What is Blade Server?
- Definition
- A blade server is a compact server that fits into a shared chassis. Several blades can share power, cooling, and network connections.
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 resale value due to their enterprise-grade components, which some organizations capture through a reseller. Proper ITAD ensures documented data sanitization before any component leaves your control. EverTrade does not buy back or resell equipment; its ITAD service covers documented NIST SP 800-88-aligned data sanitization and responsible recycling.
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