BLADE Network Technologies is the market-leading supplier of Gigabit and 10G Ethernet, IP and Application Switches for blade server systems globally. BLADE is the first vendor to focus exclusively on serving the network infrastructure needs of the rapidly growing blade server market. The company’s end-users include Fortune 500 companies across 26 different industry segments. As the number-one supplier of network switches for blade servers, BLADE boasts an installed base of more than 120,000 blade server switches (representing approximately 2.7 million switch ports) around the world. In 2006, BLADE was established as a fully independent company when it purchased certain assets of Nortel’s Blade Server Switch Business Unit. For more information, visit BLADE at www.bladenetwork.net.

www.bladenetwork.net/pages/about_us_management.html

• Matthias Schwarz July 28, 2007

  There's a lot of stating-the-obvious in this pitch; the problem and its solution have been around for quite some time, even though newer alternative solutions to rack density issues and server aggregation (think virtualization) will continue to emerge. However, Silicon Valley engineers keep having trouble understanding that it's not always the best product that wins in the marketplace: It's about competitiveness, marketing, alliances, and execution. Ever heard of that 1,000-pound gorilla named Cisco Systems? I am a fan of the concept but in this particular industry I'd be most interested in knowing how Blade Network Technologies thinks it can build a sustainable competitive advantage.