operates with FSC on a technical level, so it would seem to be the most likely candidate for such an agreement.
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Add your commentComments
John | Published: 17:51 GMT, 19 December 2007
IBM has a clear advantage from a design perspective in the blade arena. I can't imagine them altering their design for HP or any other vendor. They've maintained the same design from day 1 - which can't be said for HP or Dell, who have changed their chassis and blade design numerous times in the past few years. If the industry standardizes on a design I only hope the other vendors take the IBM approach.
Rick | Published: 16:59 GMT, 18 December 2007
On factor preventing my consideration of blade servers for my data centers is the proprietary nature of the blades, loking my organization into a specific vendor for upgrades, replacements and expansion. A standardized blade platform could potentially eliminate that concern and allow me to consider using blade servers. I still don't like the single point of failure vulnerability that the common blade bus introduces into the platform, as well, so i will still not look too favorably on blades for my datacenters, unless redundent blade back-bones are built into the designs as well.