Search results matching tags 'BladeSystem' and 'Innovation'

Three Opinions (But One Counts More)

Daniel Bowers — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:32:00 GMT

I saw three new opinions about BladeSystem last week.

First, PC World Latin America announced that the HP BL490c G6 virtualization blade won in the "Best Server" category of the annual PC World Latin America 2009 Awards. These awards honor the "best digital & IT products available in Latin America", and I'm proud to see this virtualization-oriented blade got recognized. (HP's been active in Latin America for a long time -- back in 1968, HP helped in the broadcasting of the Mexico City Olympic Games.)

A second opinion came from a market research company. This one caught my attention when Cisco's Omar Sultan pointed out that Gartner had placed Cisco in the "Visionary" area of Gartner's Magic Quarter for blades, a section also occupied by Liquid Computing. Omar says that category holds companies with of keen insights into blade usage, but as one comment points out, little track record for delivering on that vision.

That led me to the Quadrant itself, where it looks like HP has been placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. I’d agree with that – it signifies solid vision, along with the ability to deliver on that vision. Obviously one criteria for demonstrated leadership is a satisfied base of users, which points me the third (and most revealing) opinion I saw last week.

Bytemark Hosting, a web hosting provider that calls itself the "nerd-hosting outfit of choice", let HP write a case study about their infrastructure based on BladeSystem. It uses virtualization blades (specifically the ProLiant BL495c), HP Virtual Connect Flex-10, and carvable storage from the SAS-connected HP StorageWorks MSA2000.

But the slots-and-watts of what the guys put together what stood out to me. It's what Bytemark's Peter Taphouse said about the impact of the system. He said BladeSystem’s improved uptime can actually boost the company’s revenue (by as much as 5%), because it delivers an SLA that lets Bytemark reach a new, untapped set of customers.

Now THAT'S an opinion on BladeSystem that's truly eye-opening. It's not that BladeSystem earns awards, or that it helps guide data centers toward the future. It’s that BladeSystem users say it doesn’t just cut costs, but it can also expand the reach of your business.

Virtual Connect now helps converge infrastructure (and lower costs) even more!

kendallmblog — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:41:00 GMT

On Monday, April 20^th, we announced a new Virtual Connect family member and expanded capabilities for all Virtual Connect products. We’ve see a great deal of momentum building behind virtualization and infrastructure convergence - and these enhancements will help our customers better meet their goals.

When customers put applications onto fewer servers with virtualization, they increase the needed density of both data and storage networking. So, customers not only need server virtualization, but they also need to virtualize and converge server I/O. Last November, we introduced the HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology that divides a dual-port network interface controller into 8 FlexNIC ports. This technology reduces the cost associated with data networking in a virtualization environment by greatly reducing the number of cables, switches and additional NICs needed.

Now we just announced a new Virtual Connect 8 Gb Fibre Channel module to support the heavy SAN needs of virtual servers. The HP Virtual Connect 8 Gb 24-port Fibre Channel Module has twice the bandwidth of our 4 Gb Fibre Channel module running at up to 8 Gb on all downlinks and uplinks. Second, it has a total of 8 uplink connections, which is double our current module. Third, it features support for increased server side NPIV support with 255 World Wide Names available per server. So all together more Virtual Machines can be hosted per server and per set of Virtual Connect Ethernet and Fibre Channel modules. The result is needing fewer servers AND fewer interconnect modules. Fewer servers and interconnect modules mean a lower purchase cost, simpler set-up and ongoing management, and fewer cables, all able to host more application workloads.. More for less works well for everyone.

We added a new Virtual Connect multi-enclosure stacking feature. Multi-enclosure stacking allows up to 4 BladeSystem enclosures to be connected together into one Virtual Connect Domain. This provides two big benefits. One, it creates a single simple server connection management domain for up to four enclosures, or up to 64 servers. Second, it also means fewer uplink cables to top of rack or core network ports, further reducing cable and expensive core port costs.

We’ve also enhanced Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager. The new 1.30 release supports our new Virtual Connect 8Gb Fibre Channel Module, our latest G6 server blades announced last month, and extends the number of supported Virtual Connect domains to 200. When combined with multi-enclosure stacking, this means that Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager can simplify the set-up and ongoing management of server I/O for up to 800 BladeSystem enclosures or put another way, up to 12,800 servers! Enabling system administrators the ability to manage the connectivity of up to 12,800 servers will go a long way to making life simpler and less expensive for many of our customers.

