HPE BladeSystem Pros and Cons

The benefit is the density and the capability for global harmonization on the hardware, because all the hardware chassis are the same. We can also purchase the same network cards too, chassis by chassis, so it gives us a global solution.

I really appreciate the integrated Onboard Administrator, the iLO (Integrated Lights-Out) modular network, and the SAN Switches.

They are reliable, and it's relatively easy to manage them. They also regularly provide patching for the servers.

The virtual connect and network management port is a valuable feature.

With just one cable, for redundancy let's say two, you can feed sixteen servers in a single c7000 chassis.

They have served different needs for us from virtualized web servers to dedicated databases and application servers.

The scalability is limited because you only have a 16-server by chassis.

This product needs a wider range of firmware compatibility matrix from the oldest to the newest blade server.

The problem is that when want to expand with a new chassis, you have to do everything manually. It's not automatic.

HPE BladeSystems is an old technology that cannot fit all of the dynamic organizational needs of our company.

The only side that must be improved is the active-passive interconnect module architecture.

There have been some hardware failures with them. These failures have since been solved by HPE support partners.