IBM to Beta Test First Desktop Blade Server

In June, IBM announced a fourth-quarter release timeframe for a new class of BladeCenter systems for small and medium business. To make certain its initial rollouts are going the right way, this morning, IBM added that it's launching a beta test program for select BladeCenter S customers, encompassing perhaps dozens of clients in ten countries.

Whereas most SMB servers are based on processor platforms, with a blade cluster, the "platform" stops at the blade's edge. So BladeCenter S will offer clients the extraordinary option of Intel, AMD, or Power processors.

Borrowing a page from Microsoft -- which is gearing up to introduce Windows Server for the home later this year -- IBM is testing its own version of "wizard-based" administration. Its goal is to produce a box the size of a microwave oven you'd find in the office break room, that takes the place of up to 45 separate single-board server units.

It can sit on top of a filing cabinet, have junk piled on top of it, and plug into a 110-volt wall outlet. Hard drives can be apportioned one-per-blade, or the cluster can be attached to an external storage network providing 14.4 TB of capacity.

A breakthrough system like that could break a number of barriers, including the one that has kept higher-end equipment outside the premises of companies without their own IT departments. So what IBM wants to know is whether it's "click-here-to-continue" setup and deployment system truly is easy for uncertified admins to understand and manage.

Clients are getting their first look at BladeCenter S this week at the XChange conference in Orlando.