Changing the IT Paradigm

Transcription

1 Blade Server Computing Blade servers enable greater business agility with flexible data center resources while cutting operating and management costs. White Paper

2 Executive Summary In e-business today, enterprise agility is key to staying ahead of the competition and providing customers with needed services and products. Data centers provide the capabilities to maintain a flexible business operation, but they must do so while focusing on reducing their costs through greater automation, more efficient operations and fewer service visits. Modular computing promises to enable more flexible data center capabilities through modular hardware and software, automation tools and hardware virtualization. Available today, blade servers are the leading edge of modular hardware. And management and virtualization tools of today and the future will enable the flexibility and management efficiencies that data centers need to keep their companies agile within the environment of tighter budgets. This paper looks at the emerging modular computing paradigm and technology of blade servers what blades are, the blade server market segment and the benefits data centers can receive by adopting blade-based computing. 2

3 Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 e-business Indelible Imprint on IT 4 The IT Dilemma More Resources, Less Cost 4 Blade Servers And The Modular Computing Paradigm 5 Benefits to IT 6 Reduced Complexity 6 Streamlined Deployment, Easier Service 6 Simpler, More Effective Management 6 Better For Business Lower TCO 7 Acquisition Costs 7 Deployment Costs 7 Operation and Management Costs 8 Blades Today the Server Blades Market Segment 8 Current Market 8 Blade Server Ecosystem 8 Blade Implementation Scenarios 9 Instant, Cost-effective Service 9 Rapid Adaptation to Business Fluctuations 9 High-Performance Computing 10 Future Technologies Where Blades are Going 10 Summary and Conclusion 10 3

4 e-business Indelible Imprint on IT e-business has led to a business operations revolution with enormous benefits to companies that implement the model. This new business model has also left an indelible imprint on IT departments, having created an explosive and increasingly unmanageable demand on IT infrastructure and services. And it s not over. After implementing tools that automate many business operations through the Internet or private networks, IT departments have more challenges. Line-of-business managers have learned how technology enables business agility to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise, where they arise. And IT departments must deliver agile solutions to meet these demands. The IT Dilemma More Resources, Less Cost For a business to stay at the top of its game, it needs flexible computing, storage and networking resources to meet changing global demand and competition, and it needs more of these resources as the business and markets expand. But, to operate in today s economy, IT must provide these resources with shrinking budgets due to economic downturn. Total cost of ownership (TCO) is a strategic IT focus today. IT managers search for solutions that cut costs and increase management efficiencies, while still deploying additional compute, networking and storage capacities that can respond quickly to business needs. To meet greater demand for less cost, IT strategies include the following: Reduce complexity Complexity dramatically drives up costs. With the addition of each new server, numerous other components are also added, such as cabling, network storage capacity and power and cooling. Integration & Deployment $2.3 Operations $2.7 Utilities $0.5 HW/SW $1.0 Intel data based on Gartner algorithms. Figure 1. Operating and maintenance costs are the major burden of data center expansion in the enterprise. Streamline deployment and simplify management According to Intel and Gartner, integration, deployment and operating costs can be from five to over eight times the cost of acquisition of hardware and software (Figure 1). Simplifying and automating management activities help reduce operating costs and free technical personnel to contribute to more value-added activities, such as application development. Easily adapt resources to changing business needs Today s data center architectures often match a single or set of resources to a need, such as for financial accounting or front-end Web services. This approach often overprovisions resources, leaving many resources vastly underutilized across the data center. By reallocating existing resources to underpowered applications as needed, they can be more fully utilized, reducing the need to add dedicated resources. Increase density while containing or reducing real estate costs and conserving power and HVAC resources In geographical areas where real estate is expensive, such as New York City and Tokyo, increasing density helps contain the costs of resource expansion. Significantly reduce the likelihood of a single point of failure Enterprise-class systems cannot be subject to the failure of a weakest link in the chain. Traditional data center infrastructures are based on pedestal and RMS (rack mount servers), which are added as particular loads demand more capacity. This approach has revealed two problems: (1) with each additional server, it increases complexity in the typical heterogeneous environment of today s data centers and (2) it dedicates the resource to a particular computing need, which restricts the ability of resources to be quickly adapted to changing needs. Many IT departments are consolidating servers, standardizing technologies and deploying clusters to rein in sprawl, and simplifying the architecture to reduce management burden and costs, while increasing resources. These approaches are helping, but do not provide a complete solution. 4

