I recently had the pleasure of talking with TechTarget's Joan Goodchild where she asked me my thoughts about consolidation in the data center - which is right for the job, using bladeservers or virtualization? 

SearchServerVirtualization.com: When considering options for server consolidation, many IT managers consolidate with blade servers, others use virtualization technology. Could you explain the difference between the two?

David Marshall: IT managers are currently being faced with a growing pressure to consolidate the data center. Some of the biggest challenges facing today's IT managers deal with power, heat, cooling and system density -- all challenges that server consolidation hopes to eliminate in some way. Both technologies, blades and virtualization, are attempting to solve this problem.

The basic difference between the two solutions and the most simplistic answer is that one, blade servers, is a hardware-based solution, while the second, virtualization, is a software-based solution. A blade solution is a small-sized, modular server; and each server has its own processors and memory, but shares power supplies, cooling, interconnects, cabling and storage. By packing multiple server blades inside a standard enclosure, a higher density is achieved.

Virtualization, on the other hand, pools a server's resources and then slices them up and allocates those resources to virtual machines so that the resources are then used more efficiently and can be stretched further. Another simplified difference is that blades require an investment in infrastructure and equipment, while virtualization requires an investment in software but tries to use existing hardware where it can.

Are blades and virtualization competing against one another? Or do they serve different types of consolidation needs?

Marshall: You'll get different answers from different people on this one. I believe that blade servers have their place and virtualization solutions have their place. People have found value with both solutions in their own respective environments and use cases. And, at some point along the way, there is an intersection where these two solutions meet and can be combined to solve other unique problems.

In general, though, I still believe that ultimately these solutions are attempting to solve some of the same problems. However, these solutions also offer so much more than just meeting consolidation needs. In discussing consolidation, both products attempt to correct data center space problems, power consumption, cable management and ease of use and replacement. In that respect, they may not directly compete with one another, but they certainly step on each other's toes.

Check out the rest of the interview article, here.

And if you are interested in listening to the Podcast of our interview, check it out, here.