GuidesHP Bladesystem c7000 Enclosure

HP Bladesystem c7000 Enclosure

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HP this week took the wraps off the biggest evolution of its BladeSystem portfolio in years.

John Gromala, Director of Product Marketing, Industry Standard Servers and Software at HP, told ServerWatch that the new BladeSystem c7000 Platinum enclosure and the new ProLiant WS460c Gen8 blade are the biggest things to happen to HP’s BladeSystem since the introduction of the c class back in 2006.

Gromala said that the c7000 now provides up to 40 percent more networking bandwidth than previous c-class BladeSystems. The primary reason for the networking boost is a new backplane that can provide up 7 Tbs of aggregate bandwidth.

The c7000 is also able to support 40 Gigabit Ethernet links down to each blade server within the chassis.

HP BladeSystem c7000 The chassis is a 10 rack unit-sized enclosure that can support up to 8 full-height blades and 16 half-height blades. Mixed configurations are supported of full- and half-height blades.

Even though the c7000 is a new enclosure, Gromala stressed that existing c-class blades and gear will all fit and be supported.

ProLiant WS460c

While the c7000 can support older blades, HP is bringing out a new blade as well. The ProLiant WS460c includes support for multiple nvidia GPUs and is intended to help enable and scale Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments. Gromala noted that in the past for a server, there was only one graphics card in a blade for every client. HP’s new blade, however, enables multiple GPUs and a significant increase in the number of VDI clients.

HP is set to sell the BladeSystem c7000 platinum enclosure this month at a starting price of $4,999. The ProLiant WS460c Gen8 Workstation blade will be available in March for $5,037.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

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