5 Blade Servers And The Modular Computing Paradigm Blade servers form the hardware foundation for a modular computing paradigm (Figure 2). While the pedestal and RMS approach increases complexity, modular computing reduces complexity, enables greater automation and virtualization of resources, creates reliable systems essentially with no single point of failure and will help reduce IT costs, while increasing capacity, functionality and agility. Virtualization Creates pools of resources CPUs, storage, networks independent of their physical location Allocates & optimizes resources on demand based on business priorities Software Manages Complexity Hardware Delivers Flexibility and value Modularity Automation Automatic monitoring of health, correction of faults, without operator intervention Allocates and optimizes constantly and transparently to the user Smaller (modular) units of resources Physical addition of computer/storage/network resources easier Easily allocate exact resource needed as requirements change Figure 2. Modular Computing Paradigm An emerging technological approach to data center architectures, modular computing integrates chassis-based modular hardware resources that are easily removed and replaced. Chassis-based systems aggregate interconnect, cabling, switching, power supplies, cooling and other resources, simplifying the infrastructure and its management and service. Modular computing allows administrators to customize computing resources with a variety of processing resources 1-way, 2-way; 32-bit, 64-bit, etc. on server boards that are easily installed into a chassis, much like chassis-based switches currently used in large data centers (Figure 3). Modular switching and management components might also be part of the chassis to integrate functionality and to abstract monitoring and control of the entire system. Chassis components communicate across a modular backplane (or midplane, depending on location in the chassis), can provide full redundancy for high availability and protection against, essentially, a single point of failure and allow easy serviceability. As modular computing matures, future virtualization capabilities will treat resources as pools, regardless of their location, that can be quickly reconfigured to meet changing business needs. Management components will automate much of the work done manually by administrators today, giving them more time to focus on other critical tasks and initiatives. Blade servers and the modular computing paradigm give data centers flexible resources, while simplifying the architecture, impacting business agility and operating costs. Figure 3. The blade servers condense resources into an easily managed unit, enabling modular computing 5

