ENGINEERING

Dell PowerEdge 1855 blades now include a wide range of connectivity features, helping to reduce overall solution cost and cable sprawl for customers' data centers. Dell customers can take advantage of up to two McDATA 4314 Fibre Channel switches in the Dell Modular Server Enclosure for redundant server-to-storage connectivity and seamless integration to existing storage area network (SAN) fabrics. In addition to the McDATA 4314, the balanced architecture of the PowerEdge 1855 supports high performance Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand connectivity options from Dell, Intel, Brocade, QLogic, and Topspin. Dell's work with leading hardware and software providers to provide a truly integrated blade server solution offers investment protection by supporting I/O technologies in the Dell Modular Server Enclosure and multiple generations of blade servers. Dell's approach to delivering balanced blade architecture has driven increased customer adoption of the high-density computing platform since the PowerEdge 1855 began shipping earlier this year. Its dual processor, blade-server unit shipments have increased from four percent to 12 percent in the first quarter of 2005 compared with the fourth quarter of 2004, according to industry analyst firm IDC. Overstock.com has taken advantage of the PowerEdge 1855 blade server's density and investment protection that does not come at the expense of standard server features. The online "closeout" retailer recently standardized on Dell PowerEdge 1855 blade servers to power its offerings of discount, brand-name merchandise for sale over the Internet, as well as an online auction site. "Dell blades delivered the enterprise-class features and performance at a price point that met our datacenter needs," said Shawn Schwegman, Senior Vice President of Technology at Overstock.com Inc. "We standardized on the PowerEdge 1855 because the balance of density, performance and connectivity at a lower price than 1U servers provides us the power we need today and room to grow." "With the PowerEdge 1855, we designed the first blade server that delivered on the promise of high-density computing," said Jeff Clarke, senior vice president of Dell's Product Group. "We will continue to drive a balanced architecture with blade offerings that leverage industry standard technologies to help customers simplify their operations and enjoy increased return on their IT investments." Pricing and Availability The McDATA 4314 Fibre Channel switch for the Dell PowerEdge 1855 is available today. Pricing for a single switch starts at $8,999 and includes four Short Wave Small Form Factor Pluggable (SFP) optical transceivers. Additional information on the PowerEdge 1855 is available at its Web site.