Blades (from w3)

Blades are the hottest server market segment, and IBM's BladeCenter family is enjoying the fastest growth in IBM server history. Since its introduction in 2002, IBM is the only vendor to install more than 350,000 blades.

According to market analyst IDC, IBM held 42 percent of worldwide blade revenue share in the third quarter of 2005, the ninth consecutive quarter the company held the leadership position.

In contrast, HP's record includes several failed blade form factor attempts and the company is likely to make further architectural changes this year to try to catch up with IBM.

Dell hasn't faired any better: it's seen its blade platform come and go, and today the company buys its blades from another company.

USES:

• BFSI: Twelve of the world's top 13 investment banks are using BladeCenter, with more than 25,000 blades installed.
• Digital Media: The movies King Kong, Matrix Reloaded and Lord of the Rings were animated using BladeCenter.
• Supercomputing: Fifteen percent of the world's Top 500 supercomputers are BladeCenters, including Europe's largest, Mare Nostrum.
• SMBs are buying: Based on the current pipeline report, 40 percent of BladeCenter revenue comes from small and mid-sized business.
• Server Consolidation: More than 100 U.S. retailers use BladeCenters in their Data Centers, and more than 1,600 are deployed in more than 1600 retail stores for infrastructure consolidation