In A Data-Driven World, Innovation Changes Are Forcing a New Paradigm

For the last two decades, I’ve enjoyed working at Dell Technologies focusing on customer big-picture ideas. Not just focusing on hardware changes, but on a holistic solution including hardware, software, and services that achieves a business objective by addressing customer goals, problems, and needs. I’ve also partnered with my clients on their transformation journey. The concepts of digital transformation and IT transformation have been universal themes and turning these ideas into realities is where the rubber meets the road.

Now as I engage with customers and partners about Microsoft solutions, an incremental awareness of the idea of “data”, and how data is accessed and leveraged, has become evident. A foundational shift around data has occurred.

We are now living in a new era of data management, but many of us were not aware this change was developing. This has crept up on us without the fanfare you might see from a new technology launch. When you take a step back and look at these shifts in their entirety you see these changes aren’t just isolated updates, but instead are amplifying their benefits within each other. This is a fundamental transformation in the industry, similar to when virtualization was first adopted 15 years ago.

For many, this change started to become apparent with the end of support for SQL Server 2008 earlier this year (along with support for all previous versions of the product). This deadline, coupled with the large install base that still exists on this platform, is helping the conversation along but it’s not just a replace the old with the new in a point-by-point swap out. The doors opened in this new era force a completely different view and approach. We no longer need to have a SQL, Oracle, SAP, or Hadoop conversation – instead it becomes a holistic “data” point of view.

In our hybrid/multi-cloud world, there is not just one answer for managing data. Regardless of the type of data or where it resides, all the diverse data languages and methods of control, the word “data” can encompass a great deal.

Emerging technologies including IoT, 5G, AI and ML are generating greater amounts and varied types of data. How we access that data and derive insight from it becomes critical, but we have been limited by people, processes, and technology.

People have become stuck in the rut of, “I want it to be this way because it has always been this way.” Therefore, replacing dated/expired architectures becomes a swap out story verses a re-examine story and new efficiencies are completely missed. Processes within the organization become rigid with that same mindset and, dare I say politics, where access to that data becomes path- limited. Technology is influenced by both people and process as “the old way is good enough, right?”

The value/importance of “data” really points back to the insight that you drive from it. Having a bunch of ones and zeros on a hard drive is nice but what you derive from that data is critically important. The conversations I have with customers are not so much, “Where is my data and how is it stored?” The conversation is more commonly, “I have a need to get business analytics from my proprietary data so I can impact my customers in a way I never did before.”

To put my Stephen Covey hat on, we are in a paradigm change. What is occurring is incredibly impactful for how customers should view and treat data. There are three key areas that we will examine with the new paradigm today and we’ll start with data gravity.

Data Gravity

Data gravity is the idea that data has weight. Wherever data is created, it tends to remain. Data stores are getting so big that moving data around is becoming expensive, time constrained, and database performance impacting. This in turn, results in silos of data by location and type. Versioning and lack of upgrade/migration/consolidation of databases also perpetuates these silo challenges.

As with physical gravity, we understand that data’s mass encourages applications and analytics to orbit that data store where it resides. Then, application dependency upon the data’s language version cements the silo requirement even further. We have witnessed the proliferation of intelligent core and edge devices, as well as bringing applications to that place where the data resides – at the customer location.

Silos of data based on language, version, and location can’t be readily accessed from a common interface. If I am a SQL user, how do I get that Oracle data I need? I cannot just pull all my data together into a huge common dataset – it’s just too big. We see these silos in almost every customer environment.

Data Virtualization

This is where data virtualization comes into the story. Please note this is not a virtual machine (a common confusion on the naming). Think instead of this being data democratization: the ability to allow all the people access to all the data – within reason, of course. Data virtualization allows you to access the data where the data is stored without a massive ETL event.  You can see and control the data regardless of language, version, or location. The data remains where it is, but you have real-time source access to this data. You can access data from remote or diverse sources and perform actions on that data from one common point of view.

Data virtualization allows access into the silos that, in the past, have been very rigid, blocking the ability to effectively use that data. From a non-SQL Server point of view, having unstructured data or structured data in a different format (like Oracle), required you to hire a specialized person with a specific skill set to access that data. With data virtualization, that is no longer a barrier as these silo walls are reduced. Data virtualization becomes data democratization, meaning that all people (with appropriate permissions) can access and do things with that data.

From a Microsoft point of view, that technology came into reality with Polybase. Polybase with SQL Server allows access with T-SQL, the most commonly used database language. I started using this resource with the Analytics Platform System (APS) many years ago. After Microsoft placed this tool into SQL Server in 2016 and updated its functionality tremendously in SQL Server 2019, we now can ingest Hadoop, Oracle, and use orchestrators like Spark, to access all these disparate data sources. To visualize this, think of Polybase with SQL Server 2019 as a wrapper around these diverse silos of data. You now can access all these disparate data sources within one common interface: T-SQL using Polybase.

