What is Blade Server?
- Definition
- A blade server is a compact, modular server that fits into a shared chassis, providing high computing density for data centers while sharing power, cooling, and networking.
A blade server is a stripped-down server computer designed to fit into a blade enclosure (chassis) alongside multiple other blades. The chassis provides shared infrastructure — power supplies, cooling fans, networking modules, and management controllers — which allows blade servers to achieve much higher computing density than traditional rack servers.
Major manufacturers of blade systems include HPE (BladeSystem, Synergy), Dell EMC (PowerEdge MX), Cisco (UCS), and Lenovo (Flex System). A single blade chassis can hold 8-16 blade servers, each with its own CPUs, RAM, and local storage.
When decommissioning blade servers, each blade must be individually sanitized for data on local drives, and the chassis management controller should be factory reset to remove configuration data, IP addresses, and credentials. Blade systems can retain significant resale value due to their enterprise-grade components. Proper ITAD ensures secure data destruction while maximizing value recovery from the modular components.
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