IoT on Your Holiday Wish-List?

Dell Technologies IoT Connected Bundles may be just what you are looking for.

Early on in my new role as Head of Global OEM and IoT Partnerships at Dell Technologies, I took it upon myself to visit our major channel partners and learn more about their business.  At all these meetings, I heard a common theme, which was that channel partners recognize the IoT revolution is upon them and want to get involved but don’t necessarily know how.

Upon hearing this commentary, I knew that Dell Technologies could do something to alleviate this challenge.  We care about our customer’s digital future and are committed to making it real.

Dell Technologies is uniquely positioned to drive the changes necessary to bring IoT to organizations of all sizes. Through our breadth of experience, we’ve acquired an extensive body of knowledge deploying IoT at scale, which enables us to reduce the risks associated with IoT.

Case in point, this past August we launched the IoT Connected Bundles exclusively for the channel at VMworld.  These bundles were born from our OEM business, where IoT solutions targeted at specific use cases were developed and honed.  As a result, the IoT Connected Bundles are turnkey IoT solutions that are market validated, repeatable, and easy to deploy.  Each IoT Connected Bundles contains hardware, software and peripherals – essentially, all that is needed for a complete solution is in a single box.

At Dell Technologies, we know that constructing a comprehensive IoT solution – with sensors, gateways, software applications and network connections – can be complicated.  The main mission behind the IoT Connected Bundles is to remove much of the guesswork.  The bundles provide all necessary components for a successful IoT deployment in a single box targeted to a specific use case.

Currently, we have four available IoT Connected Bundles that focus on the following use cases.  These bundles can be purchased from TechData.

◈ Compliance-as-a-Service for HVAC, refrigeration and power system
◈ Predictive maintenance in midmarket manufacturing
◈ Advanced Data Center Infrastructure Management
◈ Self-contained and powered surveillance for safety and security in outdoor spaces

I am excited about the IoT Connected Bundles and believe that they can help partners and customers successfully participate in IoT.

As we head into the holiday season, I can’t help but think of the IoT Connected Bundles as belonging on wish-lists when it comes to IoT and delivering value to the channel.  Below are some highlights:

Access to New Buyers:  In this new age of digital transformation, conversations are increasingly taking place with the c-suite executives rather than traditional IT professionals.   IoT Connected Bundles help drive these conversations with their use case specific focus.

Business Solutions:  Customers are increasingly looking for more than just products – they want business solutions.  IoT Connected Bundles meet this request by providing infrastructure for quick and reliable deployment.

Access to Services: IoT Connected Bundles position your business to provide long term services to the customer, including backend infrastructure, maintenance and support, monitoring, analytics, integration and deployment planning.

We encourage you to find out more about the IoT Connected Bundles and to reach out to us for more detailed information.

To hear more commentary from me on the IoT Connected Bundles, please watch this video from an interview I did at the EMEA Partner Conference last month.

Our goal is to make your digital future a reality and if IoT is on your wish-list, IoT Connected Bundles may be worth exploring this holiday season.

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Software-defined Networking is an Essential Consideration for Successful IT Transformation

Making the switch to software-defined networking delivers significant business benefits and plays a key role in IT Transformation.

In the fifth of a series of blogs inspired by influential research published by industry analyst ESG, we discover the impact that software-defined networking can have on an organization’s IT Transformation efforts.

With both data and IT users being more distributed than ever in a typical enterprise, the network connectivity between them is increasingly important and relevant to business success. Modernizing the IT infrastructure is a fundamental step in any company’s journey towards IT Transformation – and software-defined networking is an essential consideration. Why should your prospects and customers be thinking about it? Because software-defined networking (SDN) is a modern data center technology that can measurably affect an organization’s IT maturity.

The advantages of a more agile network

There are three different ways an organization could adopt SDN, each using a different technology. Importantly, however, they are all open networking solutions.

Because an open network is more programmable, flexible and automated, it delivers more agile, centralized administration capabilities. Network provisioning is no longer a bottleneck, so adopting a cloud service delivery model becomes easier, application deployments become faster and VM recoveries can be achieved sooner, minimizing application downtime.

A more agile network with centralized admin allows IT staff to focus less on routine network management and more on strategic-level IT advancement. It also enables higher levels of scalability, by allowing the network to meet traffic demands of workloads as they grow and fluctuate over time.

So when your customers are considering and transitioning to SDN, they should always opt for open networking technologies, instead of locking themselves into proprietary vendor solutions.

How does software-defined networking affect IT maturity?

New research shows that the implementation of software-defined networking can play a key role in increasing an organization’s operational agility as well as its ability to achieve full IT Transformation.

Earlier this year, ESG conducted a survey of 4,000 IT executives from private- and public-sector organizations across 16 countries to evaluate their progress in embracing IT Transformation1 – and rank them as ‘Legacy’, ‘Emerging’, ‘Evolving’ or ‘Transformed’.

Almost all (97%) of the ‘Transformed’ companies surveyed by ESG reported that they are committed to software-defined data center (SDDC) technologies, including SDN – and 77% of them have already begun implementing those technologies. In contrast, just 1% of the ‘Legacy’ organizations have implemented SDDC technologies such as SDN.

These statistics are detailed in ESG’s Research Insights Brief on the foundational role that a modernized network plays in IT Transformation.

Software-defined networking accelerates IT Transformation

Overall, the ESG research found that making the switch to software-defined networking delivers significant operational and wider business benefits.

Compared with ‘Legacy’ organizations, the ‘Transformed’ organizations in the study – those companies that are users of SDN – are typically:

◈ 5X more likely to be significantly ahead of their competitors in time to market (49% versus 13%).
◈ Nearly 2X more likely to execute most of their application deployments ahead of schedule (42% versus 22%).
◈ Nearly 2X more likely to typically recover VMs in less than 30 minutes (32% versus 18%).
◈ 5X as likely to have made excellent progress enabling a rapidly elastic data center environment (46% versus 18%).
◈ More than 3X as likely to report excellent progress in virtually pooling their infrastructure resources (50% versus 17%).

As well as detailing the operational advantages that a more agile network delivers, the ESG report highlights the particular relevance of SDN for organizations preparing for Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives, those connecting to the cloud and businesses that need to offer a positive digital experience to end users via their websites, online storefronts, and mobile applications.

Do you have customers and prospects like this? If so, they will almost certainly be interested in the competitive edge that SDN can give them…

Read and share the full ESG Research Insights Brief >>

Discover how software-defined networking can help to improve operational performance and speak to prospects and customers to discuss their specific needs. You can also use the free ESG online assessment tool with them to demonstrate the opportunities and value of IT Transformation.

