The environmental advantages of blade servers are already well known; reductions in floor occupancy, electrical power consumption, and air-conditioning requirements result in lower operational costs in the datacenter. Now storage is moving in the same direction. Several vendors have introduced blade storage systems, generally using SAS technology to connect to the server via the blade system backplane. The primary objective is to improve the performance of applications with heavy disk I/O dependencies. Blade solutions also represent a cost-effective alternative for smaller enterprises for whom a SAN would represent a significant investment.
HP, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computer, IBM and new challenger Verari Systems have moved into the market, with offers ranging up to several terabytes of storage on single DAS-mode blade. Certain vendors are developing solutions which will operate in NAS mode, combining multiple storage blades with Windows Storage Server, while IBM offers a blade-based SAN solution. This represents an interesting option for the Green datacenter. A careful choice of server and storage blades and voila… a datacenter in a rack, minimising space, wiring, and cooling requirements.
Verari Systems already offers a product of this type, claiming its BladeRack2X chassis with SB5168XL DataServer blades (quad-core Intel Xeon 3000 processors and 24 TB of RAID storage) is the most ecological solution on the market. Floor occupancy is reduced by 77%, according to Verari, and energy costs by at least 35% thanks to Verari’s patented Vertical Cooling Technology. Server virtualisation, and especially VMware Infrastructure, completes the deployment model recommended by Verari.
The “datacenter in a rack” approach is a growing trend, generating a lot of interest. Traditional storage vendors, though, have yet to react. Will blade storage replace standalone rack-based storage solutions? Are SANs obsolete? Storage blades are not a threat, according to traditional vendors. The next few months may see some changing their minds.
November, 11 2008 at 8:01 pm |
I’ve seen several offerings from IBM, Dell and Verari and have to say that I have been impressed with the Verari density and cooling technology. The big three should keep a close eye on these guys as they gain momentum. Quite impressive.