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 (@Plankers, https://lonesysadmin.net/)

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

Listen here:

Kevin 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”.
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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 →

2016 – Year in Review

As I wrap up my 7th year with this blog I wanted to take a minute to pause and say thank you. Without your interest in this blog post, I don’t think I would have stuck with it. I appreciate your ideas and your feedback / comments, even if I may not like what you say. As my final post of the year, I thought I would provide you with some insights on what was popular, what has been searched on, etc. If you don’t see something you’d like to know about, let me know in the comments below. Thanks for your continued interest, and Happy New Year! Continue reading →

Storage Options for Blade Servers

As technology trends like software defined storage (SDS) become more adopted in data centers, it will be interesting to see how it will impact the blade server market – especially with current research showing an expectation of growth over the next 5 years. To succeed, blade server vendors will have to find ways to adopt to changing technology trends- especially SDS. Continue reading →

Workload Acceleration Options for Blade Servers

I recently was asked what the demand for NVMe drives was, so I pinged my peers to see where they are seeing the adoption of NVMe (in rack or blade servers forms) and got a pretty interesting response. This got me wondering what the options were for NVMe, as well as other acceleration technologies, in the blade server world. Here is what I found.

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GPUs and Blade Servers – A Good Idea?

UPDATED 9.23.2016 When looking at the blade server market, the options for GPUs are very limited – in fact only a couple of vendors offer them (more on this later.) So you have to question, is it a good idea to put a GPU in a blade server? Let’s review and find out. Continue reading →

Which Embedded Management License Do You Need?

Whether you are looking at Dell or HPE blade servers, one important consideration is the type of embedded management license you need. Too often, I’ve heard of blade server users having to go back to a vendor to get a license upgrade because the current version doesn’t do what you need it to. The charts below are designed to help you proactively determine what license is needed prior to making your purchase. Continue reading →

VMware Virtual SAN Ready Node on a Blade Server

UPDATED I recently had to determine the best option for a customer from the Virtual SAN Compatibility Guide / Virtual SAN Ready Node guide and was a bit surprised to see only a single blade server vendor listed. When it comes to choosing a server form factor, there are many reasons to choose blade servers, and several reasons not to choose them (see “5 Reasons You May NOT Want a Blade Server – April 2013.”) If you think blade servers will fit for your infrastructure needs, here are a few options to consider.