Blade predicts future trends

According to the group, the end is apparently nigh when it comes to separate I/O lanes for data networking, storage traffic and interprocess communications, with Ethernet network convergence springing up to take its place.

Blade.org notes that network convergence is perfectly suited to blade environments "because they are tightly packed together with little room for extra components".

Since Blade.org was set up in 2006, it has impressively managed to pull in more than 200 members, even counting IBM’s nemesis HP and Chipzilla’s sworn rival AMD amongst its ever swelling ranks.

The group’s chairman, Doug Balog, who also happens to wear the hat of vice president of development for IBM's blade and modular systems group, explained to NetworkWorld that, although crucial to the future of convergence, 10 and 40 gig Ethernet were not the be all and end all and that much more development was in fact needed.

"10 Gigabit kind of becomes the foundation, but there are enhancements to Ethernet that are needed and coming forward as standards through IEEE, that will provide lossless capability through the 10 Gigabit fabric", he said.

Moving on to the second important development in data structure advances, Balog also spoke about energy efficiency, and noted that although Blade servers did their bit for maximising efficiency in that they’re better than a rack full of 1U servers, they could also in some ways be perceived of as part of the problem.

He explained, "because of the ability to provide a high-density offering within a smaller area, they're consuming more energy in a smaller space".

Not all energy efficiency problems can be solved by water cooling though, according to Blade.org. Despite the fact that over two thirds of data centres will be using the cooling method by 2011, Balog said other methods still needed further examination. "Water cooling provides part of the answer. I wouldn't say we're looking at it as the only answer", he warned.

Last, but not least, comes the issue of hyper consolidation, which can involve both blade servers and virtualisation. VMware’s chief platform architect, Richard Brunner, is quoted as saying "Blades in the data center will evolve to a hyper-consolidated model through virtual appliances in which all discrete servers, firewalls and other network devices will be consolidated into the blade chassis". µ

L’Inq NetworkWorld