TeleHealth: A Mission Critical 5G Use Case

TDell Technologies, VMware and Telenor have collaborated closely to fully leverage and realize the potential and promise of 5G, Edge and machine learning innovation applied to a TeleHealth use case as part of a broader commitment to doing research and development going forward.

Health Service Administrators are looking at how advanced technology can play an enabling role in transforming healthcare delivery. Enabled by 5G and integrated Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC), the design of better-connected and coordinated IT services will dramatically advance urgent healthcare delivery.  The development of these new models will create improved experiences and life enhancing outcomes for patients in their care.

The vision of our Proof-of-Concept (PoC), which we’ll be showing at our booth at MWC 2019 in Barcelona, was to examine the scenario of possible stroke victims at a remote locations.  We show how the continuous collection and streaming of patient data is enabled from initial contact through to arrival at the destination hospital emergency department.

We demonstrate that the seamless composition of services will provide a secure, reliable, low-latency mobile HD video link from a remote ambulance to a hospital and an Edge assisted remote stroke assessment application that shortens the time to assess and provide urgent care to potential stroke victims (and save lives).  The availability of remote, real-time HD video streaming from paramedics to the hospital emergency room or medical specialists enables more intelligent and timely decision making and improves the probability of better patient outcomes.

Additionally, new health assessment innovations, such as the telestroke application, are being developed to enable faster remote diagnosis; combining machine learning and real-time edge computing.   This mission critical use case scenario (figure below) was approached from and end-to-end perspective, focusing on several key new 5G network capabilities that include:

◈ E2E Networking Slicing – leveraging Open Source Management & Orchestration (OSM) capability to provide virtual multi-layer slice from core, SDN/NFV, to radio access to enforce QoE requirements on common infrastructure

◈ Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) – common infrastructure platform, based on Dell Technologies hardware and VMware Integrated Openstack (VIO) and software-defined networking (NSX), supporting the hosting of virtual applications for low latency, as well as hardware acceleration and GPU for ML/Analytics capabilities

◈ Hardware Acceleration – GPU offload of x86 CPU for video, image processing, ML/Analytics and real-time processing

◈ Intelligent workload placement – as the ambulance moves between different edge sites toward the hospital, OSM instantiates, monitors and scales out critical VNFs to the appropriate MEC site

◈ Automation and Programmability – OSM provides cross-plane/domain orchestration, FCAPS management in concert with vRealize Operations Manager and QoE slice management

5G, IoT, Network Slicing and Multi-Access Edge Computing are transformative to the Telecom architecture, ecosystem and partnerships, as well as operating model. Dell Technologies is at the forefront of 5G innovation and actively participating in EU 5G research projects, relevant standards & open source consortia and with 5G/Edge use case development with the leading Telecom Service Providers.  We are leveraging this innovation work to solve real problems as well as increase our understanding of vertical solution requirements and business drivers to build our 5G partner ecosystem. Dell Technologies provides common validated 4G and 5G NFVi and edge computing solutions that are open and integrated with both commercial and open source partners.

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Data Domain OS 6.2: Faster Data Protection, with Expanded Cloud Ecosystem, and Greater Flexibility

What a start to the year 2019. Dell EMC Data Domain delivers another feature packed software release (Data Domain OS 6.2) with hardware component enablement. The key themes for this release are:

◈ Dell EMC Data Domain DD3300 Enhancements: We acted on the feedback from our customers related to DD3300, and are proud to announce faster networking, support for VTL use case over Fiber Channel, and more flexibility from a capacity upgrade perspective by introducing a new DD3300 model at 8TB that can grow-in-place up to 16TB, and provides a clean upgrade path to 32TB on a single box.

◈ Increased Differentiation: We made significant strides in improving performance – single stream restore performance has improved up to 4X compared to the previous release (Data Domain OS 6.1.2), and so has the overall restore performance. We have expanded our Cloud ecosystem for both Dell EMC Cloud Tier and Dell EMC Data Domain Virtual Edition (DD VE) with support for Google Cloud Platform and Alibaba Cloud. In addition, DD VE also supports AWS GovCloud and Azure Government Cloud.

