This is a phrase I am hear more and more of lately, and I love the concept behind it. Virtualization has consolidated servers, and blade servers have consolidated the footprints of those virtualization hosts. Now, blade solutions are beginning to employ even greater efficiencies with creative and flexible wiring strategies. As FCoE and converged networking matures, blade technologies are deploying these to collapse cables and leverage a single cable to provide multiple services (network and both block level and file level storage solutions).
Physical servers are also leveraging this, though blade solutions will often be more efficient in this arena. I also think that Cisco’s UCS has really taken this and run with it, others are catching on and making progress in this arena (i.e. HP’s Blade Matrix technologies). Regardless of your blade solution, this is a concept that you need to get familiar with and evaluate in relation to your future technology goals. In reducing infrastructure, you lower costs, ease administration and provide greater agility. Who doesn’t want that?
For more on this topic, please read my article “‘Wire once and walk away’ boosts data center efficiency” at SearchServerVirtualization, then come back here to leave any comments.