EMC VSPEX BLUE hyper-converged infrastructure

Pro
(Image: EMC)

12 February 2015

EMC is putting more eggs in one basket with the launch of the VSPEX BLUE.

The new appliance brings together compute, storage, networking and management powered by VMware’s EVO:RAIL and EMC software, boasting the ability to go from power on to provisioning virtual machines in less than 15 minutes, and also, claims EMC, offering better time to value when compared to other hyper-converged infrastructure offerings.

The VSPEX BLUE scale-out infrastructure provides the ability to meet changing demands “at the speed of business and freedom from the burden of advanced IT forecasting,” said EMC.

The BLUE appliance is suited to the mid-market, as well as the upper end, as it comprises common modular building blocks that provide “seamless linear scalability” from one to four 2U/4-nodes. As such, EMC said that VSPEX BLUE is ideal for infrastructure consolidations and virtual desktops in large remote or branch offices, and managed service providers.

The VSPEX BLUE hyper-converged infrastructure appliance simplifies IT configuration, management, and maintenance. Users of the new appliances get an integrated management experience, say the makers, as the VSPEX BLUE Manager extends the capabilities of the native EVO:RAIL Deployment, Configuration and Management (DCM) Engine, with a built-in support experience and Market, providing users access to select software titles and solutions from an EMC interface that leverages VMware EVO:RAIL’s “clean and intuitive design principles”.

“VSPEX BLUE offers the Irish mid-market incredible and affordable simplicity, agility and speed with the assurance of the support and engineering of the global leader in converged solutions,” said Gerry Murray, country sales manager, EMC Ireland. “It offers yet more choice for our clients on their journey to cloud adoption. VSPEX BLUE joins VCE Vblock Systems and VSPEX Reference Architectures as part of EMC’s comprehensive and trusted line-up of converged solutions”.

VSPEX BLUE Manager
The VSPEX BLUE Manager provides a “seamless and harmonious” end user experience that embodies the simplicity and ease-of-use functionality VMware EVO:RAIL users expect, says EMC. From the Manager, users can access electronic services, such as knowledge base articles, access a wealth of community sourced online and real time information and familiarise themselves with EMC best practices for optimal appliance operations. The Manager also simplifies IT management by delivering patch and software update notification that can be installed automatically without interruption or downtime.

VSPEX BLUE Market
Within the VSPEX BLUE Manager EMC has added VSPEX BLUE Market store. The Market provides access to trusted solutions and technologies that are developed by EMC and technology partners that are pre-validated for the appliance and then made available to download. In the first release of the Market, EMC has included download access to business continuity with EMC RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines, VMware vSphere Data Protection Advanced providing disk based de-duplicated backup and recovery that is optimised for virtual environments, and access to virtually unlimited hybrid cloud storage via the EMC CloudArray Gateway.

EMC Secure Remote Support
The BLUE appliance also provides Secure Remote Support (ESRS) built into the interface that provides end-to-end, consistent support via chat, community or phone with a single point of accountability for all hardware and software. With ESRS, EMC can periodically monitor the EMC VSPEX BLUE appliance and will be notified of failure enabling support to take preventative measures to help avoid downtime. When coupled with ESRS, EMC 24×7 Support is incredibly simple. All appliance issues regardless of whether they are hardware or software are handled by EMC.

According to Mark Bowker, senior analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group, early adopters of converged infrastructure are achieving benefits associated with improved service and support, ease of management, and an improved total cost of ownership.

“The VSPEX BLUE appliance will help enterprise IT accelerate the strategic imperative of virtualisation/migration to a hybrid cloud,” said Bowker. “The appliance is a simple, low-risk path to delivering virtualisation, and snaps well into an existing line of EMC solutions. It helps reduce TCO, and ensures availability and flexibility so that enterprise IT can achieve infrastructure excellence and connectivity to the cloud.”

The EMC VSPEX hyper-converged infrastructure appliance is generally available now.

 

www.emc.com

 

TechCentral Reporters

Read More:


Back to Top ↑

TechCentral.ie