Open Source Today

Linux may be the catalyst that boosts sales of blade servers in India. As vendors such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and Dell grapple with new strategies to sell the sleek and expensive blade servers, the Linux operating system (OS) is the trump card they play to win over cost-conscious Indian IT buyers.

Blade servers, introduced late 2002, are uniquely shaped devices that are used to process commands and host applications. Blade servers were designed to consume lesser space in a data centre (a room to house all storage and servers of a firm). Blades are called so as they are shaped like slim boxes. They slip into a chassis that provides network connections and power supply to each of the blades. The chassis can hold several blades and simplifies cabling for enterprises. The blade is the sleeker cousin of the tower-shaped and rack-mounted servers. Though the latter two are cheaper, they also consume more space as they are bulky.