The Real Story about Dell and blades

• The HP ProLiant BL490c G6 server blade delivers the same capacity for virtual machines in half the space as the Dell M710:

HP ProLiant BL685c G6 blade server delivers 33% more DIMM and max memory capacity than the Dell M905 blade server:

While Dell’s M905 has 24 DIMM sockets, a closer look at the system board reveals that two processors have 8 DIMM sockets each and the other two have 4 DIMM sockets each. VMware’s best practice guidelines advise customers that to avoid performance degradation, “The host hardware should be configured so that physical host memory is evenly balanced across NUMA nodes.” ⁷

Therefore, Dell M905 customers who wish to adhere to VMware’s best practices will only be able to use 16 of the 24 DIMM sockets.

When we at HP developed Virtual Connect, we were really thinking of how to simplify the way customers connect their servers to LANs and SANs. HP’s Virtual Connect makes the server administrator self-sufficient while Dell’s FlexAddress falls short by still requiring LAN or SAN admin assistance to move server workloads.⁸

HP Virtual Connect reduces cables without adding switches to manage.
Dell’s FlexAddress requires pass-thru modules (and all their additional cables) or switches (and all their management effort).

HP’s Virtual Connect makes the server administrator self-sufficient by allowing the complete LAN and SAN connection information and physical connections to be moved with the workload⁹ from one server bay to another without impacting the LAN or SAN.

Dell FlexAddress falls way short of the capabilities delivered by HP’s Virtual Connect by simply attaching a MAC address or World Wide Name to a single server bay. Server, LAN and SAN admins still must all coordinate their efforts to move a server workload in the traditional, time-consuming, inefficient way.

Virtual Connect Flex-10 Ethernet module which can allocate the bandwidth of a 10Gb Ethernet network port across four network interface card (NIC) connections. This delivers up to 8 embedded FlexNICs in a HP PoLiant BL490c G6 blade server, for example, versus only four embedded and less flexible NICs in the Dell PowerEdge M710 blade server.

HP knows blades are not a one-size fits all and offers a wide portfolio of bladed offerings, offering real customer choice.

• Two enclosures to match the unique needs of large (c7000) or small/medium  IT (c3000) environments- HP has this, Dell does not
• ½ height blade with 18 DIMMS & Intel Xeon 5500 processors- HP has this, Dell does not
• Storage blades – HP has these, Dell does not
• Workstation blades – HP has these, Dell does not
• Two-servers-in one blade - HP has these, Dell does not
• NonStop Blades - HP has these, Dell does not
• Integrity Blades with mission critical HP-UX - HP has these, Dell does not

HP’s blade everything strategy means that customers can get the time, energy and cost savings BladeSystem offers for more of their IT infrastructure.  They can have a simpler, more consistent way to deploy, maintain, manage and service their infrastructure.