HP and IBM Release New "Virtual" Blades; "Atom" Processor has Large Demand

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) executives recently announced its first blade server designed to be used as a host for virtual machines. On the same day, IBM Corp. officials released its own new virtual blade server, while Intel Corp. found it difficult to keep up with demands for its new Atom processor.

Focal Points:

• Officials from HP recently announced the availability of its ProLiant BL495c virtualization blade. Officials claim that this is the first blade server that has been designed to host virtual machines. HP officials said that one of the main new capabilities of the BL495c is its ability to eliminate memory, data storage, and networking bottlenecks. While many company executives plan on using virtualization in data centers, HP officials said most of the executives they have talked to have not seen the business benefits. HP officials believe the new capabilities of its BL495c will make the benefits clearer.
• IBM officials announced this week the BladeCenter PN41. Officials said that this was the first blade server that is able to support deep packet inspection. IBM incorporated this security capability from CloudShield Technologies. IBM officials are emphasizing the intelligence of its blade, which has been designed to minimize security threats, including Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and viruses. At the same time, the blade has incorporated better network traffic management for increased performance. The PN41 will join other products in IBM's Telecom Integrated Solution for Security, to help build carrier-grade networks with improved security.
• Executives at Intel acknowledge that there is a backlog in getting its new smaller "Atom" chips delivered to OEMs. Manufacturing the chip is not an issue, since one 300mm wafer can produce up to 2500 Atom chips. Intel officials also said they have plenty of manufacture capacity. The shortage relates to Intel's ability to test these chips. Initial production demand estimates were set at 100,000 chips for Q4 2007, while the actual number sold was 400,000. Demand for the current quarter is at five million chips, with six million processors expected to be sold in the fourth quarter. Intel officials would not predict how long it would take Intel to catch up with its current backlog. Intel officials thought Atom would be popular based on initial marketing success of the $300 ASUSTeK Computer, Inc. Eee-PC.

Experton Group believes the demand for blades in the data center will steadily increase, as companies gear up to improve consolidation and energy efficiency. Virtualization technologies will certainly be an important factor in helping to achieve this consolidation, so improved virtualization capabilities will increase the likelihood that companies will adopt this technology. While improved security for virtualization will be important, Experton Group believes a more concerted effort needs to be placed in managing these environments in order for server virtualization to become truly effective. IT executives should build integrated security and management capabilities into corporate data centers as part of the next-generation data center architecture.