| No, this isn't some science fiction horror story. It's | | | | this way. On a personal computer one of the |
| about blade servers. Most of you are familiar with | | | | components that can possibly fail is the power supply. |
| servers. Essentially, servers are machines designed to | | | | If the this component fails, you could lose very |
| perform a very specific function in a network. Some | | | | important data, all because your power source |
| house applications; others are used solely to store | | | | conked out on you. Since the blade attaches itself to |
| information, and others may process incoming and | | | | the rack's power supply, the power on the rack must |
| outgoing emails. | | | | fail before anything bad happens to data. |
| There is, however, a special type of server | | | | So, what's a KVM and why should we care? KVM |
| nowadays that is different than a standard | | | | stands for keyboard, monitor, and mouse. Okay, so |
| rectangular box that sits on the floor or fits nicely | | | | the engineers that invented the blades weren't so |
| into a rack. It's called the blade server. The blade | | | | good with coming up with good acronyms. They're |
| server is sleek and fits nicely into standard 19-inch | | | | engineers. Actually, the V stands for video because |
| server racks. The server itself is on a single card and | | | | you can have multiple monitors with one video |
| is normally mounted with other blade servers. The | | | | connection. KVMs are important because they can |
| blades are thin (hence the name) and reduce the | | | | connect to many blade servers to configure them, |
| number of cables that go to and from the rack (and | | | | bring them online, take them offline, and any number |
| to the actual blade). Many blades themselves do not | | | | of other administrative duties. |
| need a power source because they are mounted into | | | | KVMs and blades work well together, and they are |
| a rack that uses its own power supply. Since a blade | | | | nearly useless when separated. Combined they are |
| does not have its own power supply, that is an | | | | able to provide server support to your networked |
| excellent selling point in a lot of instances. Think of it | | | | community. |