If your organization has teams that are responsible for managing both the physical server hardware (rack or blade server) lifecycle and the virtual environment, there is a tool that is ideal for you. Continue reading
Tag Archives: PowerEdge
Blade Server Comparison – September 2018
With the recent release of the Dell EMC PowerEdge MX blade servers, I realized it’s been a year since I’ve updated my blade server comparison chart. Below is an updated chart to help guide you to the best blade server for your project. (REVISED December 2018 – fixed drive count on Dell EMC PowerEdge MX servers. Thanks to Mike Browning for catching it after this many months!)
Don’t Move to the Cloud Before You Read This
If you are looking at moving workloads to the cloud – you should stop and read this first. Deploying an on-premises private cloud built on blade servers could save some major time and offer cost savings. Of course, there are use cases where public cloud makes sense, and others where having an on-premise solution makes sense. Here is one of those cases.
Upgrading Your Blade Servers For Free
No, this isn’t click bait. You could possibly upgrade your blade servers and it could actually end up saving you money (and theoretically be free.) Let me explain. Continue reading
Blade Server Comparison – September 2017
With the recent release of the Intel Xeon SP CPUs, I realized it’s been a year since I’ve updated my blade server comparison chart. Below is an updated chart to help guide you to the best blade server for your project.
Dell EMC PowerEdge M630 Delivers Energy Cost Savings vs HPE
A new finding from the Dell EMC PowerEdge Engineering identified the Dell EMC PowerEdge M630 blade server as being more efficient and offering lower energy costs than the HPE ProLiant BL460 Gen 9. Continue reading
Helpful Blade Server Links
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”.
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Vblocks Will Continue to Use UCS
As the new year kicks off, Dell EMC leadership has made it clear that the partnership with Cisco is as strong as always. Cisco’s UCS is the compute layer of the Dell EMC Vblock so many wondered if there would be a “Dblock” or something similar using the PowerEdge blade server product from the former VCE group and the answer is an astounding “NO!” (In case you missed it, check out Chad Sakac‘s blog post, “Vblock and VxBlock Use Cisco UCS. Got it?“) Continue reading
GPUs and Blade Servers – A Good Idea?
UPDATED 9.23.2016 When looking at the blade server market, the options for GPUs are very limited – in fact only a couple of vendors offer them (more on this later.) So you have to question, is it a good idea to put a GPU in a blade server? Let’s review and find out. Continue reading
VMware Virtual SAN Ready Node on a Blade Server
UPDATED I recently had to determine the best option for a customer from the Virtual SAN Compatibility Guide / Virtual SAN Ready Node guide and was a bit surprised to see only a single blade server vendor listed. When it comes to choosing a server form factor, there are many reasons to choose blade servers, and several reasons not to choose them (see “5 Reasons You May NOT Want a Blade Server – April 2013.”) If you think blade servers will fit for your infrastructure needs, here are a few options to consider.