A blade server is a compact, self-contained server that consists of core processing components that fit into an enclosure with other blade servers.

A single blade may consist of hot-plug hard-drives, memory, network cards, input/output cards and integrated lights-out remote management. The modular design of the blade server helps to optimize server performance and reduce energy costs.

Blade servers are designed to overcome the space and energy restrictions of a typical data center environment.

A blade server can be used for tasks such as:

• File sharing
• Database and application hosting
• SSL encryption of Web communication
• Hosting virtual server platforms
• Streaming audio and video content

Some of the benefits of blade servers include:

• Reduced energy costs
• Reduced power and cooling expenses
• Space savings
• Reduced cabling
• Redundancy
• Increased storage capacity
• Reduced data center footprint
• Minimum administration
• Low total cost of ownership