Data Center Strategies for the CIO
Servers
Silver Award:
Dell PowerEdge M605 Blade Server
The Dell PowerEdge M605 Blade Server is the only server in the top three that isn't based on the Intel Nehalem chip. The PowerEdge M605 relies on six-core AMD Opteron Processors. The Dell PowerEdge M605 Blade Server is paired with the Dell M1000e modular blade enclosure. The 10U modular enclosure holds up to sixteen half-height blade servers and weighs 394 pounds fully loaded with blades. The M1000e boasts energy-saving features that power-down fans and power supply power when servers are in standby mode.
Built for server virtualization, the Dell PowerEdge M605 comes with up to 8x DIMMs (DDR2) at 800MHz (64 GB4 of memory with 8GB DIMMs). Dell ships the PowerEdge M605 blades with the following hypervisors preloaded as an option.
- VMware ESXi 3.5
- Citrix XenServer Dell Express Edition
- Citrix XenServer Dell Enterprise Edition
- Microsoft HyperV via Microsoft Windows Server 2008.
Of course, what good is a great server design if you can't get one? Some Dell customers and resellers have recently complained about delays in PowerEdge shipments. Keep an eye on Dell to fix its backlog problem.