Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server: High-Density Computing Powerhouse

Jun 18 , 2025 5

Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server: High-Density Computing Powerhouse

Product Overview
The Cisco UCS B200 M4 is a half-width blade server designed for the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), delivering enterprise-class performance in a compact form factor. This fourth-generation blade server provides exceptional compute density and efficiency for virtualized and bare-metal workloads.

Key Specifications:

• Processor: Supports dual Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v3/v4 processors (up to 22 cores each)

• Memory: 24 DIMM slots supporting up to 1.5TB DDR4 RAM

• Storage:

• 2 x 2.5" hot-swappable drive bays (SAS/SATA/SSD)

• Optional M.2 boot drive

• Networking:

• Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card (VIC) support

• 40Gb Unified Fabric connectivity

• Management: Integrated Cisco UCS Manager support

Performance Features:

• Up to 44 processing cores per blade

• Support for PCIe 3.0 for high-speed I/O

• Energy-efficient design with power capping

• Stateless computing with service profiles

Next-Generation Evolution: UCS B200 M5 (Current Generation)

Major Improvements:

• Processor: Dual Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (up to 28 cores each)

• Memory: 24 DIMM slots supporting up to 3TB DDR4 RAM (6TB with 128GB DIMMs)

• Storage:

• 4 x 2.5" or 2 x 3.5" drive options

• NVMe support

• Networking:

• 100Gb Unified Fabric connectivity

• Enhanced Cisco VIC 1400 series support

• Performance:

• Up to 1.5x better performance per core

• Support for Intel Optane DC persistent memory

• Improved power efficiency

Why Upgrade?

• Significant performance improvements for modern workloads

• Better support for memory-intensive applications

• Future-proof infrastructure with higher-speed networking

• Improved storage flexibility and performance

• Enhanced management capabilities

Conclusion:
The UCS B200 M4 remains a capable platform for many workloads, while the B200 M5 delivers substantial improvements in processing power, memory capacity, and I/O performance. The M5 generation is particularly well-suited for modern applications including AI/ML workloads, in-memory databases, and high-performance virtualization.