Explore our dedicated IT Transformation campaign and marketing tools >>

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Simplify Cloud DR with Dell EMC

With the growing transition to cloud computing, many organizations are looking to leverage the value of cloud to enhance their disaster recovery (DR) plans. In the past, organizations have spent an enormous amount of money on DR sites (servers, backup and systems). And though they often felt that the ROI wasn’t great, options to reduce the cost were limited. In fact, DR testing and recoverability were often delayed and manual — a routine checklist choreographed as a pre-planned activity. Can disaster happen at an arranged time with defined events? Of course not. In fact, most organizations are not confident of recovering in a timely manner when disaster strikes anyway.

For organizations exploring the cloud as a disaster recovery option, Dell EMC offers the Cloud as a deployment choice that can be fundamental to customers’ IT, Digital, Workforce, and Security Transformation journeys. Whether your data and applications reside on-premises or are moving into the public cloud, Dell EMC enables cloud protection across the entire protection portfolio while creating a new class of data protection cloud solutions and services – including backup to the cloud, backup in the cloud, long-term retention to cloud and DR to the cloud. Whether your data and applications reside on-premises or are moving to the cloud, Dell EMC’s cloud protection fits your use case.

GEI Consultants Simplifies Disaster Recovery

Here’s a look at GEI Consultants, Inc. (GEI), one of the nation’s leading engineering and science consulting firms, which is leveraging Dell EMC Cloud DR to back up applications running on 140 VMware virtual machines (VMs) across 33 offices to Dell EMC Data Domain backup appliances in a data center.

Cloud DR and Amazon Web Service’s (AWS) eliminated the need for a second physical data center for replicating backups and has saved GEI the cost of physical data center expenses (rent, power, Internet, security, etc.). “Cloud DR is well aligned with GEI’s focus on the environment,” says Adam Schmitt, Network Operations Supervisor at GEI.

“Cloud DR’s efficient orchestration of resources is magnificent,” Schmitt continues. “It automatically chooses the lowest-cost resource option for restores in Amazon EC2. Alternatively, we can select the type and networking of each instance.”

Simple. Fast. Scalable.

Cloud DR is also simple. GEI uses Dell EMC Data Protection Software to manage backups to the central data center and the cloud.

Explains Schmitt, “With a few clicks, we can create and define our Cloud DR backup and restore jobs for our VMware environment using Data Protection Software. Failback is just as simple. We found there is minimal expertise needed to use Cloud DR.”

“We have ten-terabyte servers that back up in in a few hours,” said Schmitt. “It used to take several days when we used Veeam just to seed the initial backup to the cloud. Now, we get it done in four hours or less. It’s like night and day.”

Dell EMC Supports Disaster Recovery to Microsoft Azure

Dell EMC recently introduced support for DR to Microsoft Azure. Using the same UI and practices that Cloud DR leverages with AWS, customers can now protect, test, and failover from their on-premises VMware environment to Azure, and have an orchestrated failback into their on-premises VMware environment. Cloud DR supports orchestration of a single VM as well as multiple VMs using DR plans – similar to how it’s done for AWS.

Integration with Cloud Snapshot Manager

The latest release of Cloud DR also provides integration with Dell EMC’s Cloud Snapshot Manager (CSM) for in-cloud protection of customers’ workloads during the time they have recovered workloads within the public cloud. Customers can now specify tags in Cloud DR (including specifying them in advance within pre-created DR plans) that will be automatically set as AWS/Azure tags during a VM recovery.  CSM customers can then discover the failed over VMs and use these tags to automatically protect the workloads with an appropriate CSM tag based protection plan. Customers can also use these tags for any other scripting/automation they’d like in the cloud.

Data Protection for VMware Cloud

With Dell EMC for VMware Cloud™ on AWS, users are able to expand on-premises environments to the cloud. Just as VMware Cloud on AWS enables vAdmins to manage cloud resources with familiar VMware tools, Dell EMC seamlessly integrates cloud and on-premises data protection. This allows users to use the same data protection tools in the cloud that they already use on-premises, without needing to upskill.

Data Protection for VMware Cloud™ on AWS

The latest enhancement to Dell EMC’s data protection for VMware Cloud adds disaster recovery to VMware Cloud on AWS. With this capability, organizations can failover on-demand to VMware Cloud on AWS in case of a disaster event – spin off and run VMs in their own VMware Cloud on AWS environment and vMotion the VMs back to on premises when the disaster event is resolved.

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Making the Most of Data – and the Opportunity it Represents

Dell EMC is leading the field in Distributed File Systems and Object Storage for a reason…

Digital transformation is often discussed in terms of processes, services and applications. But what’s really driving it is data: management of it, access to it, and the ability to analyse it and put it to use. And of course, it’s growing at a phenomenal rate – especially when it’s unstructured. According to Gartner, by 2022, more than 80% of enterprise data will be stored in scale-out storage systems in enterprise and cloud data centers, up from 40% in 2018¹.

Organizations need to make the most of their data capital, and they need the tools to achieve it. Here at Dell EMC, we’re proud to be among the market leaders. Indeed, for the third year in a row, we have been recognised as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Distributed File Systems and Object Storage (DFOS).

In the 2018 report, Gartner highlights both Isilon and ECS as one of the strongest performers in the market, which should come as no surprise, given our strong market leadership over the last years. And now, with the recent launch of the ECS EX-Series this past August, the announcement last year of the Isilon Generation 6 hardware platform, and more to come early next year, that leading position is something on which we’re sure to build.

What customers seek

Your customers need a flexible solution that allows them to make the most of all the information they hold. With the powerful data analytics functions of Dell EMC Unstructured Solutions, they can unlock that data capital.

With Dell EMC Isilon Scale-out Network Attached Storage (NAS), your customers can store, manage and protect unstructured data with efficiency and massive scalability. Dell EMC Isilon is the industry’s #1 family of scale-out network-attached storage systems, and is designed for demanding enterprise file workloads. Your customers can choose from all-flash, hybrid and archive NAS platforms powered by Intel® Xeon® processors.

With Dell EMC ECS Object Storage, they can capitalize on their traditional data assets through modernization. With ECS, they can store and manage unstructured data with public cloud-like scalability and flexibility, while retaining complete control over the information they hold, as well as reducing their security and compliance risks.

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New Dell EMC PowerEdge: Bedrock of the Modern Data Center

To transform your business, you need to transform your IT. We are seeing it happen with companies like Express Scripts and the Chicago Cubs. When you accelerate innovation adoption, you drive real results in your business. Maybe you have been waiting for a secure, scalable, and automated platform to do it. Today, it’s finally here.

We are announcing our most sophisticated lineup of Dell EMC PowerEdge servers, ever. They have a ton of new features a modern data center needs. As you plan your future and think about new ways to power your business, our new PowerEdge servers will be your bedrock.