6 Benefits to IT Modular computing and blade technologies are good for IT departments. They reduce complexity, streamline deployment, and reduce management burden. Reduced Complexity Modular computing reduces complexity by sharing chassis resources across many components, integrating interconnects between them to aggregate cabling, and simplifying the service requirements. With traditional infrastructures, for every server added in the data center, more cables populate the back of the rack. According to Giga Information Group, some system administrators can spend up to 25 percent of their time just managing these cables. 1 Blades share chassisbased resources, including redundant power supplies, redundant management and network access, and communicate over redundant interconnecting back or midplanes, simplifying the overall infrastructure. For example, a rack mount server (RMS) configuration with 14 servers can require 112 cables, while a fully populated, 14-blade server chassis needs as few as eight (8) cables. Fewer cables reduce management headaches. The same benefits apply to other components, such as cooling fans and power supplies. To service a modular computing system, the blade or modular component is simply removed and replaced. Components can be hot-plugged, and no special tools are required. This can minimize the serviceability burden and the costs on IT departments or their third-party service vendors, with the "service" work carried out by a non-technical employee already at the site in remote locations. Streamlined Deployment, Easier Service With integrated management functionality, the system can monitor and manage itself servers, switches, power and cooling, etc. communicating with any data center management tools that might be used, such as a deployment manager. When a new blade is installed by simply sliding it into the chassis, comprehensive management tools can determine how to configure the new blade and automatically provision it: BIOS configuration, operating system installation, application deployment and network assignment for servers; policies, priorities, VLANs, etc. for switches. Blades enable one-touch deployment, which streamlines the deployment process and allows nontechnical personnel to replace or add blades in branch offices, such as banks or retail stores. Blade servers reduce the time spent building computing clusters. While software tools, such as OSCAR*, and others are available to help configure and manage pedestal or RMS-based clusters, physically building, installing and cabling each server is a significant burden. Blade servers and automated deployment help reduce cluster implementation to installing and cabling the chassis, inserting the blades and letting the deployment software load the necessary images and complete the configuration. Modular computing enables technical staff to remain focused on more value-added activities rather than chasing repair and deployment issues. Simpler, More Effective Management As blade technologies mature, with virtualization tools and greater automation, policy-based management can implement self-monitoring, self-healing, optimization, automatic redeployment and other functions that relieve management burden. For example, as system monitors detect blade failure, management tools can automatically bring on-line an unprovisioned hot spare and provision it to replace the faulty blade, disable the failing blade and send an alert to the administrator. The seamless transition from one blade to another to retain application availability occurs without administrator involvement. While hot spares on standby can be implemented today with RMSbased data centers, the spare must be pre-provisioned with the application ready to go live. With blades, no pre-provisioning is required, reducing the number of hot spares required to maintain high availability across the data center. 1. Giga Information Group, Inc., The Future of the Data Center Modularity and Virtualization, May 8,

7 Automated deployment can also be done remotely. For example, bank branches across a city can be provisioned with a blade-based data center that is managed from the corporate headquarters across the country. To add a server, a new blade can be shipped to a branch and an employee at the branch can install the new blade, which is then automatically deployed for operation. Blade-based computing also simplifies the interface between the administrator and equipment. Administrators can manage and control both servers and switches through a single, integrated interface; there s no need to purchase and maintain yet more external management appliances. For more details on blade management, see Simplifying Complexity: Blades Management in the Data Center WP. Better for Business: Lower Total Cost of Ownership Over its lifetime, a server is installed, deployed and then redeployed as business needs change. As shown in Figure 4, operation (including management) is the largest consumer of the IT server budget as servers are integrated, maintained and reconfigured. From small to enterprise-sized data centers, companies can benefit from the reduced TCO using blade systems over traditional solutions. Acquisition Costs Like chassis switches, blade server acquisition costs vary with the population of blades in the chassis. The blades share the power supply, networking, cooling and management resources within the chassis, eliminating the need to duplicate these resources as in pedestal and RMS systems. With blade systems, cost per blade drops as more blades are added, and, generally, a fully populated blade system will cost less than the same RMS solution. Deployment Costs According to Giga Information Group, a network connection to the enterprise gigabit/second network is worth from $1,000 to $2, Blade servers, with integrated switching and interconnect, consolidate network connectivity within the chassis, eliminating individual server connections to the enterprise network. Considering a medium- size data center with 100 servers and redundant network connections per server (to avoid single-point-of-failure), cost savings for deploying a blade solution is worth from $200,000 to $400,000. Automated deployment using a deployment manager reduces the time an administrator must spend in: Installing, cabling, and configuring the hardware Operations 46% Integration 4% Installing the operating system and application software Server HW 5% Gartner/Vendor Cost Server SW 16% Network 1% Development 26% Storage/B&R 2% Facilities 0% Figure 4. Operating costs consume most of the IT server budget Configuring the application with users, administrators, operating parameters and a host of other variables Blade systems reduce deployment costs both immediately through integrated components and over time with automated support software. 2. Giga Information Group, 2002, The Economics of Cable Consolidation A Major Impact on Server Cost 7

