HP, IBM Tout Blade Server Advancements

Hewlett-Packard and IBM continue their battle for dominance in the blade server market this week, with HP introducing a management software offering for Linux and IBM announcing growth of its Blade.org community.

The HP Control Tower software, based on technology gained last year through HP's acquisition of RLX Technologies, was introduced Wednesday and offers deployment and monitoring capabilities for HP BladeSystem installations. Working in conjunction with HP Systems Insight Manager, the software provides easy management of blade servers running on a Linux operating system, says Lee Johns, director of Velocity software, enterprise storage, and servers for HP.

"This will really enable us to simplify the management of blades that are Linux-centric," Johns says. "It is a simple-to-set-up tool that enables you to get the infrastructure up and running in about 30 minutes." About 30% of HP's BladeSystem deployments use Linux, he says.

HP Control Tower will be available next month for $199 per license.

IBM on Monday announced that Blade.org, a community of third-party companies providing support for IBM's BladeCenter platform, has expanded from the original 40 members announced at its launch in February to 60 members.New members include Ault Systems, Blade Network Technologies, ClearCube Technologies, LANDesk Software, Sirius Computer Solutions, Centricity, and Traduce.

"We have a very good mix of hardware and software companies, distributors, resellers, and systems integrators," says Juhi Jotwani, director, BladeCenter & xSeries solutions and alliances. "The momentum continues to build."

Two members of Blade.org announced new products in support of IBM's BladeCenter. OpenService Inc., a provider of enterprise security management software, introduced a security threat and compliance management product for BladeCenter. OpenService has ported its Security Management Center for use on BladeCenter. The product collects, analyzes, and correlates security event data.

DataCom Systems Inc., which makes surveillance and monitoring products, introduced the Digital Video Surveillance Solution for BladeCenter, targeted at law enforcement, gaming, and financial services customers. The surveillance product allows users to remotely access, view, and E-mail recorded video footage and run up to 32 video surveillance cameras on one blade server.