How we got here

We started the process three years ago. With the dramatic pace workloads were evolving, we knew we needed a game changer. We knew we had to build an entirely new portfolio of server platforms. So, we engaged with more customers than ever before and integrated them into our process. It’s all part of our Customer Inspired Design. We asked, “What are your goals and how can we help you achieve them?” We heard you when you said that your legacy data center technology was inflexible to support new workloads and deployment models. We listened when you told us that your IT teams were spending too much time on routine tasks. And we understood when you said security means everything.

We then unleashed some of the best engineers in the world to develop the technology to reach your goals. We created servers with cutting-edge technology never seen before. These new servers will power the business initiatives you know about today, but be flexible enough for the ones you haven’t even imagined yet.

Scalable Business Architecture

The potential to transform your infrastructure for modern workloads and the cloud is an exciting challenge, but full of complexity. The reality is that each workload has different characteristics, and a platform that can deliver outputs faster can be the source of your competitive advantage and superior customer experience. Features such as one-click BIOS tuning are essential to optimizing workloads. So we simply built it in. The new PowerEdge portfolio also includes a broad-array of modern infrastructure with enhanced storage capacity and flexibility so you can tailor your storage configurations for the application. For instance, there’s 19x more non-volatile memory express (NVMe) low latency storage than our prior generation. And our exclusive I/O expansion risers and PERC PCIe flexibility in the new R740 provide 16 lanes to maximize accelerator configurations.

Intelligent Automation

We know you want to automate. Some of our customers tell us that IT nirvana would be a self-serve model for their developers. The new PowerEdge servers help you eliminate that inefficiency with intelligent automation. It starts by taking a fundamentally different approach to server management called agent-free management. Installing agents into each operating system adds a lot of complexity. We remove that complexity by using an embedded chip in every PowerEdge server we call iDRAC. This is the brains behind our management and automation features, and we upgraded it in the latest generation of PowerEdge for more performance. There are hundreds of new features and systems management innovations. Some are around the new user interface. Some are around Open APIs such as RESTful API’s. Some help you deploy faster. Some help you manage better. Some even help you automate problem resolution. Whether you use the unified server management experience of our new OpenManage Enterprise software, a 3rd party application, or Open APIs, you can automate productivity and simplify lifecycle management from server deployment to retirement.

Integrated Security

We know how important security is in your overall environment. Protecting both hardware and software is critical. That’s why every new PowerEdge server is designed on a cyber-resilient architecture. We have patented key features so you can protect your infrastructure with a deep layer of defense, detect quickly if breached, and recover rapidly to a trusted baseline. Industry-first features like System Lockdown protect your server configuration and firmware from malicious or even inadvertent changes. Drift detection monitors and reports unplanned drift in firmware or configuration from a golden baseline. And our cyber-resilient BIOS recovery restores configuration quickly and safely. And when it’s time to retire and re-provision, System Erase securely and instantly erases storage media. Plus, PowerEdge is the only server with end-to-end server ecosystem and lifecycle security, which provides an additional layer of protection with supply chain integrity and assurance.

Over the coming months you will certainly hear more about the new PowerEdge servers. We invite you to learn more and see why our scalable business architecture, intelligent automation, and integrated security makes PowerEdge the bedrock of the modern data center.

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An Insight into the World of Testing and Validation

Learn how an advanced test facility uses Dell EMC PowerEdge server technology to deliver a proven solution for challenging usage scenarios

Enterprises that are looking to gain a competitive edge by making business-critical technology investments that help them to transform their IT infrastructure and make it fit for the future understandably want to be able to base their decisions on real-world data and desired outcomes.

In a new White Paper*, Dell EMC Titanium Black top tier partner company World Wide Technology details how it uses the latest PowerEdge servers to help design and validate transformational technology solutions that fuel the growth of large, fast-moving organizations around the globe.

Unrivalled testing capabilities

Based in the US state of Missouri, World Wide Technology (WWT) works with enterprise clients in many different sectors around the world, providing IT and business guidance about the most appropriate server solutions for a variety of challenging workloads and usage scenarios.

With thousands of IT engineers, hundreds of application developers and unrivalled laboratory facilities for testing and deploying technology at scale, WWT is committed to innovation and customer satisfaction.

One of the key factors in WWT being a trusted and preferred technology partner is its Advanced Technology Center (ATC). This is a collaborative ecosystem for the design, build, education, demonstration and deployment of innovative technology products and integrated architectural solutions for customers, partners and employees around the globe.

Proof of concept using combined expertise

Recently, WWT was tasked with delivering a fast-moving proof of concept (POC) for a global electronics provider. The company in question was looking to transition to server computing with the newest Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and also wanted to explore alternatives to the Broadwell microarchitecture in its current server farm. So it approached the experts at WWT to help identify, design and validate the best and most appropriate server solution for its specific requirements.

WWT engineers joined Dell EMC team members to create a dedicated environment within the Advanced Technology Center and looked for the solution. Different options within the latest Dell EMC PowerEdge server portfolio were put through rigorous tests to identify and validate viable solutions for running a range of demanding workloads.

Client stakeholders were closely involved at every step of the project and the client’s engineers also had remote, secure access to this lab environment.

To accelerate the POC, the combined WWT and Dell EMC team involved Intel engineers – and together, they found a way to swap out the PowerEdge servers’ Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors on the fly. They then ran test scenarios with the many different combinations of CPU cores, socket configurations and memory in the four basic Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor families known as Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Matthew Halcomb, a Data Center Solutions Architect at WWT, reports: “The Dell EMC PowerEdge servers performed excellently for our client in a great variety of configurations and workloads, using the full spectrum of Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and working with the client’s own load-generation tools.”

Impressive environmental performance

Several features of the Dell EMC OpenManage system were important in the client’s deployment scenarios – including an enhanced version of the integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC9) and multi-vector cooling with controlled fan speeds. The control of power consumption, close monitoring of internal device temperatures and environmental considerations were also critical concerns for the client, whose products are usually integrated into servers.

Chris Weis, a Technical Solutions Architect at WWT, says: “Dell EMC PowerEdge servers together with OpenManage Power Center provide extremely efficient power utilization, which keeps costs down. Multi-vector cooling enables PowerEdge devices with a closely packed interior space to run the most challenging workloads without running into problems.”

Halcomb adds that he is very impressed with the environmental performance of new PowerEdge technology: “The PowerEdge server family meets the Dell Fresh Air 2.0 standard, which means they can keep cool very efficiently with clean outside air and perform reliably, 365 days a year, in temperatures as high as 113°F.”

Efficient and effective validation

The POC took less than 30 days to complete. When it concluded, the client was ready to take the next step with the PowerEdge R640 server, which was the preferred model because of its power and space efficiency – and placed a large purchase order.

