A few days ago I compared the HP ProLiant BL660c blade server with the Dell PowerEdge M820, so today I wanted to point you to some performance data. Brian Basset, a Performance Engineer within Dell’s Solutions Performance Analysis group, recently ran some SPEC benchmarks on both the HP BL660c and the Dell M820 and the results were interesting. In summary: Continue reading
Author Archives: Kevin Houston
HP BL660c vs Dell M820 – A Comparison
If you are a recurring reader to this blog, you’ll know that I work for Dell (1 year as of August 15) which makes me a bit bias toward Dell. However, with the recent announcements of 4 socket blade servers based on Intel’s E5-4600 processor by HP and Dell, I thought it would be interesting to see how they line up. With the attempt to be unbiased, I’ve listed everything I thought was relative about both servers so that you, the reader, could make your own decision about which server would work best in your environment. I welcome any feedback, thoughts or comments below. The data below is from HP and Dell’s websites and is current as of 8.14.12. Continue reading
Deploying the Dell EqualLogic PS-M4110 Blade Storage
Today I came across a newly published a video that showcases the Dell EqualLogic PS-M4110 storage blade. If you are not familiar with the EqualLogic PS-M4110 storage blade,
4 Socket Blade Server – Which Intel CPU Do You Choose?
UPDATED 10.13.14
Now that Intel has released the 4 socket Sandy Bridge CPU, known as the Intel Xeon E5-4600, how do you know whether you need this processor or the Intel E7-4800 CPU? This is becoming a common question as more and more people migrate larger sized workloads to 4 socket x86 systems in the attempt to lower overall TCO. To understand which processor you would need, we must first
Is This The End of AMD?
It is no surprise that AMD is losing the battle of the x86 server market in the datacenter, but I had no idea their market share was as low as it appears. Even in the blade server space, you may notice that only a couple of server manufacturers offer AMD now. A recent study of AMD vs Intel Continue reading
Dell Announces Their First Storage Blade: PS-M4110
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Dell Unveils ARM-based Server Ecosystem
Until today, I’ve not discussed modular hybrid server platforms like Dell’s PowerEdge C platform or HP’s ProLiant SL Servers because I personally do not think they should be classified as a “blade server.” Perhaps I’m old school, but in order to qualify as a blade server, there must be 1) shared infrastructure 2) shared power/cooling, 3) shared I/O and 4) shared infrastructure management. When I look at hybrid platforms like the ones mentioned above, I don’t feel they qualify as a blade server – however the marketplace, seems comfortable claiming these products as blade servers, hence today’s posting. If you agree with me and feel this is not a true blade server, then feel free to move along to another blog article.
IDC Q1 2012 Server Report Shows Blade Server Sales Continue to Increase
IDC came out with their Q1 2012 worldwide server market revenue report on May 30, 2012 which shows that in spite of a decrease in overall server sales worldwide, blade server revenues increased 7.3% year over year.
Dell M420 Memory Architecture
While the Dell PowerEdge M420 uses the Intel Xeon E5-2400 architecture, the unique form factor limits the memory capacity compared to its half-height brother, the PowerEdge M520, so it today’s post, I’ll be discussing the memory architecture of the M420. Continue reading
Details on the Dell PowerEdge M420 Blade Server
Dell officially released the PowerEdge M420 blade server today, so today, I’ll provide you with some details about how it works – especially in regards to connectivity to the IO Modules. If you are interested in blade server density, you’ll want to read this post.