Dell has launched a new set of products and solutions that aims to help users to bridge the gap what the company calls traditional and new application requirements.
The new additions comprise new converged infrastructure architecture, storage solutions, and workload-specific appliances to help users transform data centres, capture cost savings, and ensure their businesses are competitive, says Dell.
New products include the PowerEdge FX converged architecture that provides optimal modularity and scalability, and the Storage SC4020, the entry-level all-Flash storage appliance, with the competitive price of €20,000 which Dell says offers compelling features and performance in the segment. There is also the Storage PS4210 Series for substantially improved application performance and connectivity options for small and mid-size deployments, and the XC Series of web-scale Converged Appliances for integrated compute and enterprise storage.
Motive forces
Forces such as cloud computing, mobility, big data, the Internet of Things and software-defined IT make new IT application and workload types increasingly relevant to companies typically operating traditional IT processes, and underscore the need for IT solutions that optimise the differences with traditional and new applications, said Dell. The company said that it has engineered new technology to address the requirements of both traditional and new IT application processes.
“Despite claims to the contrary, mostly by vendors of proprietary servers, Dell’s new FX architecture clearly shows that x86 system innovation is alive and well,” said Charles King, Dell watcher and principal analyst, Pund-IT. “The company’s efforts also prove how being a disruptive force doesn’t require ‘thinking outside of the box.’ In the case of the FX architecture, Dell has succeeded by rethinking the box itself.”
Dell claims that its next-generation PowerEdge FX architecture is a revolutionary approach to converged infrastructure, with one common modular and scalable platform with servers, storage and networking integrated to help customers better manage, scale and budget for infrastructure to meet business needs.
Six variants
The PowerEdge FX architecture is a 2U enclosure with six new PowerEdge server, storage and network IOA sleds built specifically to fit into the FX2 chassis and support varying workloads. Designed with integrated management capabilities, the FX architecture enables users to easily configure, manage and add capacity to complete workload-specific blocks of IT resources.
This converged infrastructure approach, according to Dell, affords efficiencies of shared power, I/O and management, integrated switching, and unsurpassed overall density capabilities at up to 40 2-socket servers in 10U. Building on PowerEdge 13th generation server portfolio announcement, the PowerEdge FX2 also includes advanced systems management capabilities to reduce operational complexity and simplify data centre management.
On the storage side, Dell said that its Storage SC4020 Entry-Level All-Flash configuration offers substantial performance improvement over spinning disk solutions. Users looking for greater performance can seamlessly expand to create a Flash-optimised solution with Dell’s intelligent data placement software to address future growth and performance needs. Both SC4020 Entry-Level All-Flash and Flash-optimised solutions offer all-flash storage with the added benefit of further optimising costs by easily adding one or more tiers of spinning disk to the same array.
The Storage PS4210 Series enterprise storage arrays bring improved performance and advanced connectivity options for entry-level primary storage and critical workloads. This marks the introduction of a hybrid (flash and HDD) model to Dell’s entry-level PS Series portfolio, which, it says, is ideal for, small-to-medium virtualised data centres and remote offices. The PS4210 arrays are designed to be fully compatible and interoperable with all previous Dell EqualLogic PS Series arrays.
Controller boost
Dell’s latest 10GbE iSCSI arrays offer enterprise capabilities in five models that boast a more powerful controller with double the cache memory, twice the number of ports, and up to six times performance improvement with new hybrid arrays compared to previous generation arrays.
Dell also announced availability of the XC Series of Web-scale Converged Appliances, which integrates compute, storage and hypervisor resources into a single offering. The XC Series appliances, powered by Nutanix software, benefit customers with an integrated IT approach that offers enterprise-class storage for virtualised server and VDI environments with simple deployment, management and scale as needed. The new appliances are available in five models designed to support different workloads.
With the XC Series, users can manage their virtual environments at a VM level, making the appliances particularly ideal for virtual desktop infrastructure, high performance server virtualisation, and data centres with multiple hypervisors deployed.
Partnership
Dell, Brocade, and Intel had announced plans to deliver NFV-based solutions to virtualise and accelerate enterprise service delivery at the carrier edge. The solutions leverage Dell’s NFV platform powered by the Intel Open Network Platform for servers architecture and the Intel Data Plane Developer Kit combined with the Brocade Vyatta vRouter software to virtualise existing edge and provider edge networking functions.
Based on open software and industry-standard server infrastructure, Dell, Brocade and Intel are collaborating to help telecommunications service providers improve capital and operational cost structures for service delivery and to enable quicker, simpler service innovation and creation. Now NFV developers can easily use the latest technologies to evaluate and develop commercial solutions.
For more information on price and availability, see dell.com
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