Blade Servers – Sharp as a Knife
Blade servers have enjoyed being the center of attention from the business world as they can crunch out more raw performance than a traditional server, yet it doesn’t take up much space due to its condensed form. With market demand for these servers increase, so does the production.
The tangible benefit of these servers is space; smaller body equals more servers in a smaller environment. A universal issue for ISPs, both small and large, is having to deal with the limits on the amount of physical space available and the amount of capital you have to invest in your ISPs. When looking at a blade server purchase, it is important to understand both the obvious and subtle factors that impact your TCO — in this case, “true” cost of ownership.
In the beginning, many ISPs had several ‘home PCs’ stacked on inexpensive wire metal shelving as servers. Not only did this take a lot of space per server, but it didn’t address the heat generation issues, especially as the more servers were added later on.
Now, one refrigerator-size rack can hold more than 100 blade servers. That same space would normally suit about 25 of today’s smallest servers. This is the blade’s advantage: because of their smaller size, they take up less physical space, increasing the data center’s processing power per square foot significantly.
Blade servers timing into the market couldn’t be any better. In a time when the economy was not doing well and many companies are looking for ways to cut cost, yet on the other hand trying to stay efficient, these servers saved the day. Not all of these servers’ advantages are down to cost alone. Other things such as cooling capabilities, power consumption, interoperability, and the choice of DIY-ing it.
Cooling Capabilities
With a smaller volume, this means you can actually stack up more servers in a rack, and this create another problem; hotspots. These pocket of spaces in-between the servers that generate heat, causing these servers to have reduced performance. To purchase additional cooling devices would mean extra operational cost.
To address this issue, vendors include additional exhaust fans and other cooling devices in their products. Some larger vendors are even addressing the problem by doing a design to the chassis of the server, so that it can accommodate heat generation within better. Of course by this approach, it would mean companies will have to re-purchase news servers.
Power Consumption
First generation blade servers (around 2001) were touted for their lower cost and higher power consumption efficiency. The average power consumed by the CPU of a traditional 1U server ranged from 90 to 150 watts. A blade-server processor, on the other hand, consumed 30 to 15 watts. However, as processors got faster and there was an increase in application workload, this difference in wattage got smaller. Today’s generation of blade servers consumes around 40 to 76 watts or more. Vendors are working to reduce that power consumption and increase efficiency without affecting performance. Like cooling costs, less efficient power consumption also contributes to a higher “true” cost of ownership. When evaluating vendors, it is important to understand both the cooling and power consumption needs of the server.
Interoperability
The old proverb, “You never got fired for hiring IBM” does not necessarily hold true in the evolving blade server marketplace.
Today, there are many innovative companies selling do-it-yourself blade solutions based on non-proprietary ATX and BTX technologies. This empowers the clients to switch vendors, if one does not suit your particular needs. Open standard solutions allows for competent IT management to upgrade, customize, or build a server solution that works around their business model, rather than buying proprietary solution and having the business model work around this closed standard solution.
Open standards is a more cost effective option if you are looking to reduce operational cost. They allow you to switch vendors if one doesn’t meet to your needs. Also, when it is time to upgrade, you are not subject to the mercy of your vendor, who may charge excessive amount of dollars for a single upgrade.
D. I. Y. – the joy of doing it yourself
There is the perception that installing a blade server yourself can be a very time consuming venture. This is not necessarily the case, especially with some of the later generation blade servers and chassis set ups based on open standards.
For technologies that provide you with a do-it-yourself option, many can be installed in a matter of minutes when either mass assembled or assembled in small batches.
Be careful of setups that require additional “professional services” or installation. This can add a significant cost and you should also consider the costs for a replacement blade, should one go bad.
With today’s demand on reliability and performance, companies nowadays can’t afford to linger around longer than necessary. Technology advances in a speed so fast, that what seems like six months to us is actually and eternity to them. This applies to all, including Blade servers.
Do not just look for the tangible benefits in your purchases, as it may only hurt you more. Look into the intangible benefits too. It is usually the intangibles that may prove to be crucial in saving your company thousands if not millions of operational cost.
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