Blade servers provide slices of compact power

The technology has reduced the physical space needed for servers.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DALLAS -- Imagine reducing your refrigerator to the size of a breadbox and still being able to store the same amount of food in it.
Rush Weston has accomplished a feat of the same scale with his servers, the high-powered computers that run business computer networks.
Weston, director of information technology for Fort Worth-based Acme Brick Co., is one of a growing number of technology executives discovering the joy of servers called "blades."
Their space-saving size has big corporations and small businesses intrigued. Blade servers make up only a small percentage of total server sales, but shipments of the devices more than quintupled in 2003, according to research company International Data Corp.
"We have basically 12 servers, so now we have literally the size of a breadbox where normally that probably would've been an entire rack," Weston said.
How they work
Server blades are thin sheets of computer circuitry. Each blade contains the basic components of a computer, with one, two or four processor chips, depending on how they're being used. Each blade fits in a slot inside the server chassis, allowing a company to fit several computers in a small box.
The blade trend is a testament to the incredible shrinking power of the computer industry. Machines that took up garage-size rooms 15 years ago can now fit in a filing cabinet.
The leading blade shipper, IBM Corp., and its close rival, Hewlett-Packard Co., are pitching blades as replacements, in some cases, for rack-mounted servers. Rack servers are shaped somewhat like DVD players and fit in large cabinets.
Dell Inc. has been slower to embrace blade technology, though it does have a blade machine on the market. The company plans more blade announcements this year, said Darrel Ward, Dell's senior manager of product planning.
Other computer makers, including Fujitsu Computer Systems Corp., have also jumped into blades.
Who buys them
Thus far, blades have appealed mostly to a limited audience of large corporations that run hundreds of servers and get a big return by reducing the amount of space they take up.
Smaller companies have been slower to adopt the machines, although IBM, which sold Weston his server, has designed products tailored for that market.
Blade shipments will grow quickly, industry experts say. Computer makers will ship about 358,000 blade servers this year, up from 175,000 in 2003, said John Enck, analyst at research company Gartner Inc. Blades could become the dominant form of server shipments by 2008, he said.
"It's slowly catching on," Enck said.
Blade manufacturing became possible only a few years ago, when technology enabled computer makers to fit smaller materials closer together without generating too much heat. Blades do produce significant heat, especially with multiple processors.
That problem has kept some companies away from the devices because they need to keep server rooms at a controlled temperature.
Advantages
But for companies that run many servers, such as those with popular Web sites or lots of employees using demanding software, blades offer a significant advantage. A large bank in New York, for instance, could save on expensive Manhattan real estate just by using blades to take up less space.
Smaller companies also need to preserve space. Crossmark Inc., a Plano, Texas, sales and marketing company, cut its server space roughly in half by using HP blades.
"That was a big plus," said Charlie Orndorff, Crossmark's vice president of infrastructure services. "It allowed us a lot of flexibility."
Crossmark, a loyal HP customer that frequently runs trials on the company's newer products, has experimented with several uses for blades. The servers work well for basic software applications, such as logging users into the network, Orndorff said.
He's toying with the idea of using blades as virtual personal computers. Each employee could have a monitor and keyboard attached to the network, connected through the wires to an individual, one-processor blade that would work as the computer. That would keep the actual computer under the information technology department's control so users couldn't install their own software.
Target markets
IBM wants to attract more small businesses to blades. One of its blade server designs packages data storage and other essential features into the blade server, creating an all-in-one device.
"You can now can get a TV with a DVD player installed -- it's sort of analogous to that," said Jeff Benck, an IBM vice president.
HP is trying to grow its base of small-business customers but thinks large corporations will be the main buyers of blades for a while.
"The more servers you have, the more value, the more leverage you get from blades," said James Mouton, an HP vice president.
Dell typically waits until products reach a high level of demand before it gets serious about its position in the market. The company estimates that blades will make up about 5 percent of the server market this year.
But Dell thinks most companies aren't ready for blades. Many parts aren't interchangeable between manufacturers, which makes companies reluctant to spend money for a product when they might switch makers later.
"A certain amount of standardization needs to happen in order for there to be efficiencies," said Ward of Dell. And most companies aren't desperate to save space, he said.