Because blade servers were initially adopted by large enterprises and engineering companies with High Performance Computing (HPC) requirements, a perception has grown among medium-sized businesses that blade technology is either too complex or too expensive for their needs.
But the truth is exactly the opposite. Blades have served enterprises well because their high density allows for more efficient use of data center space, and engineering firms like them for how easily they can be clustered, but the fact is that the primary values blade servers bring to the table are simplicity, flexibility, and affordability—making them ideal components of any business's IT infrastructure.
Although many businesses have relied on rack-mount servers for years to meet their IT infrastructure needs, today there are many circumstances where blade servers might just be a better solution. Specifically, businesses that face physical space restrictions, IT resource limitations, or budgetary constraints may find that blade servers meet their needs in a way that rack-mounted servers simply can't.
Why? Because blade servers perform the same function as rack servers while adding several compelling advantages for growing businesses: They require less floor space, they use less power, they can cost less to operate, and they're easier to manage than rack-mount servers.
Furthermore, unlike individual rack-mount solutions, blade servers use a consistent, modular, integrated approach that is easy to deploy and easy to change. Affordable and scalable, a blade infrastructure is ideally suited for companies looking to grow their IT assets incrementally, consolidate to a standardized platform, or build a new business with limited resources.
Physical advantages
Many of the benefits blade servers deliver are enabled by their unique physical design. By sharing resources such as power cooling, and cabling through an integrated enclosure, blade systems eliminate a great deal of the complexity and overlap that can often plague the typical server stack.
- Shared power: Moving power supplies out of individual servers and into a shared enclosure reduces power consumption and provides higher availability for the entire blade infrastructure. It can also reduce the number of individual power cables required for the server and networking system.
- Reduced cable complexity: Because blade-based server systems provide network connectivity within the shared enclosure, cabling needs are significantly reduced. Blade servers typically use 87 percent less cabling than rack-based servers and can save customers US$100 to US$350 per 10/100 network port.1 For customers connecting their blade servers to a SAN, the savings can be even greater, due to the reduced cabling and switching costs of the integrated blade storage infrastructure. This also simplifies any future changes, as the enclosure needs to be wired only once during setup and does not require additional wiring for each server added to the enclosure.
- No keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM) requirement: Because blade servers are managed through a browser-based graphical user interface (GUI), they eliminate the need for individual keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM) cables and switches. This functionality alone can save up to US$25,000 for each server rack.2
- Size and density: Integrated blade solutions are smaller and take up less square footage than a comparable rack solution-helping you conserve valuable IT floor space. Plus, the integrated design also provides greater density-so blade servers are smaller and lighter than rack-mount servers-making them easier to deploy and service.
Operational cost savings
Blade servers are generally easier to manage than traditional server arrangements. In fact, in some cases blade server systems have allowed businesses to double the number of resources (servers, switches, and storage) managed by each of their administrators.3
This increase in operational efficiency means companies using blade servers can save money long after the servers are purchased and installed. By combining the networking components, servers, and shared storage, blade servers can reduce the need to physically interact with more individual devices in your environment-providing the potential for your existing staff to do more in less time. A few of the specific ways blade servers streamline system management include:
- Server setup: Adding servers to a blade environment is easier and takes less time than expanding a typical rack environment. In fact, adding a blade server can take as little as 30 minutes, while adding a comparable rack server can take as much as 12 hours.
- Ongoing operations: Blade servers use advanced management tools to automate and simplify numerous administrative tasks. Through a single screen, administrators can quickly create and deploy resources and application environments (assigning server, network, and storage resources) based on the needs of the business.
- Remote operations: Blade servers are the ideal server solution for branch offices in remote locations. Once installed, most aspects of blade system deployment and management can be handled from a central office-without dispatching IT personnel to the remote site. Even the process of adding blade servers can often be handled without highly trained IT resources on site because it's such an intuitive task.
Improved availability
In traditional rack-mounted server architectures, increasing availability means buying additional hardware for redundancy, as well as all the connections and external networking components to support the systems-all of which are extra costs.
With blade server systems, however, a good deal of redundancy is built in. These systems incorporate features such as dual VLAN switches, redundant power subsystems, redundant backplane data paths, redundant storage and storage interconnects, redundant fans for cooling, and hot-swap server blade replacement to automatically deliver higher levels of availability and simplify maintenance.
And, in the event of planned or unplanned downtime — such as the need to upgrade memory, replace a processor, or replace a server — individual blade servers can easily be removed from the enclosure, then upgraded, repaired, or replaced-without recabling and without disturbing the rest of the system, thus reducing downtime even further.
Lower acquisition cost
The key to comparing acquisition costs for blade servers versus rack servers is to remember that servers don't install themselves. They require cables, network switches, management software, operating system software, SAN infrastructure components, a keyboard, a mouse, a monitor, and any redundancy features you need to provide adequate service levels for your business.
Blade-based servers generally provide all those components as part of an integrated system. Rack servers don't. So to determine whether blades are truly a better value for you, list the individual components you'd need to build your ideal rack system, add up the costs, and then compare that to the price of an integrated blade system with the same features and functionality. When you compare server solutions on this basis, blades often provide a very compelling value proposition.
For more detailed analysis of the cost benefits of blade servers, see HP BladeSystem: Building the Business Case for Adopting the HP BladeSystem in the Data Center available at www.hp.com/go/blades.
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1 For redundant connections to Ethernet networks, standard HP ProLiant servers require 2 to 4 cables per server. From the shared connectivity of the HP BladeSystem, 8 to 16 servers can be connected redundantly to the network, with 2 to 4 per enclosure. An 8 server comparison yields 16 to 32 cables required for rack-mounted ProLiant servers and 2 to 4 cables required for an HP BladeSystem; a 87.5 percent reduction in the number of cables. The standard cost per port of an integrated Gigabit Ethernet switch is estimated at US$54 per port on a fiber network. The cost per port of an equivalent standalone switch ranges from US$65 to US$385 per port.
2 The built-in iLO processor on each ProLiant server blade delivers equivalent KVM functionality without requiring additional hardware. The HP Internet list price for a KVM infrastructure solution, including switches, cabling, mounting equipment and keyboard, and monitor and mouse for a rack containing 42 1U servers is approximately US$25,000. (If more specificity is required, a detailed bill of materials could be built with specific costs and SKUs.)
3 Based on industry average metrics, the time to deploy a single rack-mounted ProLiant server averages approximately 4 hours, compared to 30 minutes for a ProLiant server blade. Once the blade infrastructure is in place, adding a new server significantly reduces the time to rack, cable, and provision the operating system, and configure VLAN and storage connections. Similarly, changes also take less time.
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