Vendors Sharpen Blade OfferingsVendors Sharpen Blade Offerings

RLX Technologies Inc. is taking a similarly cautious approach to four-way blades. In March, the vendor will launch its fifth-generation blade server with two Xeon processors. "Two processors is optimum for a blade server," says Bob Van Steenberg, RLX's VP of platform development and chief technology officer. "Any higher, and you diminish the performance of the individual blade." That's because as you scale Intel-based servers, the percentage of the server you use decreases. RLX will continue to update its servers with more advanced processor technology and improved input/output capabilities.

Whether customers buy blades or rack-mountable or tower servers will depend on their IT architecture, says Darrel Ward, Dell's senior manager of PowerEdge servers. "One of the things that customers said they don't like about blades is that there aren't a lot of choices available," he says. "That's why we're talking modular, not just blades."

Modular computing lets companies choose their own hardware components based on the work they're looking to do. To that end, Dell later this year will begin shipping modular blades that let companies load up on storage or I/O, for ex-ample, rather than just processors.

At Capital One, Gibbs is considering blade servers from HP, IBM, and RLX. Although the financial-services company has been ahead of the pack when it comes to blade deployments, it's now taking a more deliberate look at blade technology, which will grow increasingly more mainstream as Dell and IBM deliver new products.

"The blade market will dictate where the technology goes," Gibbs says. In the meantime, "we're still deciding what would work best on blades compared with more traditional Intel servers."

Photo of the blade server by Sacha Lecca