8 Operation and Management Costs Operation and management costs are the chief financial burden throughout the lifecycle of a server. As computing demands shift, servers are deployed, then reconfigured and redeployed, perhaps several times. With each redeployment, the cost of touching the system adds up. Automated deployment and provisioning reduce the attention paid to a server by an administrator, and future virtualization tools promise to simplify management even further while improving performance. Blade-based data centers make it cost-effective to upgrade or expand. Fully populating a chassis and deploying and provisioning new servers is as easy as plugging in additional server blades. With integrated management functionality, scriptable command-line interfaces, lights-out management, serial over LAN and other management tools, new services and software and firmware upgrades can be completed on hundreds of servers automatically whether the data center is next door or on another continent. Blade systems from acquisition through multiple redeployments and service offer attractive cost-effective solutions to reducing TCO in today s data centers. Blade servers eliminate much of the time an administrator dedicates to deploying and managing servers. BladesToday The Server Blades Market Segment Current Market Studies by IDC show that during the last quarter of 2002 a total of 19.5 thousand blade servers were purchased, accounting for approximately 2% of overall server sales for that period 3. For that same sales period, rack optimized server sales accounted for 45% of the overall server market segment and pedestal servers accounted for 53%. While traditional technologies remain entrenched in data centers, some companies are beginning to adopt early blade technologies. Within this emerging market segment, Intel is committed to blade technologies, providing end-to-end building blocks for blade system hardware developers and the ecosystem, collaborating with companies such as IBM and offering our own blade solutions, such as the Intel Enterprise Blade Server Family for modular computing and blade server products. In addition, a growing number of OEMs offer blade hardware and software. Such interest by the blade value chain will catalyze greater adoption by a growing number of data center managers. IDC projects that companies will spend nearly $4 billion on over 1.6 million blade server products in 2006, making up approximately 20 percent of all server sales for the year 3. Blade Server Ecosystem Modular computing is still advancing. Its evolution is a result of an entire ecosystem of hardware manufacturers, software developers, standards bodies, API designers and users. As the ecosystem develops, the technologies will mature and the benefits for companies will expand. Rack Optimized Servers 45% Blade Servers 2% Pedestal Servers 53% Figure 5. Current blade market (IDC, 2003) Pedestal Servers 35% Blade Servers 20% Rack Optimized Servers 45% 3. IDC, 2002 Figure 6. Projected blade market (IDC, 2003) 8

9 Blade Implementation Scenarios Blade servers are particularly well suited where flexibility is required and cost is a critical issue. When business constraints require quick deployment locally or remotely with simpler maintenance, blade solutions should be considered. Therefore, blade servers are ideal for transaction-based, highvolume applications such as financial and communications services, and compute-intensive applications, such as processing area networks (PANs), digital effects rendering and high-performance computing (HPC) clusters. The following scenarios offer illustrations of how companies can benefit from blade servers today and in the future. Instant, Cost-effective Service A large chain of retail stores maintains medium-sized data centers in every location for its point of sale (POS) activities, inventory management, business operations and communication with the main corporate data center. Three complete spares are kept available for failures caused by anything from a power supply outage to the network interface card to a motherboard failure. But it can take hours to load software and configure the spare for a particular application once the spare and a technician from the main data center arrive at the store. And travel and time cost impacts are considerable when new servers are installed. A blade-based data center allows non-technical personnel to install new blades shipped overnight from the corporate data center. Once installed in a slot in the blade chassis, the deployment manager configures the BIOS, loads the operating system and the appropriate application. The blade chassis switch is configured for the new blade s connection to its VLAN, traffic priorities and other network parameters. Final diagnostics are run automatically, and the blade is put into service. Once deployed, a notification is sent to the data center service manager. From blade installation to service activation the process takes less than an hour, without a technician visit or intervention or constant monitoring by data center personnel. Retail stores operate under very close profit margins, which pressure all departments within an operation to reduce costs wherever possible. Blade-based, automated deployment of hardware and software can significantly cut service calls and costs for data centers, enhancing their maintenance budgets. Rapid Adaptation to Business Fluctuations A recently launched product from a distribution company s catalog unexpectedly gained worldwide attention, and demand has skyrocketed suddenly. Orders from around the globe are pressing its e-business resources while sourcing executives and manufacturing engineers, both depending on the company s Supply Chain Management (SCM) application, seek to find new suppliers to meet these orders and to help existing overseas manufacturers expand capacity. With a blade-based data center, available computing resources are shifted in minutes to the front-end Web services and mid-tier applications using virtualization tools to maintain high customer service without attention by the company s small data center administration staff. New blades are received overnight, then installed and deployed in minutes to support the SCM processing in the application tier and back-end databases. Time is of essence when business demand fluctuates. Modular computing and blade servers enable fast response to changing demands. 9

