Almost Scary: IBM Offers "Library of Congress In A Box" With Enhanced BladeCenter SAlmost Scary: IBM Offers "Library of Congress In A Box" With Enhanced BladeCenter S

The BladeCenter S has been called a "business in a box," but with the recent addition of nine terabytes of SAN, it has (almost) enough storage for the alphanumeric contents of the Library of Congress.The text of the contents of the LoC is usually given as 20 terabytes, or 10 terabytes if compressed. (The charts and pictures, if digitized, would take up far more room, of course. Last year the LoC actually reported having more than 70 terabytes of stored data, and there is no plan to digitize its entire contents.) So a fully-configured BladeCenter S would put a small office in the same league as the LoC.

Reportedly, the comparable HP C3000 can "only" offer one or two terabytes of SAN, for the equivalent of a university library.

This is almost scary, since the BladeCenter S is avowedly aimed at small offices, branch offices, retail stores, and small enterprises (although, as a blade, it trends toward the high end of that market.) The temptation is to ask, "What use do small offices have for nine terabytes?" But of course, there was a time when people were awed by a gigabyte. (Bill Gates himself once noted, in a Comdex keynote speech, that you could type all day, every day, for your entire life, and not fill a gigabyte.)

As always, if the space is there, it will be filled. Some use will be found for it, and then it will be indispensable.

The basic BladeCenter S is a 7U chassis intended for rack mounting, but IBM also sells an Office Enablement Kit that includes an acoustical enclosure and a contaminant filter. The chassis can hold six blades, and can plug into standard power outlets. Pricing start at $2,599, which includes power supplies, fans, rack rails, and a DVD/CD combo drive.

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