ServersHP Cuts to the Chassis with New Blade Servers

HP Cuts to the Chassis with New Blade Servers

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Hewlett-Packard this week announced the launch of a blade-server product
series based on open industry standards. 

Blade servers are
essentially “computers on a board” operating in a compact chassis 
to reduce complex wiring issues. The new 
products include server, storage, appliance, network, switch and
management blades and are supported by HP
Openview service manageability tools.

Hewlett-Packard this week announced the launch of a blade-server product
series based on open industry standards. 

HP said its blade
server products will initially run on the Linux operating system distributions
of Red Hat, Debian and SuSE. Because Linux is very lightweight, has lower memory
requirements and makes better use of CPU power, HP said it is an ideal operating
system for blade
servers, which require flexibility and scalability in highly constrained
environments due to heat restrictions. HP-UX
and Microsoft Windows are expected to be available on the blade
server in the first half of 2002.

The HP blade
server chassis, server blade,
storage blade, network blade
and management blade
are currently available. Pricing starts at $1,925 for a single server blade or $7,525 for an HP blade
server chassis with one management blade.

In related news, HP
announced a blade
server alliance program to help accelerate the delivery of compatible products.
The program helps both hardware and software providers to develop, test and
market their blades products. Testing certification programs are expected to be
available in 2002.

Vendors
that have already joined the alliance program include Radisys, which 
is working with HP to integrate enterprise manageability functions into
future blade server
CompactPCI products and chassis systems.

 

“We”re
pleased to be able to support HP
on this open platform as it will enable enterprise and carrier class OEMs to
enhance and standardize remote system manageability,” said Stuart Cohen,
vice president for Radisys. “The addition of HP”s
enterprise manageability specification is an excellent complement to our
existing line of embedded CompactPCI server blades and will further enable
Radisys to provide open standard building blocks for OEM manufacturers.”

 

Other
vendors include hardware-based Internet
security solutions company Somicwall, which plans to deliver its firewall and
VPN appliance technology to customers of
HP”s blade
servers, and PolyServe, which plans to offer software that enables
high-availability and application management across server blades.

Related Stories:
The Skinny
on Server Blades

RLX Announced
Red Hat 7.2 Support

RLX Combines Server Density with Power Savings

 

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