Blade servers save space, but man, are they energy hogs!

If you are an IT for a company or institution, servers can be a major pain in the neck. Lower, actually :-)

Not only are servers temperamental, but they take up a lot of room and their cost runs into the negative ka-ching universe.

With their stacked pizza-box tech feng shui, (known by IT pros as "consolidation") blade servers are seen as the ideal solution. But according to Bob Gill, chief research officer at TheInfoPro, these consolidation advantages are often more than neutralized by the energy they suck up.

"Unfortunately, at the same time many of the simplest consolidation approaches, such as loading up blades in a chassis, are creating a heat and cooling versus density tension that has data centre managers up in arms" Gill tells VNU Business Online. "The use of virtualization software to consolidate on single blades or standalone systems, combined with increased attention to engineering more energy-efficient blade solutions, is what users are desperate for."

To which I say, heating and cooling vs. density tension= not cool. Whether you are talking about blade servers or one's personal life.