Tracking enterprise technology transformation
Dell or HP Blades – a comparison
http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Dell+and+HP+Blades+Compared
Principled Technologies did a comparison of Dell PowerEdge 1955 blade servers and HP BladeSystem c-Class servers. Join the discussion about these reports below using the comments area.
Very cool, these kind of things can often get emotional, but let’s step back for a minute, at the very least, it provides some content about the blades from Dell and HP, it discusses a number of things from taking the hardware out of the boxes, to powering them on. Granted it’s a report on the Dell site so we could discuss the vested interest part, but check it out and see what you think. I wonder if HP have a response to this article.
Dell “overlooks” the fact that you have to special order the HP blades to come in separate boxes. Most c-Class Bladesystems come already assembled and ready to go. It is quite funny that Dell would emphasize the un-boxing aspect versus a real apples-to-apples comparison.
Thanks for your comments, regardless, the documents show some pictures of the different blades products – the comparisons always need to be taken with a ‘pinch of salt’..
For this comparison, Principled Technologies, ordered a chassis full of Dell and HP blades in the way they come standard directly off of each company’s website. One of the benefits of working with Dell is that this way of shipping is the standard. After every customer customizes their order, Dell fully tests the completed server before it leaves the factory. I do not believe that HP tests the completed server in the factory.
HP customers have to special order the blades from either HP or a reseller for them to come pre-assembled. Dell ships blades pre-installed in the chassis and becuase Dell only sells direct – this is the only way that they can be ordered. A second study by Prinicipled also compared Dell blades vs. HP blades for performance, power, and performance per watt. That paper is also available on the same page – http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Dell+and+HP+Blades+Compared
Thanks for that sir, the ability to order by the chassis sound a valuable part of the dell value proposition.
Interesting read, I do have one questions though.
What networking components were use in each case?
Such as, for Ethernet, were switches used or pass-through?
Thanks for the info.
Look at this HP article to get some sort of a balance here:
http://h71028.www7.hp.com/ERC/cache/503288-0-0-0-121.html?ERL=true&jumpid=em_di_622430_IL_GB_0_013&diaid=di_hpc_gb_449307_IL
The debate between the hardware vendors blade offerings is set to continue, those with preferences to the way HP do things, the options that are available from IBM with the PowerPC or the Dell direct value proposition.
Keep in mind that it’s what you achieve with the platform, what benefit that vendor brings to your business – appropriate technology for the appropriate role, specifications, blade vs blade isn’t the issue – IT delivery is.