So for customers looking to converge infrastructure or increase benefits from virtualization, we hope you let HP and our resellers help you save money, reduce your network complexity, and simplify your IT environment with Virtual Connect Ethernet and Virtual Connect Fibre Channel.

“Connect More - Spend Less!”

Michael Kendall

ESS Virtual Connect

Yeah, but where do I insert the floppy disk?

Daniel Bowers — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:25:00 GMT

A couple of weeks ago, lots of server admins started deploying the new HP BL460c G6 server blade. Coincidentally, this year is the 20th anniversary of the Compaq SystemPro 386/33 -- the first "PC server" (to use the 1989 throw-back term for "x86 server"). There's a rad (another 1989 word) connection between the two

The same Compaq engineering team that built the SystemPro evolved into the HP ProLiant team that developed the BL460c. Not only are some of the SystemPro inventors still here, but we've still got lots of the original SystemPro specs -- and it's the similarities between the first SystemPro and the BL460c G6 that will surprise you.

I liked VH1's "I Love the 80's" series, but I can't say the same for the fonts on the spare parts list for the SystemPro (ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/supportinformation/techpubs/qrg/systempro.pdf). The impact of Moore's Law dominates any comparison to the newest half-height server blade, but some similarities are amazing:

Both are dual-processor servers using the latest Intel CPUs.
Both offer up to 12 slots for memory.
Both support RAID arrays of internal hard drives -- and on both, you can directly attach 8 drives.
Both use Insight Manager and SmartStart software for management and deployment.
Both use the term "Flex" to describe a key technology. "Flex/MP" was the designation for the SystemPro's processor and memory architecture, while "Flex-10" names some of the networking capabilities of the BL460c G6.

Of course, the performance differences are mind-boggling. The original SystemPro's 386 processor ran at 33Mhz, or about 1% of the BL460c G6 top CPU frequency. And back then, the 8 IDE hard drives could combine for about 2 gigabytes of storage...about a hundreth of the capacity of a single modern SAS drive. The BL460c can also hold about 400 times as much RAM...not to mention that the blade is about a tenth the size of the SystemPro.

IT folks have lost lost some capabilities in these 20 years, of course. If you opt for a BL460c G6 over the SystemPro, you're giving up the 2400 baud modem. You'll also have to toss out your stacks of 360K floppy disks -- no floppy drive in the BL460c. And without that floppy drive, how are you going to load the Token Ring network drivers?

I would post some screenshots from one of the SystemPros that's still in our lab...but I can't seem to get my CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT settings right. Reply back if you can help me with that, or if you have similar fond memories of the industry's first PC Server.

When is choice not choice?

Gary Thome — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:36:00 GMT

Following on the heels of our virtualization launch last week, Dell made a virtualization announcement of their own yesterday. They announced a variety of third party products they now support and re-announced the blades servers they introduced last week, but this time referring to their virtualization design. Curiously they compared their two-socket M805 full-height 16-DIMM blade to our four-socket blades, ignoring our two-socket half-height 16-DIMM ProLiant BL495c virtualization blade announced last week. I guess comparing their blade against an HP blade that is half the size wouldn't have sounded as good.

But what really caught my attention was their statement in their press release that their strategy is "grounded in choice". I imagined how this strategy plays out with blades:

Customer "I'd like to choose a UNIX blade please."
Dell does not offer this choice.

Customer: "I'd like to choose a storage blade please."
Dell does not offer this choice.

Customer: "I'd like to choose a workstation blade please."
Dell does not offer this choice.

Customer: "I'd like to choose a half-height blade with 16 DIMM sockets please."
Dell does not offer this choice.

Customer: "I'd like to choose a two-servers-in one blade for my grid app please"
Dell does not offer this choice.

Customer: "I'd like to choose a Non-stop blade" please.
Okay I could go on, but you get the picture.

As it turns out a lot of customers want these kids of choices. Why? Because a blade everything strategy means they can get the time, energy and cost savings BladeSystem offers for more of their IT infrastructure. They can have a simpler, more consistent way to deploy, maintain, manage and service their infrastructure. But here again Dell has clearly differentiated themselves, stating that "We are not blade everything". I guess this is one choice Dell does not want to offer to customers.