HP BladeSystem c3000

Shorty's only competition comes from IBM's BladeCenter S, which is 7U high and claims a greater expansion potential, higher storage capacities and options for a solid-state disk blade. All very nice, but IBM previewed this product back in June and advised us that availability could be as late as next year. It's also debatable whether we'll ever get to see one: it took us nine months to get hold of IBM's original eServer BladeCenter (web ID: 47290) since, at the time, the company would only commit to providing a single demo unit for the entire European market.

We've always been impressed with HP's blade server offerings, and the BladeSystem c3000 is no exception. As the first SMB blade server to market, it sets a very high standard, amalgamating a classy combination of features. HP offers a good choice of blades, and administrators of smaller sites shouldn't have any problems installing and configuring it.

Author: Dave Mitchell