Yearly Archives: 2017

Cisco Blade Servers Enter vSAN Market

Last month, VMware announced a new vSAN Ready Node using the Cisco UCS B-Series blade server.  Blade servers aren’t new to vSAN Ready Nodes (see “VMware Virtual SAN Ready Node on a Blade Server“) and Cisco isn’t new to the vSAN business – they’ve had their UCS C-Series rack servers certified since “Ready Nodes” were announced, so why is this announcement interesting?  It’s because it is the first vSAN node that only includes 2 drives. Continue reading

Blades vs Rack Mount -a podcast

In June of 2011, I had the pleasure of joining Nigel Poulton, Rick Vanover and Bob Plankers  on the podcast, “InfoSmack Deep Dive” to talk about blade servers versus rack servers.  In the 47 minute discussion we talked over the pros and cons of both types of server platform.  I recently found a copy of the podcast in my Dropbox, so I listened to it and was shocked to hear that many of the same arguments and counter-points we reviewed almost 6 years ago still applies with servers today.  If you are curious as to whether blade servers or rack servers are ideal for you, I encourage you to take some time and listen to this podcast.

Special thanks to:

Nigel Poulton (@NigelPoulton, http://blog.nigelpoulton.com/)

Rick Vanover (@RickVanover, rickvanover.com)

Bob Plankers (@Plankershttps://lonesysadmin.net/)

Podcast download:  https://bladesmadesimple.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/infosmack_deep_dive_podcast_104.mp3

Listen here:

Kevin Houston - Founder, BladesMadeSimple.comKevin Houston is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of BladesMadeSimple.com.  He has 20 years of experience in the x86 server marketplace.  Since 1997 Kevin has worked at several resellers in the Atlanta area, and has a vast array of competitive x86 server knowledge and certifications as well as an in-depth understanding of VMware and Citrix virtualization.  Kevin has worked at Dell EMC as a Server Sales Engineer covering the Global Enterprise market since August 2011 and currently works as a Technical Architect supporting the Central Region.

 

Disclaimer: The views presented in this blog are personal views and may or may not reflect any of the contributors’ employer’s positions. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved or published by any employer.

 

 

Helpful Blade Server Links

Here is a list of blade-related websites that may help you find more information about blade servers.  Since vendors tend to move their sites without notice if you find a dead link, please let me know.  If you have other sites that you think are worthy to remember, email me at “kevin AT bladesmadesimple.com”.
Continue reading

Vblocks Will Continue to Use UCS

As the new year kicks off, Dell EMC leadership has made it clear that the partnership with Cisco is as strong as always.  Cisco’s UCS is the compute layer of the Dell EMC Vblock so many wondered if there would be a “Dblock” or something similar using the PowerEdge blade server product from the former VCE group and the answer is an astounding “NO!”  (In case you missed it, check out Chad Sakac‘s blog post, “Vblock and VxBlock Use Cisco UCS.  Got it?“)   Continue reading