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Blade servers:
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About TechTarget Research and Methodology

Through in-depth interviews and web based surveys with pre-screened
decision makers TechTarget Research aggregates actual purchases quarter
over quarter for key segments within the Data Center Market, including blade
servers. In addition, every six months a Market Landscape Study is produced
that captures detailed technology roadmap data, overlaying the vendors in use
and in plan, along with spending projections, capacity changes, and exciting
vendors.
By participating in our research you become a member of the TechTarget
Research Peer Network. As part of your subscription you receive access
to all of this fact based data, delivered without any analyst spin or bias, in
exchange for your valuable time. The reciprocal relationship
that TechTarget Research has created with our audience of
enterprise IT decision makers helps them to:
Benchmark their own IT spending and have proofpoints to get the budget for their upcoming projects
Fast track their evaluations by identifying the shortlist
their peers have vetted
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their peers are getting
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vendor by utilizing their peers actual experiences
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Introduction
Is your hardware and/or service contract coming to end of life? Are you
looking to cut costs and simplify your data center? Or are you looking for a
way to improve how you manage data and applications? According to a recent
survey by TechTarget Research, IT professionals who are looking to make
blade server purchases in 2016/2017 are justifying them with these reasons,
among others.
In this brief report, you will learn not only the reasons why you should consider
making a new blade server purchase, but also who the top vendors are and
the specific features that your peers are looking for in their next purchase.
This report will help you:
Understand the current levels of adoption for blade servers and future
growth
Learn why companies are looking to purchase blade servers in
2016/2017
Uncover the top features to consider when looking to buy blade
servers
Create a shortlist of the top vendors for your next blade server
purchase

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Current adoption and future growth of blade

servers
More than one in three respondents in a recent TechTarget survey indicates
they currently have blade servers installed at their organization. And as may
not be a surprise to IT professionals, the larger a company is the higher the
percentage that has them installed. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed at
companies with 10,000 or more employees currently have blade servers
installed. This compares to 48% of those at firms with 1,000 to 9,999
employees and 26% of those at smaller companies. Blade servers are, in
fact, the preferred format for companies with 10,000 or more employees,
according to TechTarget research (see the following chart for details).
Throughout 2016/2017 IT professionals can expect continued purchases of
these servers. About one-quarter of all companies expect to purchase more
of this technology, with the larger an organization (by number of employees)
being more likely to make a new purchase (see the following chart for details).

Current and future adoption of blade servers

% currently using blade servers

10,000+

61%

10,000+

37%

1,000 9,999

48%

1,000 9,999

29%

<1,000

26%

<1,000

18%

10,000+ employees: n=210

1,000-9,999 employees: n=246
<1,000 employees: n=313

% expecting to purchase blade servers in the next

12 months

10,000+ employees: n=346

1,000-9,999 employees: n=507
<1,000 employees: n=1,209

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Top reasons companies are purchasing blade

servers
The primary reason IT shops buy any kind of server is usually because the
lease on their existing one is up, and blades are no exception. But looking
deeper, we see that blade purchases are still being driven by a consolidate
and simplify mentality. Moving from racks to blades promises a more highly
integrated hardware environment that can eliminate the mismatches in server,
storage and network management. IT shops are also attracted to the promise
of reducing facilities challenges with floor space, power and cooling (see the
following chart for details).

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Top reasons IT professionals are purchasing blade servers

End of life of hardware/service contact ending

50%

Desire to simplify/consolidate data center

28%
55%

Consolidated management

22%
53%

Data management challenges

19%
37%

Budget and staff constraints/limitations

19%
17%

Looking to reduce amount of space and power

17%
13%

A growing disparity between business

demands and IT resources

11%
13%

Building a new datacenter or moving to a

new facility

9%
11%

Integration/management challenges with

multiple vendors

9%
9%

Need a better solution for running

Tier 1 applications

6%

Other, please specify

12%

n= 254, Note: Choose up to 3.

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Need to know what features to look for? Look no

further
If blade purchases are driven by a general need for simplicity, choosing one is
more driven by the usual concerns: CPU, memory and reliability. CPU speed
(53%), reliability (50%) and memory capacity (46%) appear on about half of all
feature lists. Yet, these features are not the only ones that are important to IT
professionals. Configuration flexibility with multiple blade options is important
to nearly one in four, and nearly one in five says power and cooling efficiency
is critical to their purchase (see the following chart for details).

Most important top 3 features for an upcoming blade server

purchase
CPU speed

53%

Reliability

50%

Memory capacity

46%

Configuration flexibility with multiple blade options

24%

Power and cooling efficiency

19%

Management features

15%

I/O parts

14%

Standardization of parts

10%

Compactness
Other, please specify

7%
4%

n= 254, Note: Choose up to 3.

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4 vendors dominate the field with little room for

others
Four companies dominate the current vendor landscape for blade servers:
Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE), Dell/EMC, Cisco Systems and IBM with
no considerable differences based on company size. And despite the many
options in the market by other vendors, these companies are expected to
continue to dominate future adoption (see the following chart for details).

Shortlisted vendors for upcoming blade server purchases

Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Dell/EMC
Cisco Systems
IBM
Lenovo Group
Oracle
Super Micro Computer

37%
48%
28%
55%
41%
15%
53%
12%
37%
38%
4%
17%
13%
13%

4%
3%

Fujitsu

2%
11%

Generic or custom built

2%
9%

Hitachi Data Systems

2%

Huawei Technologies

2%

Other, please specify

4%

n= 254, Note: Choose all that apply

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Conclusion
While contracts coming to an end and/or blade servers simply needing
to be updated are the key drivers for a blade server purchase, a desire to
consolidate the data center along with management of applications running
on blade servers are also top reasons, among several others. What features
are needed for a particular purchase can vary, but nearly one in five IT
professionals is looking to increase CPU speed, reliability and memory
capacity. And although there are many vendors in the market selling blade
servers, four key organizations stand out HPE, Dell/EMC, Cisco Systems and
IBM and should probably make it on anyones shortlist.

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About TechTarget Research Peer Network

Choosing the right technologies and finding the right vendors for IT projects
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With a subscription members can:
Benchmark their own IT spending and have proof-points to get
the budget for their upcoming projects
Fast track their evaluations by identifying the shortlist their peers
have vetted
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are getting
Make more informed decisions about using a new IT vendor
by utilizing their peers actual experiences
Participation is easy. In exchange for a confidential dialog about their recent
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to your job. techtarget.com/network

This report contains only aggregated and anonymous information based on responses to surveys conducted by TechTarget
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