Organizations Turn to Blade Servers to Boost Power, Save Space and Cut Costs
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Blade Servers Cut Paths Organizations turn to blade servers to boost power, save space and cut costs. 62 • Blade Servers to Progress In government agencies and educational institutions, few research firm. “They want to leverage industry-standard, low- challenges loom as large as managing information-technology cost servers, yet be able to maintain high availability while resources. Organizations that lack adequate computing achieving high performance. Clustering and virtualization power often find that it is impossible to manage mountains of technologies achieve these goals by using resources more efficiently and effectively.” information. Yet, those who throw technology at every problem often wind up creating an unmanageable and expensive IT As a result, many organizations are turning to blade servers. These units, which consist of multiple server cards enclosed environment — particularly when numerous applications and in a specialized chassis, offer a more efficient architecture servers enter the picture. for managing multiple applications, databases and storage hese days, things aren’t getting any simpler — devices. Blades — consisting of several servers within a single especially as the demand for information technology chassis — are rapidly moving into the mainstream. In the Tgrows and more sophisticated data requirements process, they are replacing more expensive and complicated take hold. “Organizations are looking for ways to optimize mid-range and mainframe computers. their computing environments without spending a great deal IMEX Research reports that sales of blade servers grew more money,” observes Anil Vasudeva, president of IMEX from near zero in 2001 to about $2.2 billion in 2005. At Research, a San Jose, Calif.-based IT consulting and market present, about 7 percent of servers used are blades, but the 4 Blade Servers • 63 figure is expected to hit 32 percent by 2009. “Blade servers Vasudeva likens the situation to hosting a conference at a represent a paradigm shift in computing. They are extremely hotel. If all rooms are the same size, some sessions are likely to fast and responsive, but they also provide enormous scalability overflow and become standing-room only, while others have and flexibility,” Vasudeva explains. “Consequently, they are plenty of seats available. This inefficient use of resources can replacing more complex and expensive computing models.” be remedied by using partitions and readjusting the rooms Government agencies and educational institutions are to accommodate the projected size of the audience. In the turning to blade servers to tackle a diverse array of complex end, planners can provide adequate seating for everyone and computing applications. Yet, like any technology, blades improve the comfort and quality of the conference. represent both an opportunity and a challenge. They can boost computing power, improve resource utilization, simplify Multiple Advantages IT administration, diminish the need for data-center space, IT experts, including Vasudeva, believe that blades represent ratchet up scalability and cut overall energy costs. However, an important step in the evolution of computing and network provisioning and managing resources requires specific IT technology. “They produce volume efficiencies to the order of skills — and a keen knowledge of organizational processes. magnitudes,” he says. “They boost utilization levels in today’s Moreover, blade servers — packed with a high density of computing environment from the 25- to 30-percent range to electronics — require adequate cooling. Finally, they demand 80 to 90 percent.” Blade servers achieve these results through software that can connect and optimize an IT environment virtualization or pooling of resources. Simply put, various and provide necessary administrative controls. applications and tasks share CPUs and disk space. Instead of a single application using a dedicated server, each application The Leading Edge draws the resources it needs from the pool of servers. The concept of stacking multiple servers into a single unit In fact, virtualization partitions a server into several “virtual originated in the telecommunications industry in the 1990s. machines” that can run within a separate operating system Telephone companies began using modular units for switching and application environment. This moves organizations away equipment used in their central offices. By 2001, the first from a “one server, one application” model and toward an infrastructure that allows the organization to manage its blade servers emerged for the computer industry. While these servers across a heterogeneous environment. Using different early models offered significant performance improvements operating systems and applications on the same physical and notable cost savings over standalone servers, they also server also lets organizations consolidate the workload placed presented compatibility challenges. Additionally, many units on its servers. If one virtual system fails, another can take weren’t equipped with software to manage data flow. over instantly and perform the same tasks. Another advantage of blades is that they allow organizations to take advantage of the efficiency and reliability of clustering technology. Using data replication, mirroring and load- “[Blade servers] are balancing techniques, organizations can route incoming requests across identical blade servers. These servers also extremely fast and provide high-availability failover features to ensure that the computing environment continues to operate even when responsive, but they also one or more of the servers malfunction or go offline for maintenance. In addition, individual blades are typically “hot-swappable,” making it easy to swap out a board if one provide enormous scalability of them fails or requires service. This approach typically delivers enormous gains. It helps and flexibility.” eliminate data silos residing on a haphazard mix of systems — Anil Vasudeva, President, IMEX Research and resources. Blade servers that use virtualization can trim basic operating expenses within an IT department by 5 percent to 15 percent and slash administration time requirements by But times have changed. Today, blade servers have become 50 percent or more, according to Vasudeva. Virtualization more powerful, less expensive and easier to integrate into an also makes it easier for organizations to access data quickly IT environment. By packing as many as 14 blades (each 7U and easily — including regulatory information — and high; 1U represents 1.75 inches) into a standard 19-inch-wide handle disaster recovery more effectively. By maximizing the chassis and using several chassis in racks of blades, it’s possible performance of server-based activities, blade servers can help to achieve computing power that typically would require streamline organizations. hundreds of standalone servers. What’s more, each chassis of Finally, government agencies and educational institutions blades shares a single I/O (input/output) and power supply. using blade servers usually witness a significant gain in data- Some use their own disks to create a fully integrated server, center space requirements. Fewer servers in fewer locations while others rely on common external disks for storage. translate directly into reduced real-estate costs and energy Blades address several important issues. Organizations costs. What is the end result? When organizations add up all with a less-than-optimal server infrastructure often find that the gains that result from blades, they often see a 40 percent or they must add servers faster than the corresponding growth greater reduction in total cost of ownership over conventional in activity; they wind up adding multiple servers for every servers, according to Vasudeva. new application; and they achieve sub-par performance and service levels. In the process, the IT department finds itself Sharpening Performance coping with time-consuming administrative tasks. The Not surprisingly, a growing number of vendors are operating cost of a typical data center runs seven times that manufacturing blade systems. Leaders include Hewlett- of acquisition costs, IMEX’s Vasudeva says. Packard and IBM, which use power-efficient Intel Xeon and 64 • Blade Servers AMD Opteron processors in their systems to handle an array specialized blade racks. of advanced and demanding tasks. Another challenge is connecting various applications and In fact, supercomputing applications represent a growing provisioning resources. A few years ago, many applications market for clustered blade servers, Vasudeva points out. were not designed to work with blade servers. As a result, “Distributed supercomputing is being replaced by systems IT departments found themselves relying on middleware that are able to spread the tasks among anywhere from 100 and ingenuity to connect all the components. In addition, to 1,000 blade servers. Organizations adopting this approach some applications required tweaks and adjustments to work are able to achieve huge economies of scale and develop a more within a blade environment, which often proved expensive cost-efficient computing environment,” he says. Meanwhile, and time-consuming. Now, most major software packages vendors are developing more sophisticated blade servers that accommodate clustering and adapt to a blade environment incorporate greater network intelligence. automatically and on the fly. Storage is another area that’s garnering attention. As the Vasudeva uses an iceberg