Dell takes the blade-server cake

The emerging category of blade servers appears to be bifurcating.

On the one hand, there are ultrahigh-density server systems, such as RLX Technologies’ System300ex, which crams as many as 24 underpowered servers in a 3U-high (5.25-inch) rack enclosure. You could characterize the RLX blades — and also Hewlett-Packard ProLiant BL10e — as “density over functionality.”

On the other hand, there’s Dell’s PowerEdge 1655MC (Modular Computing) blade system, which offers a fewer, more robust servers in the same space, a design that places functionality first and density second. In effect, what you get with the Dell blade — and also with HP’s competitive ProLiant BL20e — is a standard Intel-based server in a smaller form factor.

But no matter which direction you go, the primary benefits of blade servers remain the same: reduced requirements for rack space, streamlined server management, and vastly simplified means for installing and removing servers from the rack compared to conventional servers. Those benefits would accrue for both field offices and high-density datacenters.

If you’re looking for the ability to deploy hundreds of identical servers, such as for a Web farm, the best solution remains a high-density, low-power blade system, such as RLX’s System300ex or HP’sProLiant BP10e.

But if the goal is to deploy high-power servers, Dell’s PowerEdge 1655MC goes head-to-head with HP’sProLiant BL20p system. Both offer full-featured blades with dual 1.4GHz Pentium III processors, SCSI storage, redundant power, and integrated Ethernet switching.

The biggest differences: Dell’s system includes Gigabit Ethernet but does not have hot-swappable hard drives; the ProLiant BL20p provides hot-swappable hard drives but is equipped only for Fast Ethernet.

Dell also has the upper hand in rack density. Dell’s 3U-high enclosure contains six blade servers and its own internal hot-swappable power supplies. HP’sProLiant BL20p has a 6U-high enclosure that holds eight blades, but you have to add a separate 3U-high power enclosure, which can drive two BL20p enclosures. Because of this, Dell wins out on rack density, providing 30 servers in 15U worth of rack space compared to the 16 servers HP can provide with its BL20p line.

Although neither solution disappoints, when it comes to full-featured dual-processor blade servers, Dell has the upper hand. In the meantime, however, HP is busy at work on a Xeon-based blade system. Stay tuned.