PISCATAWAY, NJ--(Marketwire - January 31, 2011) - Blade.org, the industry leader driving market innovation in blade-based solutions, today announced Blade.U, a new technical and educational initiative exclusive to members of the organization. Administered by Blade.org, Blade.U has the mission to promote the value of blade server technologies and solutions to small and mid-sized businesses in new and emerging markets throughout the world.
Blade.U activities take the form of technical presentations from Blade.org member companies held in conjunction with various IBM road shows spanning the globe. Blade.org members APC by Schneider Electric, Brocade, Emulex, Intel, and QLogic will each present their products and technologies during IBM's The Evolution of the Datacenter road shows beginning on February 17 in New York City. After visiting several North American hubs, these road shows will extend to countries with strong emerging IT markets, specifically Australia, China and Russia for 2011.
"We are excited to take Blade.U's message on the road," said Alex Yost, Blade.org chairman and IBM vice president and business line executive for IBM System x and BladeCenter. "Blade.org members are deploying cutting-edge technologies that drastically reduce datacenter costs by enabling clients to exploit virtualization and convergence technologies while lowering an IT department's power and cooling costs. It is our hope that more companies will switch to Blade-based systems once they see the many cost-saving capabilities offered by our members."
Blade.U will initially present at the following IBM road shows:
- NYC -- February 17, 2011
- Atlanta -- March 1, 2011
- Dallas -- March 8, 2011
- Seattle -- March 10, 2011
- Nashville -- March 10, 2011
- Chicago -- March 17, 2011
"APC by Schneider Electric is proud to be part of the Blade.U program," said Anthony DeSpirito, VP global strategic alliances, APC by Schneider Electric. "This initiative affords APC the opportunity to educate IT decision makers on the requirements and benefits of going 'dense' using dynamic, adaptable physical infrastructure. Through Blade.U, we will offer the IT community the required tools to better plan for the future of their data centers and IT rooms."
"As a leader in data center networking, Brocade looks forward to being part of the Blade.U initiative," said Doug Ingraham, vice president of data center products at Brocade. "Brocade Fibre Channel and FCoE IBM BladeCenter solutions provide leading edge solutions for data centers. In addition, we have collaborated with leading blade server vendors to develop Fibre Channel, Ethernet and FCoE switch modules and adapter products for blade environments."
"Blades are the fastest growing segment of the server market because it enables IT organizations to increase computing density and optimize for server virtualization. The combination of greater compute density and aggregation of virtual servers onto a reduced number of physical servers is creating demands for more flexible virtual I/O solutions that support 10GbE, FCoE, iSCSI, Fibre Channel and other high performance I/O options," said Shaun Walsh, vice president of marketing, Emulex. "We are pleased to participate and sponsor Blade.U's educational programs that help IT managers plan, deploy and optimize their blade server infrastructures to maximize ROI and lower OPEX."
"Demand for blade server solutions continues to grow rapidly as organizations seek ways to drive greater efficiencies through smaller footprints while improving application performance and easing manageability in highly virtualized data center environments," said Satish Lakshmanan, senior director, Host Solutions Group, QLogic. "The Blade.U initiative provides key IT decision makers in small and medium businesses around the globe with the opportunity to learn about the value of blade center technologies including QLogic's portfolio of innovative Fibre Channel switches and adapters and 10GbE Converged Networking adapters."
For complete details about Blade.org membership and the Blade.U Program, please visit the Blade.org website today at www.blade.org.
About Blade.org
Blade.org is a collaborative vendor and end-user community focused on accelerating the development and adoption of blade server solutions. The organization provides leadership to the blade market and fosters a thriving industry ecosystem focused on delivering valuable solutions to blade computing customers. More information is available at www.blade.org.
Contact Information:
Media Contacts
Michelle Hunt
IEEE-ISTO Senior Program Manager
Blade.org
michelle.hunt@ieee-isto.org
+1 732 981-3434
Jeff Pane
Blade.org
IEEE-ISTO Marketing Coordinator
jeff@blade.org
+1 732 465-6605