Category Archives: HP-HPE

A Closer Look at the Q3 2020 IDC Blade Server Market Data

Earlier this month, IDC published their Q3 2020 WorldWide Server tracker data showing the top server vendors.  in this post, I’m going to dive in and take a closer look at how blade servers are performing including which vendor is leading the blade server market.    Continue reading →

Helpful Blade Server Links (Updated)

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 →

GPU Options for Today’s Blade Servers

In the past, a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) was equated to a workload that was designing something, like building automobiles.  However, over the past two or three years, organizations have realized that GPUs have more value than utilization in Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML).  In fact, a large majority of GPU adoption revolves around utilization of GPUs with Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).  Organizations have realized that VDI running Windows 10 can benefit from GPUs, so GPUs are now becoming a requirement for VDI.  As we look at a “modular infrastructure” (aka blade server) environment, having multiple servers within a small footprint is ideal for VDI.  Therefore, in today’s blog post, I’m going to review what each blade server vendor offers for GPU options. Continue reading →

Blade Server Comparison – August 2019

Below is an updated chart to help guide you to the best blade server for your project.  This version includes Intel DC Persistent Memory (Optane).

Continue reading →

Overview of the Industry Top Blade Chassis

It occurred to me that I created a reference chart for showing what blade server options are available in the market (“Blade Server Comparison – 2018“) but I’ve never listed the options for blade server chassis.  In this post, I’ll provide you with overviews of blade chassis from Cisco, Dell EMC, HPE and Lenovo.  One of the things I’m not going to do is try and give Pro’s and Con’s for each chassis.  The reason is quite obvious if you have read this blog before, but in a nutshell, I work for Dell EMC, so I’m not going to promote or bash any vendor.  My goal is to simplify each vendor’s offerings and give you one place to get an overview of each blade chassis in the market.

Continue reading →

Blade Server Comparison – September 2018

With the recent release of the Dell EMC PowerEdge MX blade servers, I realized it’s been a year since I’ve updated my blade server comparison chart.  Below is an updated chart to help guide you to the best blade server for your project.  (REVISED December 2018 – fixed drive count on Dell EMC PowerEdge MX servers.  Thanks to Mike Browning for catching it after this many months!)

Continue reading →

New Study Compares Networking Capabilities of Blade Server Solutions

An independent testing company, Principled Technologies, recently released a study that compared the networking capabilities of Dell EMC PowerEdge MX, HPE Synergy and Cisco UCS using VMware vMotion.  Their findings:

Continue reading →

Are Blade Servers Dead, or the Future of the DataCenter?

As I talk with customers, I often run into camps who either love blade servers or they absolutely hate them – and will never use them.  I even hear some people think blade servers are dying off, but I think that is far from the case.  In fact, I believe that blade servers could be the future of the datacenter and here’s why.   Continue reading →