IBM has previewed a powerful new BladeCenter HT system that delivers superior performance and high-speed connectivity for network bandwidth up to 10 times greater than previously possible, to help telecommunications network providers unleash next-generation applications for consumers based on the convergence of voice, data and video networks.

"Our telecommunications technologies and user adoption are advancing rapidly, with more complex IP-based data services such as multimedia and full-HTML web browsing that require more computing power to process than ever before," said Christian Gabetta, senior technical director at Bytemobile, Inc. "The high-speed connectivity and higher network bandwidth of IBM's BladeCenter HT will make this platform an ideal choice for carriers to power their networks and quickly scale out their data centers to meet subscribers growing need for next-generation data services on mobile devices."

IBM is further extending its portfolio of solutions for the telecommunications industry today by previewing BladeCenter HT, a new "hardened" blade server system that meets international telecommunications standards and includes high-performance computing interconnects and switching for demanding next-generation network applications. The new system along with new blades from IBM will help the telco industry deliver next-generation applications for consumers such as high-speed broadband, Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), Voice over IP (VoIP), Video on Demand (VoD) and Advanced Security solutions (e.g. Firewall, Intrusion Prevention).

"IP-based data services such as multimedia messaging, online gaming and IPTV require large quantities of computing power," said Jim Pertzborn, vice president, IBM Telecommunications Industry Servers. "Today's announcement previews an extension to the BladeCenter family which will allow our clients to mix and match a wide variety of BladeCenter processor and operating system platforms to quickly scale and meet their specific networking requirements while maintaining complete interoperability and investment protection with existing BladeCenter systems."