The first batches of these new PowerEdge servers will be delivered by Dell EMC to WWT’s Integration Technology Center, where technicians will configure them, install them on racks and run several tests before shipping them to the client’s business locations.

Weis explains: “By setting up and delivering data center-ready PowerEdge servers, WWT and Dell EMC are enabling our client to focus on its business instead of administrating hardware.”

> Discover how testing and validation could help your customers:

Read the WWT White Paper now

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Data Domain Hybrid Management – On-Prem and In-Cloud

Not only is it important to back up your data but accessing and managing that data is just as important. What’s the point of a backup if you can’t access it? Dell EMC Data Protection is a market leader due to its combined portfolio of Data Domain appliances, Integrated Data Protection Appliances and Data Protection software.  Last quarter, Dell EMC’s Data Domain lead the Target Systems segment of the Purpose Built Backup Appliance (PBBA) market with a 75% revenue share and saw a year over year growth rate of 44%. Customers trust Dell EMC for data protection because of our unmatched combination of appliances and software and that are designed to deliver increased simplicity, flexibility, and operational efficiency.

The Dell EMC Data Domain Management Center (DD MC), is your single pane of glass to view and manage your Data Domain appliances, physical or software defined. DD MC enables aggregate management and reporting on environments with multiple Data Domain systems through a single interface. Customizable dashboards provide visibility into aggregate status and the ability to drill-down to system-level details. Role based access allows different user roles for various levels of expertise within the organization.

The latest release of Dell EMC Data Domain Operating System, DD OS 6.1.2, delivers enhanced efficiency by providing a single point of manageability solution to manage Data Domain appliances located on-prem, at remote sites or in any cloud with DD MC. Wherever a business operates, they can manage their central data centers, remote offices and cloud protection elegantly from one location. This hybrid management capability can further reduce operational costs, as well as empower entire organizations with key insights. DD MC is now available as a free, no-license download with DD OS 6.1.2 and can be run on-prem or in the cloud.

Dell EMC continues to drive innovation and success for the Data Domain family. Now is the perfect time to connect with your local rep about purchasing new appliances or upgrading to a complete Dell EMC Data Protection solution with the latest DD OS 6.1.2.

You can download DD MC with the installation of DD OS 6.1.2. If you are a subscriber to AWS and Azure marketplace, you can download from AWS Marketplace and Azure Marketplace.

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4 Ways PowerEdge MX Simplifies IT for VMware Environments

Every day, we hear about the need for IT modernization and transformation, but what high-tech companies today are providing meaningful solutions to drive IT simplification, efficiency, scalability, and automation for the software-defined data center? Dell EMC and VMware. Sure, PowerEdge is the world’s #1 server1, and when paired with the world’s #1 vendor of enterprise virtualization2 and HCI software,3 the duo sounds promising. But what are they doing to help empower IT to lead the business? The answer includes  close collaboration around Dell EMC PowerEdge MX, the modular infrastructure solution designed with kinetic infrastructure.

PowerEdge MX was designed for the software-defined data center, with customizable modules of compute, storage and networking. VMware vSAN is a core building block for the SDDC. So, when you pair PowerEdge MX with VMware vSAN, you’re ready for a hyper-converged match made in heaven.

Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes make it all even easier for your organization. These pre‑configured and validated building blocks reduce deployment risks, improve storage efficiency, and let you quickly and easily scale storage as needed.

But really, what advantages does this bring to IT departments? Here are 4 ways that PowerEdge and VMware “make it real” for IT every day:

Handle more virtual machines and transactions

PowerEdge MX offers a flexible architecture for sizeable VMware vSAN software-defined storage environments that allows organizations to assign the right resources for the right workload and to change dynamically with business needs. This means maximizing vSAN environments that can scale and support better database performance. In fact, the PowerEdge MX can process up to 625,000 more orders per minute and up to 40% more virtual machines than HPE Synergy or Cisco UCS, according to Principled Technologies testing.

Boost application response times

Saving even fractions of a second can help hold customers’ attention, increase the volume of ecommerce orders, and generate more revenue. PowerEdge MX delivered up to 55.9% lower storage latency than competing solutions tested by Principled Technologies.4

Get to the cloud quickly and simply

With vSAN Ready Nodes on PowerEdge MX, you’ve got a software-defined ready infrastructure in one flexible chassis. You can put up to eight vSAN Ready Nodes in an MX7000 chassis to create a foundation for a self-sustained VMware Cloud Foundation cluster with right-sized compute, storage and ToR switches. And it’s all in one high-density package. You can put up to six drives in each MX740c compute sled for maximum density. Competing infrastructure offerings from HPE and Cisco have only two drives per compute sled.

VMware Cloud Foundation offers the fastest way for customers to build an integrated hybrid cloud by delivering a comprehensive set of software-defined services for compute, storage, networking, security, and cloud management to run enterprise applications in hybrid cloud environments. Dell EMC is pleased to announce that VMware has recently validated the PowerEdge MX for VMware Cloud Foundation.

Simplified management

When you leverage vSAN Ready Nodes in the PowerEdge MX architecture, you can take advantage of OpenManage Enterprise – Modular Edition Integration for VMware vCenter. This virtual appliance can reduce the tools and tasks associated with management and deployment of Dell EMC PowerEdge servers in your virtual environment. Dell EMC is pleased to announce that VMware has recently validated Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes for VMware Cloud Foundation on PowerEdge MX.

Check it out

All of this cool stuff is only part of the story. For a more detailed look at the capabilities and benefits of vSAN Ready Nodes on Dell EMC PowerEdge MX architecture, visit dellemc.com. And, if you’re at VMworld this week in Barcelona, check out PowerEdge MX at the Dell Technologies booth #D401 in the expo hall.

1. IDC WW Quarterly x86 Server Tracker, 2018Q2, September 5, 2018, Units and Vendor Revenue
2. IDC WW Semiannual Software Tracker, 2H2016, April 2017.
3. Most deployed HCI software solution by cloud providers, per VMware vSAN 6.7 datasheet.
4. Principled Technologies (PT) report commissioned by Dell EMC, “Ensure greater uptime and boost VMware vSAN cluster performance with the Dell EMC PowerEdge MX platform,” November 2018.

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Dell EMC and NVIDIA Expand Collaboration to Deliver Flexible Deployment Options for Artificial Intelligence Use Cases

As organizations strive to gain a competitive edge in an increasingly digital global economy, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is garnering a lot of attention. Not surprisingly, AI initiatives are springing up in various business domains, such as manufacturing, customer support, marketing and sales. In fact, Gartner predicts that AI-derived global business value is forecast to reach $3.9 trillion by 2022. As companies scramble to determine how to turn the promise of AI into reality, they are faced with a multitude of complex choices related to software stacks, neural networks and infrastructure components, with significant implications on the time-to-value associated with these initiatives.

