that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . may 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message blade network technologies industry network hardware founded 2006 headquarters santa clara california united states key people vikram mehta vice president system networking ibm systems and technology group revenue now part of lenovo parent lenovo website http shop.lenovo.com us en systems networking blade network technologies based in santa clara california was a supplier of ethernet network switches for blade servers and server and storage data center racks . 1 blade became part of ibm system networking in 2010 . later sold to lenovo as part of purchase of ibm x86 server division 2 contents 1 history 2 partners 3 technology and products 4 rackswitch 5 blade server switches 6 other products 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit on february 13 2006 garnett & helfrich capital 3 established blade network technologies inc. as a privately held company from a spin out of nortel s blade server switch unit focused on networking for the blade server market . 4 5 vikram mehta was president and ceo . 6 partners edit in 2008 the company introduced its rackswitch 7 line of top of rack 1 10 gigabit ethernet data center switches . the company s customers included fortune 500 companies across 26 industry segments with more than 220 000 network switches and over 5 million switch ports connecting more than 1 100 000 servers . ibm acquired blade in october 2010 . 8 lenovo acquired blade in 2014 . 9 technology and products edit blade 10 called its products top of rack and bladed 1 10 gigabit ethernet switches 11 for high performance computing hpc multimedia vod iptv voip online gaming financial analysis security cloud networking web 2.0 and other applications . blade used the marketing slogan rackonomics an economical approach for provisioning essential server storage and networking . 12 blade s rackswitch top of rack data center switch products leverage the company s blade server networking heritage and unique focus on rackonomics to perform with up to 12.4 less latency 73 percent less energy and 6.5 better price performance than comparable top of rack data center switches . 13 rackswitch edit blade s rackswitch was a data center switch with gigabit ethernet and 10 gigabit ethernet connections . the rackswitch product family was promoted as extending benefits of virtual machine from server computers to the network . rackswitch was the only switch designed for ibm s idataplex a custom configured rack system featuring cooling and efficiency to address i o intensive applications and cloud computing . 14 blade rackswitch products include rackswitch g8100 and g8124 10g low latency switches rackswitch g8000 1 10g aggregation switch blade server switches edit blade s embedded gigabit and 10 gigabit ethernet switches are available for ibm bladecenter hp bladesystem nec sigmablade and verari bladeswitch to consolidate server i o enable network virtualization and reduce data center complexity by adding network intelligence within the blade server chassis . blade s switch modules for ibm bnt 10 port 10g ethernet switch module bnt 6 port 10g ethernet switch module bnt 1 10gb uplink ethernet switch module bnt layer 2 7 gigabit ethernet switch module bnt layer 2 3 copper gigabit ethernet switch module bnt layer 2 3 fiber gigabit ethernet switch module blade s switch modules for hp bladesystem include hp 10gb ethernet bl c switch hp 1 10gb ethernet bl c switch hp gbe2c layer 2 3 ethernet blade switch hp gbe2c ethernet blade switch blade s switch modules for nec sigmablade include nec 1gb intelligent l2 switch nec 1gb intelligent l3 switch nec 10gb intelligent l3 switch other products edit network management and virtualization software included smartconnect with vmready and blade harmony manager . bladeharmony professional services offered integration of systems software services and support for rack level server environments . blade had agreements with the vendors hp ibm nec and juniper networks . see also edit fibre channel over ethernet ibm bladecenter list of mergers and acquisitions by ibm references edit http www.hoovers.com blade network technologies inc. hd jrkhsrkrs src dbi free co dnb factsheet.xhtml http www.enterprisetech.com 2014 01 23 lenovo enters datacenters 2 3 billion ibm x86 server deal http www.garnetthelfrich.com pages portfolio.html jennifer mears february 13 2006 . nortel spins off blade server switch business . network world . retrieved july 10 2013 . garnett & helfrich creates new company from nortel blade server switch unit . press release . february 13 2006 . archived from the original on june 12 2010 . retrieved july 18 2013 . vikram mehta blade network technologies . corporate biography page . garnett & helfrich capital . retrieved july 18 2013 . jim duffy april 23 2008 . blade takes virtualization to data center rack . the new york times . retrieved july 10 2013 . ibm to acquire blade network technologies . press release . ibm . september 27 2010 . retrieved july 10 2013 . lenovo completes initial closing for acquisition of ibm s x86 server business . press release . ibm . october 1 2014 . http www.eetimes.com news latest showarticle.jhtml articleid 207400056 http www.frost.com prod servlet market service segment.pag segid d980 00 0a 00 00 & ctxst fcmctx1 & ctxht fcmctx2 & ctxhl fcmctx3 & ctxixplink fcmctx3 & ctxixplabel fcmctx4 http datacenterjournal.com index.php option com content & task view & id 2486 & itemid 40 http www.tolly.com docdetail.aspx docnumber 208346 http cloudcomputing.sys con.com node 552090 external links edit lenovo system networking retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title blade network technologies & oldid 738995600 categories ibm acquisitionscompanies established in 2006companies based in santa clara californianetworking companies of the united statesnetworking hardware companieshidden categories articles with a promotional tone from may 2012all articles with a promotional tone navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 12 september 2016 at 05 28 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is 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