10 High-Performance Computing A digital effects studio located in Tokyo uses a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster of Linux*-based servers to drive its self-developed rendering software. A new big-budget film project will need hundreds of thousands of compute hours to develop and render complex scenes, requiring them to expand their already tight data center in a city where space is premium-priced. And they need to start immediately. Blades simplify the physical buildout of any cluster. The technical staff built the last cluster of 32 servers using OSCAR*, which helped automate the configuration. Their greatest effort was spent in physically building the servers, installing them in the rack and cabling them up. By building a new 50-server blade-based cluster, physical installation is reduced to a minimum of installing and cabling a few chassis and inserting blades. Blade-based computing enables higher hardware densities in small, expensive spaces. By building an HPC cluster based on blade servers, the studio gains a significant increase in compute capacity over using 1RU rack servers. With built-in management and switching, they are also able to save on the power and cooling impacts of additional equipment normally required in rack-based clusters. Future Technologies Where Blades Are Going Blades help enable virtualization. Virtualization allows data centers to tune resources dynamically to business needs as they change. Virtualization in the modular computing paradigm decouples resources from any particular need: resources are seen as pools that can be reconfigured and redeployed according to demand. Blade modularity plus virtualization tools allow IT departments to step away from traditional data center approaches and make resources more pliable to changes in business activities and needs, while reducing management burden. Resources can be dynamically optimized and adapted for any application. Virtualization tools will enable automated redeployment of servers, operating systems and application software and allow reconfiguration of switches on the fly, based on data center policies, business planning and strategy and system monitors, threshold triggers and control mechanisms. And it will happen without an administrator visiting the equipment. For example, retail stores or airlines running special Web-only sales events can automatically redeploy underutilized resources to the front-end Web services to maintain service levels to customers. Also, if sales or service demands unexpectedly increase, a policy-driven, bladesbased modular data center can shift resources in minutes instead of hours to accommodate the loads all while the administrator is working on other critical initiatives. Summary and Conclusion To stay competitive, companies need to be agile, and data centers must remain flexible to adapt to changing business demands. Blade servers form the foundation for modular computing, a new paradigm that allows business agility through modular components, virtualization and automation. Blade-based data centers can easily tune resources to business needs to quickly respond to business fluctuations. Blade systems simplify infrastructure, automate management and reduce service requirements, cutting lifecycle costs for data center equipment and operation. Intel provides the components and solutions needed to build today s and tomorrow s blade-based data centers. For more information, see: 10

11 INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH INTEL PRODUCTS. NO LICENSE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, BY ESTOPPEL OR OTHERWISE, TO ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IS GRANTED BY THIS DOCUMENT. EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN INTEL'S TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE FOR SUCH PRODUCTS, INTEL ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER, AND INTEL DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, RELATING TO SALE AND/OR USE OF INTEL PRODUCTS INCLUDING LIABILITY OR WARRANTIES RELATING TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR INFRINGEMENT OF ANY PATENT, COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT Intel products are not intended for use in medical, life saving, or life sustaining applications. Intel may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice. Intel, the Intel logo, Itanium, Pentium, NetBurst, and Intel Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Copyright 2003, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. ORDER NUMBER