Dell Inc.’s recent push into the blade server space — a relatively immature market — is a sign that enterprises are seeing the value of blades within the data centre.
The Round Rock, Tex.-based firm in November took the wraps off its new blade server, the PowerEdge 1855. The new blades (based on Intel Corp.’s Xeon microprocessor) are housed in a new Dell-designed 7U chassis that can accommodate as many as 10 dual-processor servers.
According to Paul Gottsegen, vice-president, worldwide enterprise marketing for Dell, the servers will also support 10Gbps Ethernet networking technology as well as the power requirements anticipated from Intel’s next generation of Xeon processors currently slated for next year release.
Gottsegen said the servers share common networking, power and cooling components, enabling enterprises to fit as many as 62 per cent more servers into datacentre racks.