In such a complex environment, it is critical that organizations be able to rely on vendors that they trust. Over the last few years, Dell EMC and NVIDIA have established a strong partnership to help organizations accelerate their AI initiatives. For organizations that prefer to build their own solution, we offer Dell EMC’s ultra-dense PowerEdge C-series, with NVIDIA’s TESLA V100 Tensor Core GPUs, which allows scale-out AI solutions from four up to hundreds of GPUs per cluster. For customers looking to leverage a pre-validated hardware and software stack for their Deep Learning initiatives, we offer Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI: Deep Learning with NVIDIA, which also feature Dell EMC Isilon All-Flash storage.  Our partnership is built on the philosophy of offering flexibility and informed choice across a broad portfolio.

“We’re now in the age of AI, where every industry will be enabled and powered by AI,” said Ian Buck, vice president and general manager of Accelerated Computing at NVIDIA. “Working together, NVIDIA and Dell EMC are bringing some of the most powerful GPU-accelerated solutions to enterprises so they can quickly integrate AI into their business.”

Today our companies are expanding our collaboration by announcing a new reference architecture for AI featuring NVIDIA DGX-1 servers complemented with the high-performance of Dell EMC Isilon All-Flash network-attached storage (NAS). This new offer pairs the NVIDIA DGX-1, purpose-built for the unique demands of AI and deep learning, powered by eight advanced data center accelerators – the NVIDIA Tesla V100 Tensor Core GPU – with Dell EMC Isilon scale-out all-flash storage. This combination is designed to give customers more flexibility in how they deploy AI, and delivers breakthrough performance for large-scale deep learning. As Dell EMC often takes the role of trusted IT advisor with a broad solution portfolio, this enables us to support customers looking to deploy NVIDIA DGX-1 with Dell EMC’s scale-out storage and do so more simply and with less risk.

Key components of this offering include:

◈ NVIDIA DGX-1 servers which integrate up to eight NVIDIA Tesla V100 Tensor Core GPUs fully interconnected in a hybrid cube-mesh topology. Each DGX-1 server can deliver 1 petaFLOPS of AI performance, and is powered by the DGX software stack which includes NVIDIA-optimized versions of the most popular deep learning frameworks, for maximized training performance.

◈ Dell EMC Isilon All-Flash scale-out NAS storage delivers the scale (up to 33 PB), performance (up to 540 GB/s), and concurrency (up to millions of connections) to eliminate the storage I/O bottleneck and accelerate AI workloads at scale.

To validate the new reference architecture, we ran multiple industry-standard image classification benchmarks using 22 TB datasets to simulate real-world training and inference workloads (check out the details in this joint white paper).  This testing was done on systems ranging from one DGX-1, all the way to eight DGX-1 servers connected to eight Isilon F800 nodes. The results from two of the key benchmarks are shown below in Figures 1 and 2.  Just as we proved out with the Ready Solution for Deep Learning with C4140 servers, Isilon was able to keep pace and linearly scale to achieve the maximum performance of the compute layer.

Figure 1: ResNet-50 Model Training Benchmark

Figure 2: Inception-v4 Large Image Classification

Here are some of the key findings from our testing of the Isilon and NVIDIA DGX-1 reference architecture:

◈ Achieved compelling performance results across industry standard AI benchmarks from eight through 72 GPUs without degradation to throughput or performance.

◈ Linear scalability from 8-72 GPUs delivering up to 19.9 GB/s while keeping the GPUs pegged at >97% utilization.

◈ The Isilon F800 system can deliver up to 96% throughput of local memory, bringing it extremely close to the maximum theoretical performance limit an NVIDIA DGX-1 system can achieve.

With superior capabilities for low latency, high throughput and massively parallel I/O, Dell EMC Isilon and NVIDIA DGX-1 servers complement each other extremely well to address deep learning workloads, effectively compressing the time needed for training and testing analytical models for multi-petabyte data sets on AI platforms.

This new reference architecture extends the commitment of both Dell EMC and NVIDIA to make AI simple and more accessible to organizations wishing to apply AI and deep learning techniques to develop new applications or solve complex data-centric problems. This pre-validated reference architecture adds to our unmatched set of joint offerings across Dell Precision workstations, Dell EMC PowerEdge servers, Dell EMC Ready Solutions and Dell EMC Networking.

Stay tuned for more details on the performance benchmarks of this reference architecture and for upcoming announcements as our server, storage, and software innovations for AI and deep learning use cases continue to evolve.

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Dell EMC and the 5G Network Transformation

Applying Digital, IT, Security and Workforce Transformation to 5G Networks

I’ve blogged about 5G and the mobile network transformation a few times, and have spent countless hours, at this point, speaking with many of Dell EMC’s top service provider customers and partners on how the 5G network transformation will play out. To date, I’ve refused to walk into meetings with canned slides that capture the enormity of 5G in orders-of-magnitude (more devices, more data, lower latency, etc.), nor with specific 5G solutions, because I’ve wanted to focus specifically on how 5G is driving different behaviors:

◈ Different architectural methodologies
◈ Different operational models
◈ Different procurement processes
◈ Different product and services offerings

Across the board, in all my conversations, it is becoming increasingly apparent that 5G is the perfect storm of once-in-a-decade infrastructure modernization that will bring together the key trends we, as an industry, have been speaking about for several years. Bear with me as I name-drop some of these key trends – Software-Defined Everything, Cloud Native, DevOps, Artificial Intelligence / Machine & Deep Learning, APIs, Automation, Orchestration etc….

More importantly, though, I think there are four higher-layer transformations occurring, and these technologies are just an ephemeral set of technologies and architectures which form the initial foundation of those transformation.  Dell Technologies has not been shy about its viewpoint on the importance of technology to help drive organizational innovation and success. I believe, in some ways, the term “5G” has become the aggregate of the four approaches to technology transformation – Digital Transformation, IT Transformation, Workforce Transformation and Security Transformation – applied to the mobile network.

Let me share some thoughts on how these apply to 5G:

◈ Digital Transformation – monetization of data analytics and artificial intelligence. Whether we talk about autonomous vehicles, Augmented Reality, or IoT – at the core of just about every 5G network transformation business case is the need to transport, aggregate, process, and react to massive amounts of data collected from “things.” For the first time in any of the “G” evolutions, services are top-of-mind for service providers, and we are witnessing a use-case driven network upgrade focused on Digital Services forming the foundation of future revenues.

◈ IT Transformation – modernizing infrastructure to support automated processes. New use-cases are great, but they cannot be realized by doing what has always been done – building proprietary, vertically-integrated networks that are opaque to services and infrastructure operations. Virtualization (both hypervisors and containers) and open networking, and storage, provide the foundation for a 5G multi-cloud future. This future is where Cloud Radio Access Networks (C-RAN), Edge Clouds, Telco Clouds, and Public Clouds are fully integrated, and real-time telemetry and automation provide the tools to more efficiently build and manage services.

