Definition of a Non-Mission Critical Blade Server
A small, sleek, energy efficient server is of no use to a company if it crashes under a heavy load, taking an online store down with it. Blade servers are an alternative architecture for servers that are modular and consume less power than traditional servers, making them ideal for hosting non-mission critical tasks for a business.
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Mission Critical Servers
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A mission critical server is one that a company relies on for its standard operations. This could be the server that hosts an online business's website, the player server for an online video game, a server that provides a web gateway to online services, or internal servers that host applications that employees need to do their jobs. If a mission critical server goes down then the company will be unable to provide its services to customers.
Non-Mission Critical Servers
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An efficient business does not have any component that is not important to achieving its long term goals. Non-mission critical tasks are still important to the organization, but failure on a non-mission critical task will not bring the company to a grinding halt. If a backup server goes down, then the company can keep working while its technical staff fixes the problem. Test servers crashing is a normal part of the research and development process. When a non-mission critical server goes down it will need to be fixed, but it will not present an existential crisis for the business.
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Blade Servers
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Traditional industrial strength servers are large machines that take up a lot of space and use a lot of electricity. Blade servers use a more minimalist design, condensing the functions of an entire server into a package that resembles a shelf. Instead of devoting an entire room to hosting multiple servers, multiple blade servers can stack on top of one another in a closet like structure called a server rack. Each individual server blade operates independently of the others, and a company's technical staff can remove one blade without interrupting the operation of the others.
Criticisms of Blade Servers
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Blade servers offer certain economical benefits over more traditional, larger, servers. However, businesses are willing to pay the extra money and devote the extra floor space for large, high powered, servers to handle mission critical tasks. The characteristics of blade servers makes them well suited to non-mission critical tasks. Non-mission critical tasks will not put the same strain on the servers that mission critical tasks would, so companies do not need them to be as powerful. Non-mission critical projects are also more prone to change and reorganization, for which the modular nature of blade servers is helpful.
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References
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