This Is Why You Study Vendor Solutions!

Today on my lunch break, I decided to watch some videos from Brocade on YouTube. I know. I know. You do the same thing right? Well, as I went through the playlist, an interesting video regarding IBM blade centers and Brocade switches was shown. Comparisons were made to the HP and Cisco blade enclosure offerings. IBM of course, came out on top, but in the course of the video, I couldn’t help but think how silly the comparisons were. I realize it is the job of marketing people to show their company’s products in the best light. However, sometimes it isn’t what they say, but what they don’t say. Take a few minutes to watch the video and see if you spot some things that weren’t mentioned.

Some things to consider:

1) How many slots are in the IBM H series, HP C7000 series, and Cisco UCS series blade centers/enclosures?
2) Which of these solutions have switches on board? Hint: More than 1.
3) How much bandwidth is needed per blade?
4) In the case of Cisco UCS, why do they have fewer blades in their enclosure? Could memory capacity be a factor?

I’m not emphatically stating that one vendor’s solution is better than another. As with anything, it depends on what your particular needs are. What this video reinforces for me is that you need to know the various options from vendors. The last thing you want to do is make decisions due to videos like this.