◈ Workforce Transformation – providing the tools and skills for operations to take advantage of the new infrastructure capabilities. IT Transformation is only as successful as the workforce capable of taking advantage of it. Such a workforce is skilled in more than just mobile networking and organized to take advantage of integrated development and operations (“DevOps”). Cloud native, horizontal 5G networks won’t be operated in the same way that proprietary, vertically-integrated 4G networks were. Mobility and Networking experience are no longer sufficient – operational “excellence” will integrate this domain knowledge data science and computer science skill sets (data modeling, API scripting/programming, application development).

◈ Security Transformation – integrating natively into all services and processes, rather than as an overlay. These foundational shifts to the services, infrastructure, and workforce cannot be done in isolation of a security transformation. Networking and security are evolving in tandem, and 5G is a beneficiary of that evolution. I see security as both an opportunity to monetize the 5G network with unique Security-as-a-Service offerings but also as a foundational overlay to all services, infrastructure, and processes. Point products, such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems (IDS) will give way to data-driven, automated security frameworks that leverage the underlying programmable infrastructure for both visibility and enforcement.

Needless to say, each of these transformations and how they relate to 5G is complex. That is why Dell EMC is not sitting still in 5G. We continue to work closely with industry leaders to define how infrastructure, operations, and services are realized through 5G network transformation, and how we define and realize 5G ready infrastructure at-scale, with the performance and ease-of-deployment needed to capture new Digital Service opportunities profitably.

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Accelerating OpenStack Deployment with Dell EMC and Red Hat

Service providers everywhere are challenged by growing CAPEX and OPEX for existing network infrastructure, long time to market for new or updated services, price and margin erosion in existing businesses models and slowing innovation to capture new revenue opportunities. To address these challenges, service providers globally are looking to transform their datacenters from proprietary and rigid architectures to a disaggregated model with open architectures which allows them to increase infrastructure flexibility, efficiency and scalability.

Dell EMC and Red Hat have been working together for over a decade to provide jointly engineered and fully-validated solutions to help service providers with this transformation. At the OpenStack Summit in Berlin, we are excited to announce the latest version of Dell EMC Ready Architecture for Red Hat OpenStack Platform v13.0 release for Communications Service Providers as well as Managed & Hosting Service Providers and high-end enterprises.

At its core, we have added several new enhancements to help service providers rapidly deploy OpenStack. These include:

1. Support for Red Hat OpenStack 13 Queens Release: Red Hat OpenStack 13 is the latest release and includes several key enhancements:

◈ All Red Hat OpenStack Platform services are now containerized including OpenStack Networking (Neutron), OpenStack Block Storage (cinder), and OpenStack Shared File Systems (Manila).

◈ Red Hat OpenStack Director supports fast forward upgrade from Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 to Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13.

◈ Real-Time Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) integration and Real-Time KVM Compute role for NFV workloads to support guests with stringent latency requirement.

◈ OpenDaylight is a flexible, modular and open SDN platform that is now fully supported with this release.

2. Support for Dell EMC S5428-ON Switch: The S5248-ON is a fixed form factor top-of-rack switch offering multiple options of 25GbE SFP28 ports for in-rack server and storage. The S5248-ON key features include enhanced buffering, higher forwarding tables and hardware support for Layer 3 VXLAN while continuing to support Open Networking.

3. Cumulus Linux Networking OS: To support our service providers who tend to be Linux savvy and want to use Layer 3 Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Ethernet VPN (EVPN) fabric for data centers, this release  supports Cumulus Linux as the networking OS running on top of Dell EMC S5248 Open Networking Switches.

4. NFV Enhancements: We continue to enhance our NFV features and add new features that many of our customers are asking for. These include enhancements such as OVS-DPDK, Neutron enabled SR-IOV, MTU support starting with jumbo frames, and Neutron DVR.

5. Additionally, Dell EMC continues to have the one of the most comprehensive of Ironic driver coverage for bare-metal provisioning on Dell EMC servers and covers IPMI, iDRAC and RedFish drivers. Dell EMC also is the first server vendor to have Red Hat Bare Metal certification for PowerEdge servers (in addition to Red Hat OpenStack Platform, Linux and GlusterFS).

While Dell EMC Ready Architecture for Red Hat OpenStack Platform is intended as a baseline conversation starter, we fully understand that service providers may have standardized on an architecture that includes their best practices. Dell EMC makes customization of the solution easy with our Professional Services offerings targeted specifically to address their requirements.

Looking ahead, Dell EMC and Red Hat together will continue to integrate capabilities that service providers want to reduce installation complexity, automate operations, enable seamless delivery new services.

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New 200TB Fast Track Solution Proves Dell EMC is the Go-To Platform for SQL Server Success

Dell EMC now offers the LARGEST, SMALLEST and MOST array-based solutions in Microsoft’s SQL Server Fast Track catalog – what else would you expect from the leader in midrange storage?

Today’s business thrives on a steady diet of data – and Microsoft SQL Server is one of the premier technologies helping companies of all sizes capitalize on the value of that data, delivering real-time operational intelligence to create competitive advantage in nearly every industry.

Some assembly required?

But before you can achieve the benefits of SQL Server, you’ll need more than just software – an entire ecosystem is involved.  Whether the goal is traditional high-scale OLTP, advanced analytics, or the foundation of an AI/ML solution, successful deployments also require:

◈ Powerful compute resources to efficiently drive millions (or billions) of transactions

◈ Fast, flexible storage to cost-effectively handle a growing tsunami of input

These essential elements must work together with the host operating system, network infrastructure and SQL Server itself to deliver a throughput flow optimized for the specific database use desired.  If key components are sized incorrectly or misconfigured, you may end up spending too much, wasting personnel resources – or worst of all, not achieving the performance or flexibility required to meet your business objectives.  The necessary multi-disciplinary planning and coordination can be extremely complex.  

Take the SQL Fast Track

That’s where Dell EMC’s Microsoft Data Warehouse Fast Track solutions come in.  Fast Track is a joint effort between Microsoft and its infrastructure partners to deliver validated, pre-configured deployment guides that reduce the complexity of advanced data warehouse projects. These detailed solution “cookbooks” include ready-to-order hardware specs for balanced compute and storage systems, test-validated OS and software settings, cabling diagrams, and everything else required to ensure your deployment goes quickly and correctly the first time.

As a long-standing Microsoft partner, it’s not surprising Dell EMC takes a leadership position in the Fast Track program, where we now offer the LARGEST (200TB), the SMALLEST (8TB) and the MOST array-based solutions (we’ve documented 14 diverse configurations and counting).*

Large-scale SQL powerhouse

Our latest Fast Track solution, certified by Microsoft this week, is the highest-capacity from any vendor in the catalogue. This 200TB scalable blueprint is suitable for leading innovators in industries such as banking and healthcare – or anyone else with mission-critical, performance-intensive application needs.

