A blade server is a stripped-down computer optimized to consume a minimal amount of power and use the available space in a data center as efficiently as possible. Depending on the server vendor's design, server density with blades can be six times higher than that of regular servers.
Because efficiency is an important design goal for blades, only the core server components are on the blade itself. Everything that can be shared between servers is in the blade chassis. A blade cannot be used without the blade chassis, which provides vital functions like power, cooling, etc. If you're investing in a blade chassis, it follows that you don't buy just one blade server: You would buy a chassis to install multiple blades.
Storage usually isn't available on the blade; it's typically provided by a storage area network (SAN). The blade chassis is connected to the SAN and the blades themselves boot from the SAN. As blades normally don't have optical disk drives either, they typically are installed by using installation servers. Putting all this together, using blades makes the data center more efficient, but blades don't make the process of installation and maintenance any easier.
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