◈ Simplified Experience: Better management through automation and end-to-end data protection visibility  with Dell EMC Data Domain Management Center (DD MC)

◈ Serviceability and TCE enhancements: Get more from your Dell EMC Data Domain appliances

Dell EMC Data Domain Virtual Edition (DD VE)

As the adoption of DD VE has dramatically increased, Dell EMC decided to further build on that momentum both on-premise and in the cloud. DD VE in cloud supports backup to object storage. DD VE users benefit from increased efficiency and reliability, as well as a lower TCO, reducing the overall cost of protecting data.  We further increased the transactional and operational efficiency by increasing the instance size up to 96TB to reduce transactional overhead. The object size written to cloud has been increased to minimize the number of transactions (4MB for VSC & 1MB for others). We are extending that same support to AWS GovCloud and Azure Government Cloud.

DD VE now supports Google Cloud Platform (GCP) up to 96TB with support for object storage.

Dell EMC Cloud Tier

From a Cloud Tier perspective, we support Cloud Seeding, multi-stream recall for better performance, free space estimator capability that helps the customer when moving data to the cloud, expanded support to both Google Cloud Platform and Alibaba Cloud. With Data Domain OS 6.2, we are now extending DD VE Try and Buy to Cloud Tier.

Cloud Tier Overview

Cloud seeding for efficiency: Cloud seeding is similar to tape seeding where the entire data set is moved to the cloud in one go. This is something that happens transparently. This is particularly useful when you have a Dell EMC Data Domain DD9800 that is 80% utilized and must move a large chunk of the capacity very quickly to the cloud.

Multi-stream recall for performance: This is a powerful feature that delivers improved performance from stream concurrency. For example, let’s say you are trying to recall a single file from the  cloud and you are constrained by the network even if you have enough resources available. We took what worked very well in replication with AMS (Automatic Multi-Streaming), and now used it for recalling a single file from the  cloud without affecting core backup work. This results in improved performance and network utilization.

Free Space Estimator Capability: This capability helps in facilitating TCO analysis. With  this Free Space Estimator capability customers will now be able to estimate the space that will be freed up on the Data Domain Active Tier if the data were to be moved to Cloud Tier. This will enable customers who don’t have Cloud Tier to evaluate if pushing the data to the cloud is a feasible option for them.  It also works in an environment where Cloud Tier is enabled.

In summary, Data Domain OS 6.2 is a very feature packed release that brings a lot of value to our customers. We hope you will consider upgrading your Data Domain appliances with Data Domain OS 6.2.

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Partnering for Perfection – Customizing Strategies for a Unique Age

When it comes to implementing digital transformation, most companies naturally focus on the wealth of potential today’s emerging technologies offer them to expand their corporate reach.  But for such a transformation to be truly successful and give organizations the greatest return on their investment, a solid strategy based upon their specific needs is the key to unlocking the power that lies in helping these solutions work together. To achieve this, a solid foundation capable of supporting these new tools is essential. To devise a plan that takes their personal needs into account, they need to find an IT partner who knows how to integrate these new technologies and is capable of helping them orchestrate their individual strengths into a unified goal for tomorrow.

Collaboration is the key to creating a successful vision

In the Digital Age, businesses are evolving rapidly, as every organization in every field now essentially offers IT services at its core, from finance to sales, from healthcare to retail, from science to manufacturing. IT has become fully woven into every business model of every company whatever their activities, customers and size, as both B2B and B2C customers are now demanding more in terms of service, capability and outcome.

This means that today’s businesses are driven by advances in modern IT to offer their customers the most efficient, personal experiences possible and delivering employees access to the most pertinent information in real-time on which to base their business decisions. This is especially true for enterprise customers and many of the major industries in today’s global marketplace.

With this in mind, the success of an IT provider relies on being able to see the potential of digital transformation through the eyes of each individual company. Just as no two business models are alike, the needs of today’s clients are specific to their individual makeup, and emerging technologies are only as potent as their ability to be customized to achieve an organization’s unique vision. A focus on customer satisfaction and sound strategic planning are what makes visionary companies stand out from the crowd.

To achieve this, organizations need to trust that their infrastructure is both capable and fluid enough to handle the demands of an ever changing workplace and has the robust datacenter capabilities to support the ever-increasing volumes of data brought to light by such cutting-edge solutions as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, augmented and virtual reality and flexible cloud alternatives.

