Note

The primary mission of the infrastructure professional is deployment and maintenance of platforms that enable applications and services. Evaluate how these hot developments can boost achievement in that critical role.

Case Study

As companies grow, consolidation of resources is inevitable, particularly with the growing movement towards virtualization. If you are maintaining a legacy platform, it may be time to consider a consolidation-in-a-box solution.

Solution Set

The primary mission of the infrastructure professional is deployment and maintenance of platforms that enable applications and services. Evaluate how these hot developments can boost achievement in that critical role.

Video

Blades make effective building blocks for a consolidated utility infrastructure. They are increasingly turned to for server consolidation, particularly where space, power consumption, and management resources are at a premium. This video answers...

Note

Info-Tech recently conducted several surveys for our research projects.This document is a high level summary of those results and an introduction to the resulting research.

Solution Set

Be sure that blades are really appropriate for enterprise server goals. Then decide which blade is best and which vendor's approach to consolidation and management is optimal.

Tool

For organizations that have issued a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) to evaluate Blade Server vendors, gathering and scoring the various responses can be difficult and time consuming. This tool enables enterprises to evaluate and compare the...

Template/Policy

Organizations embarking on the selection process for a blade server vendor may elect to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) after determining their final selection criteria.

Template/Policy

In many cases, the engagement to acquire server blades is not with the original equipment manufacturer but with a sales channel partner. This script will give you questions to explore with a reseller to clarify the specific value add that the...

Note

When replacing end of life servers and/or adding new servers there are a range of tactical choices to be made. What is the most cost effective configuration? Are blades the future or will traditional rack mount do? How many processors/cores and...

Solution Set

This solution set will provide strategy for building a consolidated server infrastructure that will balance maximum capacity and utilize efficiency while limiting costs.

Template/Policy

The typical trigger for acquiring servers is hardware refresh; however, getting the most value out of server purchases requires a strategic context. This business plan template puts the server acquisition in the context of a server consolidation...

Tool

In server acquisition the overall goal is to balance the most server capacity (for workload consolidation) with the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) for over the life of the servers. This tool enables a TCO measurement and TCO comparison...

Tool

In four years, the proportion of server buyers looking to blade servers has grown from 9% to 37%. However, rack mount servers remain the majority (57%). Use this tool to decide if your enterprise is a blade candidate.

Video

Learn how to save money using blade technology. This videocast explains the cost and benefits of consolidating with blades. Key vendors in the Blades space are also discussed.

Video

Think of private cloud infrastructure as a kind of birthday cake with hardware layers and virtualization icing. This will be critical in evaluating emerging server, storage, network and virtualization offerings. Blades, and particularly blades...

Tool

This tool is designed to help organizations determine top tactics for cost reduction within the server and storage service area. After the questions have been completed, the tool will generate guidance on which cost-saving actions to take, the...

Note

Servers and storage infrastructure make up a significant portion of the budget for most IT organizations. When faced with a mandate to control costs, IT managers must take steps to manage these expenses. Start with these techniques to optimize...

Virtualized I/O, like OS and application virtualization, is a requirement for a truly agile data center. In light of that requirement, the major blade server vendors have begun to implement I/O virtualization for their systems. While a good...

Blade servers are encroaching on rack-mount installations in data centers of all sizes. While this server platform meets many needs, it has not reached the point of replacing all other server types. Recognize the real limits of blade servers in...

Dell Computers recently introduced its next generation of blade server technology. The Dell PE M1000e chassis and new processor blades offer a very competitive package to the HP and IBM blade offerings. Enterprises searching for blade servers...

With the wide range of proprietary blade servers available, it can be difficult to decide on a vendor and a platform. The newest offerings from the major server vendors have leveled the playing field while improving the options for the...

The wide variety of highly capable blade servers from top vendors makes selecting the right blade server more challenging. Balance acquisition, management, support, and energy costs with specific business requirements to select the right blade...

Ethernet technology continues to evolve, supporting higher speeds, reduced latency, and distances ranging from blade server mid-plane connections through world-wide WAN connectivity. 10G Ethernet is the current iteration. The migration to 10G...

Blade servers are finding their way into enterprises of all sizes, with the smallest and the largest businesses leading the migration. Products from these four evaluated blade server vendors offer capabilities to support most small businesses....