This week, Chelsio Communications, Inc., a member of the HP BladeSystem Solution Builder Program and a provider of 10-Gigabit Ethernet NICs, announced their new T3-based S320EM-BS 10 GbE Unified Wire expansion mezzanine card for ProLiant blade servers. Basically, this is a card for connecting servers to a 10 Gb Ethernet network, via the HP 10 Gb Ethernet c-Class switch, for high performance applications, fast storage connections and moving data quickly for disaster recovery systems.

This is a great new product joining the c-Class family and I urge you to check it out at www.chelsio.com.

While you are there, you might notice the designation of “HP BladeSystem c-Class Compatible” and a nifty graphic to go along with it. Or you might have noticed this graphic on our Solution Builder Program web site (www.hp.com/go/solutionbuilder).

Well for those with a burning desire to know just what this designation and graphic mean here is the info.

HP has this ecosystem program (and I head it up) that comprises one of the largest groupings of hardware, software and integrator vendors that work with a blade architecture – in this case, HP BladeSystem. The idea is make sure our customers have a broad choice of add-on components, applications and services to apply the benefits to a broad range of IT needs.

One part of the Solution Builder Program enables its members to license specifications and develop add-on products for HP BladeSystem. These products, that are sold and supported directly by the program’s licensed vendors, are required to be tested for specification compliance and system compatibility. Components that have been successfully tested are designated by HP as HP BladeSystem c-Class Compatible and are supported directly by the vendor.

This means that you can feel good about buying and using these add-on products with your c-Class investment, knowing that they have been tested for compatibility.

For more information on this and other benefits of the HP BladeSystem Solution Builder Program, regardless if you are a customer or vendor, go visit us at www.hp.com/go/solutionbuilder.

Michael P. Kendall
ESS Solution Builder Program