Many of today’s most powerful organizations are both intrigued by the potential of emerging technologies to increase their reach, improve efficiency and focus their workforce – and confused as to which solutions are best suited to deliver the greatest return on investment for their particular needs. At Dell Technologies, our unique ability to deliver products that focus a company’s vision, rather than simply highlighting the technology itself, is what makes us among the most trusted leaders in our field.

Evolving to meet the needs of a new workplace

Digital transformation has the power to drive a culture of entrepreneurship, ownership and accountability never before seen in the workplace. But as business models change, jobs take on new responsibilities and the workforce grows more tech savvy, the companies who thrive are those who recognize the need to give their employees the most up-to-date tools capable of enabling them to achieve their objectives in a work environment that is growing increasingly more mobile, fluid, collaborative and hyper-connected.

To find the spot where cost and efficiency meet power of innovation for a particular customer, this calls for a new type of infrastructure designed not only to provide services, but to promote opportunities to seek out better ways of working. Collaboration, information sharing, mobility and speed of access to information have become the greatest priorities for organizations looking to expand their reach. For the solutions of tomorrow to do their work, they need a sound architecture on which to thrive.

As the workforce changes, so have the priorities of today’s workers. Generation Z is now entering the job market fully connected and prepared to stand as ambassadors of technology. They are expected to be as much as 20% of the workforce by 2020.

Like myself, they have great interest in Corporate Social Responsibility and are environmentally active, preferring to work for likeminded companies. Hiring and retaining the best and brightest relies heavily on ensuring they have the right tools at their disposal to think in innovative new ways, share ideas with colleagues and do their jobs from anywhere, at any time. For them, teamwork and interaction are essential. To achieve this, smart companies recognize the need to transform.

Designing data to deliver new insights

With data as the new gold, smart organizations are focusing on how best to store, manage, protect and analyze their newfound information and turn it into actionable insights for addressing a quickly changing marketplace. Scalability, dependability and security make up the blueprint for translating data and drawing new connections from a diverse range of sources, from edge to cloud to core.

Today’s forward thinking companies want access to the right data in the right place at the right time. Improving an organization’s ability to collect and make sense of their data in near real-time from edge to cloud to core is a key element for staying ahead of its competitors. Greater data integration throughout a company’s structure provides:

◈ More reliable data for decision making
◈ Increased speed to market
◈ Faster ability to integrate acquisitions and modifications
◈ Improved agility, scalability and flexibility
◈ Enhanced analytical potential
◈ Extended customer reach

Developing a top of the line ecosystem drives business value improves operational efficiency and grows revenue.  It is the heart of any successful digital transformation.

When it comes to turning the chaos of digital transformation into customized capability, the Dell EMC sales force uses its tested field experience to fully examine the specifics that make up a customer’s business structure. In this way, we help to devise new ways of implementing the latest technologies to allow organizations to work more efficiently, research new methods for production and operations, intelligently manage data and ultimately streamline corporate IT strategy. In this way, Dell becomes the facilitator for our customers’ success, rather than just another provider.

And that is how we like it.

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Workloads like SAP, Oracle and Microsoft are Key to Digital Transformation

Early in 2019, we are seeing businesses fully-engaged in modernizing IT for this digital era. This presents the potential for a “Perfect Storm” (good movie, by the way) for IT. What I mean is simply this, disruption is happening throughout IT (applications and infrastructure) and customers turn to Dell EMC to help them navigate this journey.

Consider for a moment the transformations at SAP and Microsoft;

◆ Both organizations have invested in next-generation application and database platforms, embracing in-memory processing, real-time analytics, AI and machine learning.

◆ Couple that with end of support and maintenance plans for legacy SAP Business Suite and SQL Server 2008 – business and IT departments have decisions to make and work to do.

Let’s use SAP to illustrate the implications. IT departments need to plan and execute a roadmap to adopt SAP S/4HANA, SAP’s next-generation Intelligent ERP that is core to the business transformation.

Migrating to SAP HANA and S/4HANA while deploying the optimal infrastructure is easier said than done. CIOs and IT managers would love to simply redirect a chunk of their budgets to quickly enable next-generation SAP intelligent applications. But it’s really not that simple.

Listening to customers has inspired Dell EMC to invest in solutions designed to address common themes important to IT organizations looking to sustain classic SAP deployments while migrating to SAP HANA and S/4HANA.

