Making blade servers simple
Posted in Cisco on Jan 30th, 2012
Cisco announced on Jan. 26, 2012 a field replacement program for Cisco UCS B440 Blade Servers. Cisco Field Notice FN – 63430 describes the problem as a failure of a MOSFET, or Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor, power transistor on the blade server that can cause the component to overheat and emit a short flash which could lead [...]
Posted in News on Jan 26th, 2012
Blizzard Entertainment recently announced they are auctioning off some older HP blade servers that previously hosted the popular World of Warcraft (WoW) game with 100% of the proceeds going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®. While it is great to own a piece of WoW history, keep in mind, these servers won’t do you any good for [...]
I once was a huge fan of HP’s Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Modules but with the new enhancements to VMware vSphere 5, I don’t think I would recommend for virtual environments anymore. The ability to divide the two onboard network cards up to 8 NICS was a great feature and still is, if you have to do [...]
Posted in Future Technologies on Oct 25th, 2011
In 1965, Gordon Moore predicted that engineers would be able to double the number of components on a microchip every two years. Known as Moore’s law, his prediction has come true – processors are continuing to become faster each year while the components are becoming smaller and smaller. In the footprint of the original ENIAC [...]
Posted in Dell on Oct 11th, 2011
If you are a reader of BladesMadeSimple, you are no stranger to Dell’s Network Daughter Card (NDC), but if it is a new term for you, let me give you the basics. Up until now, blade servers came with network interface cards (NICs) pre-installed as part of the motherboard. Most servers came standard with Dual-port [...]
Posted in Dell on Sep 28th, 2011
I’ve learned over the years that it is very easy to focus on the feeds and speeds of a server while overlooking features that truly differentiate. When you take a look under the covers, a server’s CPU and memory are going to be equal to the competition, so the innovation that goes into the server [...]
I always find it interesting to hear how customers are using blade server technology “in the real world.” Brickworks, a $1.7 billion Australian brick company with over 60 locations and 1,000 employees, recently provided The Australian with details about how Citrix XenApp Enterprise combined with VMware vSphere and Dell rack and blade servers helped develop a more efficient workplace for its [...]
People are always asking me: “how many blades I have to put in a chassis to make it worth?” My answer is always: “It depends!” . There is no magical number.
Since my last post, I heard lots of rumors that VMware would make some changes in their new licensing model. Well, this week VMware made an official announcement of changes and posted here. VMware made very clear that all the changes were motivated by the feedbacks they have received:
Posted in Cisco, Cloud Computing, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel on Aug 3rd, 2011
In case you haven’t heard, “cloud” discussions are here to stay and everyone has their own recommendations for you to start building your cloud environment, but which is best for you? Intel has created the “Intel® Cloud Builders” program aimed at making it easier for you to build, enhance and operate cloud infrastructure.