Unfortunately, though, for both HP and Compaq customers, there will be the inevitable shakeout of field sales staff, service facilities and reseller pipelines. Things you liked about dealing with the old company probably will change dramatically with the new one, but that's old news. Whether or not you're still dealing with your longtime favorite salespeople, now is the time to insist that every promise made be put in writing. Treat the combined HP-Compaq with the skepticism you'd reserve for a company you've never done business with, because that's exactly what HP now is.
Compaq took an early lead in the new blade market with its e-series products. Each 3U blade box can house up to 20 800-MHz low-voltage Pentium blades. Each blade has two 10/100 Ethernet ports and a 40-GB drive. These systems aren't the powerhouses that IBM has planned, but they are available now and at a density that won't be possible with Xeon chips. Unfortunately, if you were hoping for more processing power in the e-series, it doesn't look like that will come about. HP expects to make nothing more than marginal upgrades to this line.
Instead, the new b-class blades are scheduled to ship around press time. With a new 6U chassis that holds eight blades, this system will be very similar to IBM's. Gigabit Ethernet will replace the e-class 10/100 ports and HP says there will be SAN (storage-area network) support. Each blade will have two-way or four-way Xeon systems using Intel's DP and MP chips. The prices haven't been announced yet, but it's likely that each blade server will sell for about 20 percent to 30 percent less than comparable, fully configured 1U and 2U systems.
Dell: Cheap Buy-In, No-Nonsense Computing
Pragmatic as ever, Dell always points to its direct relationship with customers and its concentration on server design, rather than silicon design, as the key to its advantage over tech powerhouses HP and IBM. In some ways that's true. Dell makes it simpler than the competition to customize a system, and often comes early to market with new technology--hence its ability to offer a four-way Xeon MP-based server for our tests. However, Dell's products have the shortest life cycles, meaning the server you bought yesterday may not be available today. The company's purchasing contracts are notorious for allowing Dell to kill old products and substitute new ones at "different"--i.e., higher--prices from those originally contracted. Buyers who aren't large enough to muscle Dell around, take note.
On the other hand, most surveys that attempt to get at product reliability show Dell delivering on its promise to design solid machines. The company does well when it comes to reliability. Particularly in the 1U and 2U classes, Dell offers solid products with no-nonsense reliability and serviceability features such as hot-swap cooling, power and storage.
In the blade space, Dell is preparing to take orders for its PowerEdge 1655MC later this year. "MC" stands for modular computing, which refers to servers that are divided into discretely manageable components (a blade is one such example). Technically, the box sits between HP's original 20-blade system and the newest offerings from IBM and HP, unfortunately with the worst features of each. The 3U chassis can hold six blades with single or dual Pentium IIIs on each one. There is no integrated network or SAN switching, so the only advantage for the 1655MC over Dell's own 1U 1650 is slightly higher density and fewer cables to worry about. Dell estimates that buying a blade server will start to pay off if you need to purchase more than three servers.
Dell is high on the modular computing concept, but less keen on the blade architecture in particular. The company speaks of blades and "bricks" but at press time wouldn't provide specifics on what a brick might be. One can guess the name hints at the form factor. It is also a fair assumption that bricks will include processing, storage and possibly networking modules that will fit into some yet-to-be disclosed Dell-created chassis. While conceptually appealing, Dell's track record on long-term platform support should give you pause. Such an endeavor will be new ground for the company, so buyers, be skeptical.
At the high end, Dell is taking a wait-and-see approach to Itanium. The company produced the PowerEdge 7150, which is similar to the Itanium systems built by IBM and HP. Sales were disappointing enough that Dell has no plans to produce a system based on McKinley, the second generation of Itanium chips.
Art Wittmann is a Network Computing contributing editor. Previously the editor of Network Computing, he has also worked at the University of Wisconsin Computer-Aided Engineering Center as associate director. Send your comments on this article to him at awittmann@nwc.com.
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