◈ 200TB Reference Architecture

◈ 200TB Deployment and Configuration Guide

Featuring our Dell EMC SC9000 array and Dell EMC PowerEdge R940 servers, the new configuration provides true enterprise-class capabilities.  SC9000 scales to 6PB per array, with multi-array federation, intelligent deduplication/compression, automated RAID tiering and auto-failover for built-in disaster recovery. The SCOS 7.3 array firmware update (see video overview) recently boosted SQL transactions-per-second by 44% (!), allowing the 200TB Fast Track system to hit 1 million IOPS, with max IOPS for the array itself now over 2.2 million.

PowerEdge R940 also drives phenomenal SQL performance with quad Intel Xeon processors and up to 112 cores, 6TB of memory and 12 NVDIMMs.  Automated server management simplifies IT operations, built-in security features protect your assets – and together, these best-in-class Dell EMC products enable high availability architectures with Windows Server, Hyper-V and VMware.

Affordable SQL entry

But big companies aren’t the only ones who need state-of-the-art business intelligence.  Fortunately, an SC Series/PowerEdge combination also powers the smallest array-based solution in the Fast Track portfolio. Our 8TB SQL SCv3020 array / R740 server configuration delivers high-value services surprisingly similar to the 200TB solution described above, allowing businesses of all sizes to start small without sacrificing the advantages of enterprise-class technology.

◈ 8TB Reference Architecture

◈ 8TB Deployment and Configuration Guide

And everything SQL in between

If neither of the above “starting point” configs suits your unique needs, there are literally a dozen other Dell EMC solutions in the Fast Track catalogue, including a 100TB configuration using the same affordable SCv3020 / R740 combination. Easy evolution between solutions is a hallmark of SC Series storage – but all the Dell EMC Fast Track configurations offer the assurance of single-vendor simplicity and integration from the market leader in both storage and servers. Once you start with Dell EMC, you know we can take you wherever your business needs to go.

Entry to enterprise. Trusted. Validated. It’s why thousands of customers worldwide choose Dell EMC as their one-stop SQL shop. Because in the end, neither Dell EMC nor Microsoft will be satisfied until we make your SQL Server deployment a key enabler of your company’s success.

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Did Software Eat the World? Or was it Data Capital?

Marc Andreessen coined the phrase “software is eating the world” almost ten years ago. His proclamation was clairvoyant because it predicted the rise of the digital age and its corresponding impact including the advantageous position the companies who were leading the charge would have. It strikes me that we’ve transitioned from software to data – novel data – that now defines the value organizations will have. Moreover, I believe the value has always rested within the data, it was just waiting for software and hardware innovation in order to gain access to that value.

Today it is the users who have been utilizing data the most, but in the future it will be machines. This change will be similar to the way AI, IoT, and data analytics currently dwarf applications in their consumption of data. This rise will require a massive shift, not only in technology investments but also how these companies are structured and operate. We are only just beginning to understand the business value of data and how it can be leveraged effectively to create a digital business. Technology companies inadvertently created a blueprint when they started disrupting industries, and now it is easy to find examples in almost any sector where data is used.

Software eating the world in the consumer space

Perhaps the best way to showcase the potential of data comes from how it affects our everyday lives as consumers, since this has been an area where so many of us have seen the most extensive change.

I recently spent two weeks in Japan, which despite barely speaking Japanese, was one of the easiest travel experiences I’ve ever had. My tour guide was a smartphone and its applications offered insights on every level. It was easier to get around cities of magnitude far larger than the city where I live. Consumers are trained that “there’s an app for that,” and each application offers a unique value that made the entire trip a breeze. I couldn’t imagine how difficult this trip would have been without my smartphone applications.

From finding my way around a complex series of train-lines, to remotely checking into residences, to finding the best food in town – the experience was seamless and none of the details got in the way of our vacation as we traversed city after city. Probably the most telling moment was when I recalled there was a temple I had visited 19 years ago that I really wanted to see again but didn’t know how to find it again. I searched using three words: Phoenix, temple, and Kyoto. The first hit was Byodoin temple or Phoenix Hall. Using just two data points – the location and a partial description had yielded the destination, and those were not even the most accurate descriptions as Uji is the exact location, and the actual name was different.

We live in a time where getting lost, picking the wrong restaurant, or getting stuck somewhere have become optional due to our consumption and leveraging of data in our personal lives. What could that same approach yield us in business?

The rise of Data Capital as a business asset

With Smartphone adoption estimates topping 80% market penetration, we demand these types of experiences in our daily lives. Why are we still running businesses without access to that same level of data? Yes, it requires a new approach and investments, but as we’ve seen in our personal lives it would be unthinkable to continue operating a business without being data-centric. Put simply, every company is now a technology company. Where will we see data having the most significant impact on companies? In four major areas:

Digital Experiences

As we noted, digital experiences have been the way in which we have most commonly leveraged data, and these will continue to persist and grow as every industry becomes infused with technology. We’ve already seen massive disruption from digital firms challenging incumbents and disrupting industries. As data becomes connected with every aspect of our lives, these offerings will be a strong differentiator for businesses that embrace this change. The physical world will merge with the online world, offering new connected possibilities – whether it’s a web application served up to a phone or an AR/VR experience that has the potential reshape nearly every activity.

Big Data/Analytics

Another area businesses have already had some success with is big data, which offers new insights into the business. Whether it’s identifying buying patterns, segmenting customers, or identifying inefficiencies in a supply chain – if something can be measured and analyzed then it can likely be improved. It’s hard to imagine a business remaining competitive for long if it is not data-driven, as competitors will run leaner and be able to capture opportunities the data-starved organization will miss. Many industries have already experienced massive disruption as a result of digital companies such as Facebook, Netflix, Airbnb, and Uber entering their markets. With the digital era upon us, data will become a substantial competitive advantage.

The Internet of Things

While this category was coined way back in 1995 at the dawn of the Internet, it has largely remained an elusive target for most organizations. With faster wireless speeds (4G/5G) and more and more data being collected, analyzed, and consumed at the edge by devices, we are finally starting to see IoT redefine how things are done across many industries. Whether it’s enabling new experiences for humans by incorporating a device with a connected service or automating activities with robotics, IoT promises to reshape how business gets done in the future, and it is data that powers these systems. These systems can offer unique experiences and streamline processes, allowing organizations to lock in profitability and offer better service to customers.

