HP doubles up on blade servers

New system promises to cut hardware acquisition costs by 41 per cent and deliver 60 per cent savings for the data centre

HP has unveiled its new C class blade system architecture that promises to dramatically reduce maintenance costs and make for more agile data centres.

"This new architecture is going to drive a new agenda to blade everything," Ann Livermore, executive vice president of HP's Technology Solutions Group, said at an event at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters.

The new system promises to cut hardware acquisition costs by 41 per cent, deliver 60 per cent savings for the data centre facility and reduce initial set up time by 96 per cent, Livermore claimed.

The C class system also offers improvements in networking, power and cooling management as well as management costs.

It is the first on the market to offer a 2in LCD screen on the front of the unit that informs users of potential problems and allows them to change basic settings.

It also comes with software that lets users allocate resources to virtual systems without having to change the wiring.

The new C class systems are scheduled to replace HP's current P class blade systems, which will be discontinued by 2007. P class support is set to cease by 2012.

Livermore claimed that the new blade architecture will form the core of the company's future data centres. The manufacturer is aiming to save $1bn annually by consolidating its current 85 data centres into six new facilities.

The blade server market is dominated by IBM and HP, and the latter is offering a special financing programme to entice IBM customers to switch.

HP said that in designing the new architecture the company drew on expertise from multiple areas of the company. The idea to include a small display on the unit, for instance, came from the printer group.

This ability to draw on expertise from HP's divisions is one of the device's strong points, according to Vernon Turner, group vice president at analyst firm IDC.

"They unlock some of the capability from the merger [with Compaq] that wasn't there before," Turner told vnunet.com.

Focusing on ease of management and aspects such as power consumption also allows HP to further differentiate itself from low cost vendors such as Dell.

Turner warned, however, that blade servers are still a fairly young product group. "HP is placing a large bet that customers will endorse a new blade form factor that hasn't yet been formalised across the industry," he said.

Sun Microsystems is expected to unveil new blade servers in the coming months. The company said earlier this week that it will be emphasising storage and system longevity. 

HP's C class blades are slated for availability by July. Pricing will be unveiled around the same time.

• A video and photos of the unveiling are available on the Silicon Valley Sleuth blog