Blade.org Fact Sheet

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Blade.org is the premier open community dedicated to creating solutions based on the blade server platform pioneered by IBM and Intel. The organization was established in February 2006 to increase the number of blade platform solutions and accelerate the process of bringing them to market. From eight founding companies, Blade.org has grown to nearly 100 members including leading blade hardware and software providers, developers, distribution partners and end users from around the globe.

Why Blade.org? According to IDC, the blade server market will reach customer revenues of $11 billion by 2010. Blades are the fastest growing segment of the server market. As customers look to grow their data centers or replace aging infrastructures, they are facing complexities of integration, and space and power thresholds. Customers of all sizes are turning to blades to save space, increase density and decrease power consumption, while lowering total cost and improving infrastructure flexibility.

Blade.org was chartered to promote the development and innovation of blade technology to help customers meet the growing demands on their IT infrastructures. By creating an open, collaborative environment, Blade.org is putting the collective ingenuity of its members to work on challenges and opportunities alike within the blade server ecosystem.

Blade.org is focusing resources on specific areas of opportunity including:

• Expanding the breadth of offerings earning the "Blade.org Solution" designation.
• Compliance and interoperability with the blade platform pioneered by Intel and IBM.
• Creating customer-driven solutions for large enterprise to SMB customers in markets such as government, retail and banking.
• Addressing increasing customer demand for virtualization, security, and improved power efficiency and cooling.

Benefits for the entire Blade ecosystem. The overarching objective for Blade.org is to provide value to the blade server customer. Blade.org is making it easier than ever for blade customers to invest wisely. With "Blade.org Solutions," Blade.org has designed a program to give customers the confidence that an offering has met requirements for quality and that it has been deployed successfully in a customer environment. Compliance and Interoperability testing will provide a level of assurance that hardware products have met rigorous standards for performance with the Intel/IBM blade platform.

Blade.org members benefit as well. Networking events result in new partnerships; members leverage each othersÕ technologies to enter new fields, and members are teaming to expand their channels to market.

By providing an environment that sparks innovation among members, Blade.org is bringing new blade server applications and solutions to market more quickly, creating opportunity for the entire blade ecosystem. With contributions from hardware and software vendors, to developers and investors, to the end-user looking for the best way to do business, the collaborative environment of Blade.org is forging the next generation in blade technology.