Blade Servers ¨C Sharpen Up - By: diana_007

A blade server is a thin electronic circuit board that functions as a regular tower server. It is an electronic card containing processors, memory chips, network controllers and other useful devices. Commonly referred to as a server blade, each blade is designed to perform a specific function. In contrast to regular tower servers, server blades are energy efficient. They reduce power consumption but have high processing power. In addition, they take up very little space on a server rack. Installation of blades is cost effective as they require very little cabling.

Server blades are housed in a specially designed enclosure that is very different from regular computer server racks. A blade enclosure is designed to perform many non-core computing services. For this reason, the blade enclosures are bulky and take up a lot of floor space. However, the enclosures provide for a high degree of efficiency because all non-computing services are centralized at a single point. The enclosures feature a single power source for all the blades within. This eliminates the need for each connected computer to have its own power source.

With several blades in a single enclosure, a lot of heat is produced. It is necessary that the heat be displaced to maintain proper functionality of the blades and other components. The enclosures are therefore designed with fans to provide the cooling. Networking is not only efficient but also fast in blade enclosures. This is achieved through various ports or a single port in which a networking blade is inserted. Because blade enclosures support varied computer devices, other devices can be connected to the enclosures. Storage, switching and routing devices can easily be slotted into an enclosure to serve all computer users.

The use of blades in place of regular tower servers is becoming very popular. This is especially among web hosting, virtualization and cluster computing companies. Just as regular tower servers can be upgraded to provide more functionality and performance, blades are upgraded through the addition of more processors to increase processing power and additional memory to cater for increased workloads. It has to be stated that although the popularity of blades is increasing, their use cannot replace regular tower servers. These are still vital in specific industry or company settings.

Various blade models are available on the market. Some are manufactured by independent professional computer manufactures. However, the main players in the blades market have remained such IT giants as HP which, according to market sources, has a market share of 50%. IBM, Cisco, Dell, Oracle and Fujitsu are the other major players.

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