IBM's BladeServer Blitz

IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) yesterday launched its BladeCenter-T server in an aggressive move to expand the market for hardened data center server technology.

IBM says the BladeCenter T systems are both Network Equipment Building System 3 (NEBS 3) and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) compliant, meeting the needs of telecom data centers. The BladeCenter T is also hardened to withstand "high temperature, electrostatic discharge, lightning strikes, airborne contaminants, fires, and violent shaking," says IBM. [Ed. note: No mudslides? Sandstorms? Tsunamis?]

The product's resistance to violent shaking’ presumably refers to its ability to survive structural threats rather than the potential damage caused by stressed-out network managers.

So what's the gist of it? IBM's looking to expand the appeal of blade-server technology, which has made inroads in high-end data centers, as a standardized way to use inexpensive, interchangeable, PC-based technology. The hardened server equipment would appeal to both telecom firms looking for a beefed-up service platform as well as high-end enterprise data centers looking for a carrier-class platform .

Thomas Meyer, program director of European enterprise server solutions at analyst firm IDC believes it could have an appeal beyond the telecom sector.