blade servers

Blade servers

Although blade servers are not directly related to virtualization, they are often considered since the Blade-concept also involves  around several kinds of consolidation (physical, logical, partitioning, etc…). Any one who ever stood behind an open rack filled with running blades can certainly testify about the generated heating. If you happen to pay the electricity bill, you certainly now about the extravagant energy cost! Also bear in mind that all this heat needs to be cooled down again requiring even more energy for your datacenter.  I wonder how long it will take before chipmakers will manage to include energy consumption in their equation of “moore’s law”. Now the technology sector is only starting to become a little more environmentally concerned, thus making the Kyoto goals more reachable. Intel recently announced Conroe, a desktop processor that is 40% faster than the current generation while using 40% less power and unveiled a server processor, Woodcrest, which boasts 80% more power and 35% less power consumption.

Energy consumption

Joan Goodchild at SearchWinIT.com & SearchDataCenter.com reports on the high energy consumption of blades.

“Blade servers, which are deemed the next big thing in hardware, are also a big energy drain in an enterprise, according to a recent study that looks at the latest advances in server technology. The results of the study by TheInfoPro (TIP) Inc., a New York research firm, reveal that these new server technologies have not provided heating and cooling advantages. TIP recently released the second half of a server study it conducted in 2005. The research examined the concerns of 133 server professionals.
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Despite their intense heat production, the slim servers are indeed a priority for IT managers. According to TIP’s survey, 62% of the respondents said they will spend more money on blade servers in the next year.
Bob Gill (TIP’s chief research officer) said blade vendors are realizing that excess power is a problem in terms of energy efficiency, and there is an initiative among them to create blades that are more energy-efficient. A number of groups have suggested that vendors should develop a standard for measuring energy efficiency and then develop technology accordingly. He also noted that virtualization technology would alleviate some problems with power efficiency and consolidation.Overall, the research found that power and energy pose the biggest challenges for server administrators. Thirty-eight percent of users said power requirements are the greatest challenge to the data center. Thirty-one percent cited cooling requirements, and just over 20% cited heat output.”It’s a vicious cycle,” said Gill. “While systems become denser, their energy efficiency has decreased. Devices are getting smaller and smaller, but they are getting hotter.”

Read the whole SearchDataCenter.com article at source.