Blade.org Is Open for Innovation

Industry Community Works to Advance Blade Technology and Adoption; Forty New Members Join Blade.org

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NEW YORK, NY - 08 Feb 2006: More than 40 technology leaders including IBM and Intel today announced the official formation of Blade.org, an open community that will develop and advance next-generation technologies for blades.

The Blade.org community will initially focus on solution design guidance, compliance and interoperability testing, industry events and marketplace education.

New members announced today include Altiris, AMD, Avnet, BladeFusion, Broadcom, Brocade, CGAtlantic, Citrix Systems, Clovis Solutions, Devon IT, Emulex, Force10 Networks, Fulcrum Microsystems, HCL Technologies, IBM, Intel, iVivity, Myricom, NetApp, NetEffect, Neoware, Nortel, Novell, OpenService, PathScale, QLogic, Qumranet, Red Hat, Sensory Networks, Server Engines, Stargen, Symantec, Teak Technologies, Tehuti Networks, Universal Network Machines, Universal Scientific Industrial, Virtual Iron, VMware, Voltaire, Wyse Technology and Zeus Technology. The membership levels are governing, sponsoring and general.

Also today, IBM announced the availability of updated open specifications covering the new BladeCenter high-performance system, called BladeCenter H. IBM is the only server vendor to open their blade specifications.

Blade.org member companies announcing new products today for BladeCenter H include Emulex, Myricom, Server Engines and Voltaire.

"What started only months ago as a group of companies interested in driving innovation on the BladeCenter-based platform, has become a fully functioning organization, supporting openness and collaborative innovation around new products and systems," said Doug Balog, chairman, Blade.org. "The Blade.org community is already innovating and delivering new BladeCenter solutions, expanding customer confidence in this rapidly growing market."

"Intel is committed to expanding the blade ecosystem," said Kirk Skaugen, vice president, Digital Enterprise Group and general manager, Server Platforms Group, Intel Corporation. "New market segments and broader solutions are already emerging from the Blade.org community, and Intel will continue to work closely with the consortium to create new blade solutions."

IBM's work with security and networking solution provider CG Atlantic is an early example of this collaboration. Both companies partnered to deliver IBM's BladeCenter-based Systems Solutions for Information Security to women's apparel maker Bernard Chaus, Inc.

"Our endeavors in the fashion industry are global with our employees located around the world. Our operations are 24x7 and our team must be able to access the network at all hours without worrying about security issues," said Ed Eskew, CIO of Bernard Chaus Inc. "CG Atlantic and IBM collaborated to provide us with a solution based on IBM BladeCenter to build our layered security infrastructure on a single management platform, providing high availability for our security application."

Examples of other BladeCenter products and initiatives carried out by Blade.org members include:

Virtualized Hosted Client Infrastructure - IBM, VMware, and Citrix collaborated to launch a hosted client offering to deliver full desktop functionality to any client from highly reliable and secure IBM xSeries and BladeCenter servers.

Systems Solutions for Branch Banking - IBM solutions for financial services and banking customers help to centralize operations and reduce overhead costs, leveraging a growing ecosystem of partners including VMware virtual infrastructure.

Blade.org Committees
Blade.org today announced the creation of committees to be led by the community's governing members:

Bylaws and Membership Committee - creates drafts for any legal documentation required by the organization.

Solution Architecture Committee - will create customer-driven solution blueprints.

Compliance and Interoperability Committee - will drive blade platform interoperability, accelerating customer adoption of industry standard solutions.

Marketing Committee - responsible for Blade.org marketing and publicity.

Business Development Committee - for recruitment of new members.

Also, Blade.org today launched a new website: www.blade.org, as a central location for the blade community, offering membership information and details on the organization.

Blade.org also plans to participate in industry events like Intel Developer Forum and Server Blade Summit.