BladeCenter systems allow you to centralize servers for increased flexibility, ease of maintenance, reduced cost and streamlined human resources. Companies that need to deploy new business applications or consolidate applications from disparate systems can get performance and efficiency while ensuring flexibility, scalability and availability. For enterprise requirements like file-and-print and collaboration, BladeCenter is designed to offer reliability, flexibility for growth.

 

IBM info; To many IT vendors blades are a form factor change- meaning they are another way to package a 2-way or 4-way server. IBM has taken a completely different approach to blades and designs it's BladeCenter to help customers deal with the real problems they are having in today's fast changing business climate. IBM's innovative approach to blades delivers a new kind of IT building block that helps improve reliability, accessibility, and serviceability. The result of IBM's innovation is a blade solution that is easier to manage, uses less power, produces significantly less heat, has longer life spans, and is easy to set up and scale. See the table below to learn how IBM's BladeCenter solutions provide distinct advantages over Dell and HP's blade systems.

Feature	Benefit	IBM	Dell	HP (p-class)
Processor flexibility	Support for AMD, Intel and Power processors in blades.	X
Chassis flexibility	Portfolio of three Chassis which can support common blades and switches.	X
Power and cooling costs	Superior power and cooling efficiency in two way and four way blade systems.	X
Hot swap cooling	Hot-swappable fans or blowers can be replaced while the system is online.	X	X
Integrated power supply	Efficient energy management at a chassis level.	X	X
14 blades per chassis	Efficient power management, fewer switches and cables	X
High-availability redundant-path Midplane	Investment protection for future technologies	X
Integrated media	Flexibility to install software and drivers locally, as well as remotely	X
4GB fibre channel switch modules	Create a wide range of high-performance SAN solutions.	X
Light path diagnostics	Pinpoint a specific failing component (even without system power