Server Blade Trade Association Adopts New Name and End-User Focus

The non-profit Server Blade Trade Association has changed its name to Blade Systems Alliance (BladeS) and formed a Council of End Users chaired by Vince Conroy, CTO of Nacio Systems.

IRVING, TX (PRWEB) June 30, 2003 -- Server Blade Trade Association announced that the non-profit organization formed in 2002 to develop standards and promote the adoption of blade servers has changed its name to Blade Systems Alliance (BladeS). The name change and new end-user and analyst councils reflect the organizations expanding focus on end-user acceptance and best practices via a proactive vendor/user dialog.

To further emphasize customer requirements and accelerate blade server acceptance, BladeS has formed a Council of End Users chaired by Vince Conroy, chief technology officer at Nacio Systems, a leading provider of managed hosting and managed services. BladeS is also forming a Council of Industry Analysts.

"The blade server market is growing exponentially and is expected to reach two million units and be worth $2.1 billion in 2005," said John Humphreys, senior research analyst at IDC. "Blade Systems Alliance provides a forum for the industry to promote the solutions that enable economies of scale and new levels of efficiency in customers blade computing environments."

Blade Systems Alliance includes more than 30 blade server end-user, systems, software, component, and consulting companies, including: 14 South Networks, Alacritech, Amphus, Avocent,. Coalsere, Inc., CoroSoft, Coughlin Associates, F5 Networks, GemStone Systems, GoAhead Software, Chris Hipp, IMEX Research, InfiniCon Systems, VERITAS Software, Mellanox Technologies, Nacio Systems, Network Appliance, Novadigm, Inc., OSA Technologies, Performance Technologies, PERSIST Technologies, PFU Systems, PLX Technology, Qlogic, Raritan Computer Inc., SharkRack, Inc., StarGen Inc., Unisys Corporation, Venturcom, Inc., Wind River and ZNYX Networks.

"We see great value in Blade Systems Alliance as the focal point for vendors and end users to positively impact the development of solutions that enable blade servers to solve todays information technology challenges," said Larry Chisvin, vice president of marketing at PLX Technology.

"Blade Systems Alliance reflects the growing representation from leading vendor and end user organizations," said Dr. Lance Leventhal, technical director of Blade Systems Alliance. "With such broad support, Blade Systems Alliance will provide a focal point for the technologies, standards, interoperability and other strategic issues that will help to accelerate the adoption of blade servers."

About Blade Systems Alliance
Blade Systems Alliance (www.bladesystems.org) is an independent, not-for-profit organization of blade servers manufacturers, software suppliers, users, system integrators and other interested parties established to serve as a clearinghouse for information about blade systems, provide a focus for extending and improving standards, and promote their use in enterprise, telecom and other applications. For membership information, visit www.bladesystems.org or contact Ed Doody at (971) 751-9621 or ed@bladesystems.org.

About Blade Servers

Blade servers are a new generation of highly advanced, ultra-dense server environments. A blade server is an integrated computing environment consisting of individual servers that fit on a single card, or blade, and contains the CPU, memory, and networking components necessary to run applications. These blades are then plugged into a single chassis that can accommodate upwards of 24 blades in the space previously occupied by one traditional server. Administrators could deploy 272 blades in a standard 6-foot data center rack, versus 21 low-profile PC servers, or 8 large UNIX servers. In addition to delivering an ultra-dense server environment, blade servers offer extremely low power consumption, breakthrough "economies of scale" and a new level of "economies of skill" through plug-and-play design. Blades are becoming big business and one segment of the server market that is experiencing escalating growth.
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