This Collaborative Product Evaluation compares the functional capabilities of two leading blade server platforms targeting the requirements of midsize environments, such as small and medium businesses (SMB) and branch offices. The studied products include:

HP BladeSystem c3000, HP's blade server platform developed specifically for midsize customers

IBM BladeCenter S, IBM's first blade server chassis built specifically for the office and distributed enterprise environment

The chart above shows summary ratings for the evaluated products, based on an average of their ratings in the five key functional areas below.

To see how the products compare in each functional area, click on one of the links below:

	Platform Functionality (30 ratings)
	Environmental Footprint (10 ratings)
	Virtualization Functions (4 ratings)
	Reliability, Serviceability & Manageability (10 ratings)
	Deployment Considerations (10 ratings)