Tools unite blade stack

ATTEMPTING TO CORNER a segment of the burgeoning blade server space, a host of automation software and hardware vendors are upgrading their blade management tools.

Startup vendors Opsware, Jareva, and ThinkDynamics are zeroing in on simplifying the complexities of blade server management by incorporating elements such as deployment and change management around servers and patches.

At the same time, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Dell Computer, and emerging blade manufacturer Sun Mircrosystems are ramping up blade server management plans for 2003.

The groundswell comes as Framingham, Mass.-based IDC is predicting the blade server market will grow to $2.9 billion by 2005 and $3.7 billion by 2006. IDC also estimates that by 2005, the blade architecture will account for approximately 23 percent of entry-level server unit sales.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun executives report the company is developing blade server software to deliver the modular structures enterprise customers are demanding.

“Running dedicated machines for applications resulted in underutilized resources,” said Ashley Eikenberry, Sun’s group manager of blade product marketing. Enterprises seek management software that allows them to redeploy and reprovision servers as needs change, she said.

To that end, Sun’s plans include developing tools that give users the ability to reprovision a server that functions as a Web server by day and firewall by night.

Eikenberry explains that Sun is taking a “layered” approach to accomplish management at different levels. She identifies blade, shelf, rack, and enterprise as the four levels the company is targeting. The company will announce more details early in 2003 when it releases its line of blade servers.

At the enterprise level, the company will turn to its evolving N1 strategy to ensure overall blade management will fit into the company’s enterprise management tools. At the rack level, the company will provide tools that allow for the reprovisioning of servers across a datacenter.

At the chassis and blade level software will be developed to mange and monitor the health of blades and the chassis.

Hugh Jenkins, Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP’s vice president of marketing, said software is critical to the adoption of blade severs.

“We’re spending time and effort to have software management tools in place,” Jenkins explained. “We’ve already developed software to quickly and automatically deploy software images to blades.”

Tim Dougherty, IBM’s director of blade server strategy, said policy-based management and automation is high on the agenda. Existing technologies offer some of these capabilities, but still require operator intervention. “Ideally customers can set a number of policies and the system will manage to these policies,” he said.

Attempting to attract midtier and small market customers, smaller software vendors have been busy touting new wares and partnerships over the last two months.

Opsware unveiled Blade Edition in November. On tap for rollout as part of EDS’ utility computing portfolio, the product remotely manages and configures blade server applications and operating systems.

ThinkDynamics in November announced that its ThinkControl platform will support IBM’s eServer BladeCenter, a dual Xeon-powered blade. ThinkControl features four policy-based products that automate datacenter capacity management, provisioning, and service level management.

And Jareva forged a deal with Dell to see its Elemental Platform serve as the management underpinnings of the Dell’s OpenManage RemoteInstall technology currently shipping with Dell PowerEdge server blades to remotely redeploy or push images out to blades.

“There’s not much use in increasing more cost to the customer if someone else is already building this mousetrap just fine,” said Lance Osborne, product marketing manager of systems management at Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, of the company’s decision to recruit Jareva.

John Humphreys, senior analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based IDC said secondary blade server management enables a highly available infrastructure that abandons outdated single application provisioning.

“If a node goes down it can be discovered and re-upped on the fly. The service of what [a customer’s] node is doing is resequenced, pushing business agility and flexibility of an environment and the ability to respond to ever changing needs,” Humphreys said.

Looking ahead, blade server adoption will continue to be challenged by a reluctance to fully embrace IT automation and relinquish control, Humphreys added.