Dense computing environments for high performance computing (HPC) have migrated from the multi-million dollar mainframes to x86-based servers running Linux and Windows operating systems. Now these systems are entering the enterprise data center as dense computing clusters where hundreds or thousands of processors are housed in a very small space and support business operations such as social networks, gaming, data mining, and Web searches.
Vendors are taking notice of the growing need for high density compute environments and are delivering the hardware. Some examples of these platforms include:
- Blade chassis and high-density blade offerings such as:
- Dell PowerEdge
- HP BladeSystem
- IBM BladeCenter
- IBM's iDataPlex server platform
Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of the different technologies should be the first step in determining which offering is a match for the enterprise data center.
