A New CPU is Coming – Better Be Prepared

If you haven’t heard, Intel’s coming out with a new CPU architecture this year and it is a bit different than what you are used to.  If you haven’t started re-architecting your plans for future blade servers, now is the time to begin. Continue reading →

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 →

What is NPAR (Network Partitioning)?

Last week I mentioned NPAR as a feature in most Broadcom like the ones found in the PowerEdge MX740c blade server.  I realized although NPAR is nearly a decade old, it may not be well-known by readers, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to break it down for you. Continue reading →

Want 400GbE in a Blade Server? Here’s How

A few years ago, the thought of needing multiple 25GbE ports on a blade server was not even a consideration.  In fact, I did a survey 6 years ago and got an overwhelming response that only a couple of 10GbE ports was needed for VMware virtualization efforts.  Today there is now an option to have 8 x 25GbE ports in a 2 CPU blade server – but there are some things you need to know. Continue reading →

What Does the Future Hold for the Blade Server?

One of the goals I have for this blog is to keep it current with news and updates from blade top tier server vendors.  However, over the past year, I have found it harder and harder to find relevant information.   Why is this?  Is it just because we in a lull between new blade server models or is the blade server dying? I decided to dig a little deeper into this question. Continue reading →

A Slick New Way to Get More GPUs on Blade Servers

It should be no surprise that the popularity of accelerators in the datacenter continues to grow.  Last year I wrote a blog post on the GPU options for blade servers.  At that time, the options were limited to either small GPUs like the NVIDIA T4 or mezzanine based GPUs.  The  market really hasn’t added anything more in the GPU-on-blade space until now. Continue reading →

If You Use PowerEdge Blade Servers You Should Know About This

If you are using Dell blade servers, I may have a little known resource that could help you.  Ever heard of the “PowerEdge MX I/O Guide?”  If not, I’m not surprised.  It was primarily used as an internal resource, but now it’s available to the public. 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 →

If You Have a Gmail Account You Could Be Helping Find A Cure for COVID-19

Over the years, there have been several community programs that were designed to help take the spare CPU cycles from your PCs or blade servers to build simulations or analyze data that scientists can use to find answers to challenging questions.  Continue reading →