IDC and Cisco confirmed this week that Cisco has taken the #1 x86 blade server spot in North America for Q1 in 2014 with 40% revenue market share according to a recent CRN report. This is quite an accomplishment especially since Cisco has only been reporting their numbers for 3 years. So you might wonder – what is the secret to Cisco’s success? I have a few ideas (right or wrong) that might shed some light on why Cisco is having success in their blade server business.
Tag Archives: blade server
IDC Reports Worldwide Blade Server Market Revenues Increase in Q4 2013
IDC came out with their Q4 2013 worldwide server market revenue report on February 27, 2014. Unfortunately I missed the announcement due to email issues, so I’ve decided to streamline things and summarize the report.
Intel E5-4600 v2 CPU Announced
Intel announced the refresh of their 4 socket E5 line taking the CPU up to 12 cores, and 30MB of shared cache and supporting memory speeds up to 1866 MTS DDR3 DIMMs.
I’ve updated the current blade server comparison list to include the E5-4600 v2 offering:
Direct link to PDF (117kb): BladesMadeSimple_Blade_Server_Comparison_3.12.14
If you see anything missing or incorrect, let me know.
Kevin Houston is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of BladesMadeSimple.com. He has over 17 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 works for Dell as a Server Sales Engineer covering the Global Enterprise market.
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.
Sneak Peek at HP ProLiant BL660c E5-4600 v2 Offerings
It appears someone at HP slipped up and posted Intel E5-4600 v2 specs for the HP ProLiant BL660c Gen 8 blade server a few weeks ahead of Intel’s announcement later in Q1. HP has since removed the details, but customers looking at the 4 socket blade server may be interested to know what HP will be offering, so check out Google’s cache of the HP QuickSpec at:
Not a new product, just an update in the CPU offering. When Intel officially releases the E5-4600 v2 CPU, I’ll make sure to provide details along with the other blade server vendors offering. I’ll also update the blade comparison document, so please make sure to check back often.
Kevin Houston is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of BladesMadeSimple.com. He has over 17 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 works for Dell as a Server Sales Engineer covering the Global Enterprise market.
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.
Blade Server Comparisons – Feb 2014
This update includes blade servers with the Intel Xeon E5-2400 v2 CPU. I’ll add the E7 v2 once they begin shipping (and I have some data).
Link: BladesMadeSimple_BladeServer_Comparison_updated2.26.14
Kevin Houston is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of BladesMadeSimple.com. He has over 17 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 works for Dell as a Server Sales Engineer covering the Global Enterprise market.
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.
New Blade Servers Based on Intel E7 v2 Announced
The Intel Xeon E7 v2 CPU was officially announced today advertising 2x the performance, 3x the memory and 4x the I/O bandwidth compared to previous generations. For more information on what the E7 v2 CPU offers, as well as what blade servers were announced, continue reading below.
Is This The End of IBM Blade Servers?
Today news of IBM’s proposed selling of the “low-end” x86 business to Lenovo was announced, so does this mean the end of Big Blue blade servers?
Is Microsoft Planning On Releasing a Blade Server?
A recent patent search shows an application by Microsoft on December 19, 2013 for a “Tray and Chassis Blade Server” hinting that Microsoft may be ready to get into the server hardware market.
Comparison of x86 Blade Servers
(UPDATED 11.5.2013) I often find myself seeking basic information for competitive blade servers, so I decided to sit down and put together a basic list of blade server details for Cisco, Dell, HP and IBM blade servers. The details provided are based on information publicly available and may be subject to errors. Continue reading
Max Ethernet Connections on 2 Socket Blade Servers
As 10GbE storage connectivity becomes more popular, the number of 10GbE connections you can get on a blade server becomes a consideration. In this blog post, I’ll review the offerings each blade vendor has to help you easily decide which works best for your project.