 Machine Learning / Deep Learning and AI

One of the hottest areas for tech investment right now is Artificial Intelligence (AI). We are rapidly approaching a time where the sheer volume of data becomes a barrier to analysis by human beings, and this is where AI delivers value. The software and hardware evolution enables advanced algorithms to access enormous datasets in new and differentiated ways, with the ability to turn data into thoughts or actions. AI is often combined with these other three trends we’ve talked about to provide an extension of the value they offer. AI can enable companies to tackle simple tasks or address incredibly advanced use cases where human beings are not well suited to analyze the mass of data in question. Whether it’s an assembly line picker, an autonomous vehicle, or analyzing a human genome – it’s important to note that large stores of data must be collected and high computational power must be applied to achieve accurate results. AI while incredibly complex perhaps represents the pinnacle of data capital and will deliver additional value beyond these other means of leveraging data.

Data Capital is required in the future the primary way to access consumers

With consumers, it’s a choice to use data as a means to enrich an experience. However, for businesses it’s a mandate. So why are consumers so far ahead of the curve in using data compared to so many businesses? It’s because large-scale enterprises tend to have a legacy infrastructure and “data gravity” weighing them down. It’s not as easy as just buying a new Smartphone with VR and facial recognition capabilities. There is a need to modernize and safely navigate the transition of data to modern platforms. Ultimately it is perceived to be a very time consuming and precarious venture to introduce new data capabilities, but it doesn’t have to be.

Dell EMC recognizes this is the critical challenge facing many organizations and is focused on helping them succeed no matter what stage they may be in their journey. Our storage and data protection solutions help organizations unlock their data capital as a way to strengthen and differentiate their businesses. We’ve designed our products with this in mind, and it’s also how we assist organizations to make this transition.

While some vendors suggest a complete “lift and shift” cloud strategy, and others position consolidating to a single storage hub, we understand your business is so much more than any one data platform. Our focus is on delivering the best of breed data storage and data protection solutions that provide coverage for the entire data footprint, and we work with you to determine where data should reside based on its characteristics and your business objectives.

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Industry First — Dell EMC Showcases End-to-End NVMe and Storage Class Memory on PowerMax at VMworld Barcelona

I’m excited to share that this week at VMworld Europe, Dell EMC is previewing our latest PowerMax technology combined with another industry leader, VMware. This first of its kind technology preview continues to demonstrate Dell EMC’s commitment to storage innovation for virtual environments and the tight collaboration between Dell EMC and VMware. Our proven track record of providing next-generation technology helps our customers tackle their most demanding and mission-critical applications of today and tomorrow.

The entire engineering team and I are proud that our customers have made Dell EMC PowerMax the de facto standard for applications that require unmatched resiliency, uncompromising data services, and extreme levels of performance. Combined with the efficiencies and automation of PowerMax, IT organizations can modernize their infrastructure to drive massive workload consolidation, shrink hardware footprint, and reduce power consumption. All of which delivers more value to their business while lowering costs and reducing complexity.

Today we are excited to demonstrate how PowerMax can achieve game changing storage performance across virtualized environments. The demo showcases industry first technology and how Dell EMC will help users transition from today to tomorrow while protecting their current storage investments.

The technology of that tomorrow is NVMe and Storage Class Memory (SCM). SCM is cutting-edge storage media considered to be the next generation workhorse (at well below 100 microseconds latency!). It’s perfect for current and emerging performance hungry workloads. Use cases include supporting real-time and data-intensive analytics applications, as well as super-charging transactional OLTP and database workloads.

Today we are demonstrating the industry’s first storage array to fully exploit NVMe-connected SCM drives combined with end-to-end FC-NVMe networks. The result is a future proof combination that will completely shift the technology landscape. Storage decision makers are bullish about NVMe—79% of IT managers surveyed by ESG who were familiar with NVMe technology said they expect it to eventually replace traditional SAS- or SATA-connected solid-state flash storage.

And here’s why the combination of NVMe networks with SCM drives are a game changer.

NVMe over Fabric does lots of cool things to take full advantage of Flash Arrays. It’s designed for extensive parallelism, concurrency and scalability to unlock the power of today’s multi-core CPUs and high-speed media. It provides end-to-end I/O optimizations, massive que depths, and lower latencies from the NVMe host bus adapters (HBAs) to PowerMax NVMe drives. It all adds to delivering more users to more application transactions with lower response times. And because we can leverage SAN networks, we can help protect your infrastructure investments.

Storage Class Memory represents the future of low latency persistent storage media. The performance of SCM is measured in tens of microseconds. It’s wicked fast and approaches the performance levels of DRAM, but at a lower cost and higher density compared to DRAM. The benefit to users is the ability to provide “in memory” like performance with consistent, predictable I/O latencies.

The ability to leverage the benefits of NVMe and SCM requires the right storage architecture. PowerMax is the world’s only Flash Array that includes an innovative, proven real-time machine learning engine that provides intelligent data placement. This intelligence optimizes NVMe and SCM performance without introducing management overhead. PowerMax allows users to transparently leverage both SCM technology for their highest priority, lowest latency workloads combined with cost efficient NVMe flash drives for their less active data sets. This differentiating capability is essential to helping IT organizations increase application performance, reduce storage costs, and minimize management complexity.

In this unprecedented demo with PowerMax that you’ll find at Dell EMC Booth D401, VM datastores reside on that ultra-low latency SCM drive technology and showcases how VMware recognizes PowerMax storage presented over traditional FC versus FC-NVMe, and how a VM can be moved between two datastores created on two different transport technologies, while on the same overall fabric. The ability to simultaneously run I/O over both FC and FC-NVMe on PowerMax is key to helping customers easily transition existing IT infrastructure to more powerful FC-NVMe networks.

Our close friends at VMware believe this demo is pretty special, too. “The Dell EMC PowerMax platform is ideally suited for large-scale, performance-driven VMware environments that will benefit most from the combination of storage class memory and FC-NVMe”, said Lee Caswell, Vice President Products, Storage and Availability Business Unit, VMware.  “We are seeing an insatiable appetite for performance from high-end storage customers who value the deep integration VMware offers for Dell EMC PowerMax storage innovation.”

For everyone who likes to know the nuts and bolts, the PowerMax demo uses the following hardware and software:

◈ Dell EMC PowerMax 2000

◈ PowerMaxOS and Unisphere for PowerMax pre-GA builds

◈ 32Gb FC I/O modules running NVMe over Fabric pre-GA build

◈ 32Gb FC I/O modules running Fibre Channel pre-GA build

◈ 750GB NVMe Storage Class Memory Drives pre-GA build

◈ 8TB NVMe Flash Drives

◈ VMware vSphere ESXi and vCenter pre-GA builds*

* VMware does not promise any such functionality in its future release of vSphere

Both NVMe over Fabric and SCM online upgrades are planned to be available to PowerMax customers in 2019.

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