Most small and midsize businesses have one. It's way too small to be called a data center. It may not even be a server room. It's a space somewhere, in a back office or utility closet, where servers have mushroomed out of control.

A company may have started with one or two servers. But then it implemented a new application, and along with it came a new server. Then another ... and another ... each with its own storage and backup. Now the company has its own version of "Little Shop of Horrors," with every new server taking up more space, spewing more cables and gobbling up more power.

Recognizing this nightmare as a good business opportunity, server manufacturers took the blade systems they had been selling to enterprises and redesigned them into smaller enclosures that run on standard 110-volt office outlets. While there has been a learning curve for both the channel and SMB clients (see p. 22), these small blade systems are starting to take off. And solution providers well-versed in the technology are finding that blade solutions generate a lot of related consulting, hardware and ongoing services revenue.

Blades are catching on because even small companies are starting to realize how they can save money and hassle by consolidating stand-alone servers. "Getting all the equipment from your overflowing data closet into a beautifully integrated box makes sense practically and economically," says Charles King, principal analyst at consulting firm Pund-IT. "The value is that you can have a single cabinet, with highly integrated server, storage and networking."

Such setups offer multiple benefits. By consolidating multiple servers into one box, blade systems free up floor space, get rid of the rat's nest of cables snaking all over the room and cut energy costs. (Hewlett-Packard estimates that blades use 30 percent to 35 percent less electricity than traditional rack-based servers.) But perhaps the most appealing benefit for SMBs is that blade systems let administrators control everything through one management console, making a business's IT system much easier to manage and maintain.

"The question is no longer, ‘Why blades?' " says Barry Sinclair, worldwide product manager for HP's BladeSystem c3000, "but rather, ‘Why not blades?' "

Blades Take Off
Blade systems have become a significant part of the overall server market. In 2008, worldwide blade server revenue grew 33 percent to $5.4 billion, according to IDC. Among x86 servers, blades now represent 18.5 percent of the revenue. And even as the market for x86 servers declined last year as the economic downturn took its toll, blades continued to grow. In fact, it was the only part of the server market that showed positive unit growth in the last quarter of 2008, IDC says.

Some solution providers see these trends reflected in their own sales. Jay Tipton is president of Technology Specialists, a solution provider in Indiana that carries IBM servers. His server sales grew from $170,000 in 2007 to $500,000 in 2008 almost entirely due to the growth in blades. Likewise, Richard Bailey, practice manager of systems and storage for FusionStorm, a California-based solution provider that carries HP, notes that 60 percent to 70 percent of all servers he sells today are blades, "and that's only going to grow."

HP and IBM are the two top blade vendors, according to IDC. As of the fourth quarter of 2008, HP had 55 percent of the market. IBM was a distant second, with a 22 percent market share. In 2007, both companies introduced blade systems designed specifically for the SMB market, IBM with its BladeCenter S and HP with the Blade- System c3000.

Keys to Blade Success
Any or all of the benefits of blade servers can be the selling hook for SMBs, says Akbar Fazli, an Ingram Micro Solution Center engineer. One client may need to save on floor space, another wants reduced power and cooling, or another might want server consolidation and easier management. "If any one of those factors is relevant, it's going to justify going to blades," says Fazli. One customer, who is on the 30th floor of a Manhattan high-rise building, had a problem with its stand-alone servers' weight. The building's floor was rated only for a certain poundage and when the weight started pushing against that limit, the solution was to switch to blades.

But blades aren't for everyone, and it's important to identify the right sales prospects. Blade systems may not make sense for very small companies, although it's not clear where to draw the line. HP's Sinclair, for example, says blades aren't necessarily appropriate for companies with fewer than 50 employees who own one or two servers. But a blade system can be beneficial for a customer that's refreshing or adding four or more servers at time, he suggests. Arlin Sorensen, president of solution provider Heartland Technology Solutions, hasn't found a market in companies with fewer than 100 seats. Most of Heartland's blade sales go into companies with 100 to 300 seats, Sorensen says, and they are usually prompted by an infrastructure crisis.

"A lot of our customers aren't equipped to handle the number of servers that they end up having," Sorensen says. One client's server room literally got too hot, and it wasn't able to add any more servers without upgrading the circuit. After Heartland consolidated most of the servers into a blade system, the room temperature dropped 10 degrees and the client had power to spare.

Blades and virtualization are often used hand in hand for consolidation of equipment and infrastructure, notes Bailey of FusionStorm. "A blade system takes all that infrastructure and allows me to consolidate the physical hardware and cabling -- it's like a data center in a box," Bailey says. "Then I can virtualize on top of that."

A Beautiful Relationship?
Another plus is that installing the blade system is usually just the beginning of a broader strategic relationship between solution provider and customer, says Alex Yost, vice president and business line executive for IBM System x and BladeCenter. Whether the initial sale is prompted by a new application or the SMB is simply overwhelmed by server sprawl, a blade system presents a golden opportunity to become the customer's trusted advisor.

"Blades open up a whole gamut of opportunities," Bailey says. Before installing a blade system, solution providers need to do some consulting, reviewing and assessing of the client's network to make sure the technology is stable, up to date and able to be integrated into blades. Where it's not, the solution provider can recommend that the client purchase additional products.

A blade installation typically produces sales of software licenses and storage hardware initially, and then other hardware and software as the customer expands the system to accommodate growing business needs, says Tipton of Technology Specialists. "I've got a client that's coming back every year and buying about $20,000 more in blades and storage."

Tipton notes that IBM has opened its blade architecture to third parties, so a wide variety of options are available from different vendors, such as switching from Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and Qlogic. In fact, IBM helped found Blade.org, a collaborative organization and developer community focused on accelerating the development and adoption of open blade server platforms.

Having many choices is helpful to solution providers looking to provide a customized solution. Tipton adds that in today's bad economy, it's especially important to have multiple suppliers. "Choice gives clients peace of mind, as I can't guarantee that a particular vendor is going to be around tomorrow."

Then there is the ongoing services revenue from remote management and maintenance. Blade systems incorporate tools that not only make setup and configuration easy, but they also enable management from one central console, either at the customer's site or from another location.

The fact that blades consolidate all the systems into one box, combined with good remote tools, makes it easier to provide managed services for blades than for traditional servers, Sorensen says. He praises HP's tools but Heartland Technology Solutions also combines them with third-party remote management software.

"When you're dealing with 15 different stand-alone servers that were bought at 15 different times, then you have to deal with 15 different experiences in how those things are going to act," Sorensen says. "The beauty of blades is that the servers all respond and react the same way."

In short, solution providers can play the hero with blades, taming sprawling server beasts and ensuring that an SMB's technology infrastructure is predictable and reliable, with room to grow.