A Sad Story
Once upon a time, there was a server room that was just too full of servers. It gave off a lot of heat, used too much power for cooling and just didn’t serve the company the way it used to. On top of that, it needed too many people to keep it updated. The system administrator didn’t know what to do. He needed a solution… fast.
A Happy Ending
Is this story more than a fairy tale? This situation was all too familiar to many companies a decade ago. Unfortunately, it still is for a multitude of start-ups, and small- and mid-range businesses. But today, a new hero has come to save the day: the blade server.
The Hero: Blade Server
The blade server is a modular solution, similar to traditional servers on a rack, except it’s been stripped down and streamlined to fit and run more efficiently. It’s much like a memory card that fits into one of the mother board slots, but condensed to house only the essentials in the card itself. Because of this, the blade server needs a special blade system to power and cool it, as well as provide networking and management capabilities. Even with these specialized systems, up to 128 servers will fit on a 42U rack, as opposed to 42. That’s up to 1,440 total servers per full rack, which saves lots of space.
Features and Benefits
Unlike previous servers that took up space and power, the blade system integrates power supply and cooling capabilities. Some systems incorporate liquid cooling systems that reduce the need for cooling even further by self-regulating when hot spots are found. This results in:
• Reduction in number of power supply units (PSU)
• Higher data throughput
• Higher density with less power consumption
• Reduction in cabling
• Improved airflow with fewer hotspots
• Integrated load-balancing and failover abilities
The streamlined management achieved by blade servers makes them a great choice for networking, web hosting, cluster computing and virtualization.
The one drawback that almost always comes with increased efficiency, however, is the cost. This is the reason small- and mid-range businesses have difficulty obtaining server solutions, which would help them grow, and why large corporations begin to lose money maintaining large datacenters. But there’s also a happy ending to that story: colocation solutions.
Benefits of Colocation
Colocation is a service provided by a datacenter to host hardware for businesses and organizations. The datacenter takes care of all the power, cooling, rack space and networking for the business. In addition to the space and time the company saves, it also benefits from:
• More reliable uptime
• Better network speed and reliability
• Better power redundancy
• Improved cooling capabilities
• More cost efficiency
• More bandwidth availability
Colocation solutions provide companies of all sizes with all of the benefits and none of the hassle of running a large datacenter. Together with blade server systems, colocation datacenters are staffed around the clock to provide trouble shooting, maintenance and hot swaps.
Don’t let server problems turn into a sad story. Find a happier and sharper ending with blade servers and colocation solutions.
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