Michael.Dillon@radianz.com writes:
And then there's the newer high-density rackmount units like <http://www.rlx.com/products/serverblades/dense.php>. This product puts up to 24 server blades in a 3U chassis which basically means you can put 8 times as many servers in a rack.
sadly, the blade vendors don't want you to be able to buy your backplane from source A and your blades from sources B, C, and D. in this niche, people often already have a 1U or have a special way of getting one (like e-bay or office surplus), and they need plug and play at the colo level. when there's a blade standard that integrates power, perhaps cooling (liquid or conduction), network, and serial or other outofband console, then we might see blade servers used for personal colo boxes. until then the smallest standard interface is a 1U w/ DB9, 100baseTX, and 3prong power.
And if any of you have played with things like the Zaurus C760/C860 then you know where all this is headed. $50/month today, $25/month in a year or two, and then in about 5 years it will be a free perk if you sign a two-year contract with your broadband provider.
given the number of virtual hosters i've heard from, i don't think it'll end like that. ultimately it'll end with something very much like multics was planned to be. in fact this seems more likely than a standard blade interface. -- Paul Vixie