Customers often face strained IT budgets and have to allocate valuable resources to spend time maintaining, monitoring and managing sprawling, complex SAP system landscapes.

Historically, IT has run SAP production and non-production systems on siloed infrastructure, whether by design — to protect production performance — or ad hoc as new projects get added.

Considering it is common to see four, six, or more SAP applications running – each with its own landscape of development, test and quality assurance – we built a solution designed for SAP landscape consolidation to reduce TCO while simplifying IT management and operations.

Additionally, with organizations looking to mainstream and scale SAP HANA and S/4HANA, it is imperative to run SAP HANA just like any other database in the data center. It has to be capable of leveraging preferred infrastructure, existing processes and tools for reduced TCO and risk.

Dell EMC invests in SAP HANA’s Certification Program for hardware designed to help customers’ fast track implementations with reduced risk.

Increasingly we have been participating in customer discussions emerging (and may I add – “game changing”) data-driven use cases powered from edge to core to cloud with SAP Leonardo using AI, machine learning, block-chain and big data.

We are busy in this area too!

We are enabling a data management framework to complement the SAP Data Hub in pipelining, orchestrating, storing and protecting all data types. To this end, we now have SAP HANA certification for Dell EMC Isilon scale-out NAS storage at the core and SAP Leonardo Edge certified Dell Edge gateways for collecting, aggregating and managing data at the edge.

We are also working with SAP and partners on industry and application use cases such transforming manufacturing with SAP S/4HANA and SAP HANA Blockchain Smart Contracts.

For organizations looking to run SAP in a cloud operating model, Dell EMC’s modern infrastructure provides strong integration with VMware, providing a cloud-enabled infrastructure foundation ready to enable a unified applications and IT management experience. Additionally, if you are looking to host SAP ERP, Business Suite and S/4 HANA off-premises in a cloud, consider Virtustream a premium certified provider of SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud services.

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Dell EMC’s Cloud Snapshot Manager – Breaking Cloud Silos for Better Data Protection

The explosive growth of public cloud computing is transforming enterprise IT infrastructure. Organizations are finding it difficult to manage workloads and the proliferation of snapshots with the native tools offered by most infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud providers.

What is Cloud Snapshot Manager?

Cloud Snapshot Manager is a SaaS solution that makes it easy to protect workloads in public cloud environments – without requiring any installation or infrastructure. Customers can discover, orchestrate and automate the protection of workloads across multiple clouds based on policies for seamless backup and disaster recovery. Dell EMC breaks cloud silos, allowing customers to use one tool for the protection of workloads across multiple clouds. Designed for any size cloud infrastructure, CSM scales as your organization and data grows. The automatic assignment of resources to protection policies based on tags is essential to achieve auto-scaling in the cloud with the peace of mind that your resources are protected.

How does Cloud Snapshot Manager Work?

In the middle are the resources that are running in the AWS or Azure cloud. Snapshots are a key mechanism by which resources are protected in the cloud, primarily due to the fact that when snapshots are taken, AWS copies the data from EC2, EBC and RDS to a special snapshot bucket in S3 and for Azure from managed disk to a standard Blob store, separating the primary data from the secondary copy of the data. The initial snapshot is a full copy and all the subsequent snapshots are incremental in the case of AWS. Cloud Snapshot Manager runs inside Dell EMC IT infrastructure with the highest level of security and control. Cloud Snapshot Manager micro-services use the APIs offered by AWS or Azure to discover instances and create or delete snapshots per policy. Similarly, for restores, API calls are made to create the VM image from the snapshot. It is important to note that the data will always remain in the cloud and would never leave that environment.

What are the benefits of CSM?

CSM is designed from the ground up for any size cloud infrastructure and scales as your organization and data grows. The following are a few benefits of CSM.

◈ Automated cloud data protection from one pane of glass, breaking cloud silos

◈ Protection, compliance, and disaster recovery of public cloud workloads

◈ Multi-tenancy capabilities enabling multiple accounts and users

◈ Automatic deletion of snapshots per retention policies for cost savings

◈ Application consistent framework in AWS and Azure for consistent restores

◈ Email reports for visibility into the health and overall status of your CSM environment

◈ Discovery of existing snapshots in AWS for better control over snapshot sprawl

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