Holistic Solution

The final tenet of this fundamental change is the advent of containerization. This enablement technology allows abstraction beyond virtualization and runs just about anywhere. Data becomes nimble and you can move it where needed.

It’s amazing how pervasive containers have become. It’s no longer a science experiment, but is quickly becoming the new normal. In the past, many customers had a forklift perception that when a new technology comes into play, it requires a lift and replace. I’ve heard, “What I am doing today is no longer good, so I have to replace it with whatever your new product is, and it will be painful.”

I’ve been using the phrase that containerization enables “all the things”. Containerization has been adopted by so many architectures that it’s easier to talk about where you can’t do it verses where you can. Traditional SAN, converged, hyperconverged, hybrid cloud — you can place this just about anywhere. There is not just one right path here — do what makes sense for you. It becomes a holistic solution.

There are multiple ways to address the business need that customers have even if it’s leveraging existing designs that they’ve been using for years. Dell Technologies has published details of several architectures supporting SQL Server and has just recently published the first of many papers on SQL Server in containers.

The answer is, you can do all these things with all these architectures. By the way, this isn’t specific to Microsoft and SQL Server. We see similar architectures being created in other databases and technology formats.

These three tenets are each self-supporting to the new paradigm. Data gravity is supported by data virtualization and containerization. Data virtualization allows silos when needed (gravity) and is enabled by containerization. Containerization gives access to silos (wrapper) and is the mechanism to activate data virtualization.

From a Dell Technologies point of view, we are aggressively embracing these tenets. Our enablement technologies to support this paradigm are called out in three discrete points – accelerate, protect, and reuse. We will review these points in a separate blog.

There is much more to come as we continue this journey into the new era of data management. Dell Technologies has deeply invested in resources around this topic with several recent publications and reference designs embracing this paradigm change. Our leadership on this topic is the result of our 30+ year relationship with Microsoft and our continuing “better together” story.

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Staying Relevant is Key

After two and a half great years as Vice-President & General Manager of Dell Large Commercial Accounts in Germany, I recently moved to head up Dell Technologies OEM | Embedded & Edge Solutions in EMEA as Vice President and General Manager. I’m excited about the chance to dig deep into a different area of our business, and cannot wait to embrace the new opportunities and challenges ahead!

The same but different

What are my first impressions? I’m struck by the fact that the classic Dell and OEM business are similar in so many ways and yet quite different. Of course, both are about serving customers and providing the right IT technology. When you boil it all down, everything we do at Dell is all about helping our customers stay relevant and successful.

Embedded in our customers’ business

The question is, what’s different? Ultimately, I think that the whole question of relevancy becomes even more pronounced in OEM. After all, our technology is not a cost overhead for the customer – rather, it becomes a profit center.

If you think about it, customers engage with us at the solution planning and design phase – we work to integrate our technology with their IP, assist with any compliance and regulatory needs, optionally rebrand the systems, pre-install software images, integrate third party hardware, certify the solution, offer global build and distribution at our network of factories, manage the infrastructure lifecycle of the project, plus provide support on a regional or global scale. We are effectively partnering in bringing the customer’s solution to market.

Importantly, in OEM, our supply chain physically interlinks with that of our customers. We become literally embedded in our customers’ product solutions and by extension their business model and marketing strategy.

Relevancy drives success

For me, this notion of staying relevant is key to survival and success. Indeed, we’re walking, living proof of that maxim. I just have to think about my own personal experience. Twenty years ago, I joined Dell as a green, young intern. It was honestly one of the smartest decisions I’ve made. I was so lucky to join the right industry and the right company at the right time. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed so many different opportunities to learn, develop and progress that it feels like I’ve worked in at least ten different companies!

And of course, over that same time period, Dell has also made many smart decisions. We’ve transformed several times over in response to changing customer needs and evolving market conditions. We’ve never stuck our head in the sand, afraid to embrace change. We’ve never accepted the status quo and stayed content in our own little rut.

A disruptive force in the market

I’ve seen the company evolve from a PC company to an infrastructure solutions company, disrupting the market for the benefit of customers, offering servers, storage, workstations, networking, rugged systems, services and everything in between. I think it’s that ability to turn on a dime that keeps us relevant.

However, here’s the thing. While we have transformed our own company positively in the process, we’ve never changed just for the sake of it. Our motivation has always been to help our customers stay relevant for their customers. At the end of the day, I believe that relevancy is what matters – it drives success, creates margin and keeps employees happy. After all, everyone wants to make a difference and feel pride in the company they work for.

Digital transformation

And of course, over this same time period, the pace of change in the marketplace has dramatically accelerated, particularly in the last few years with business models being digitally transformed through the power of IoT.

For example, one of our customers, Brembo, has transformed its business model for manufacturing high performance brake systems for supercars and motorbikes. The company has begun integrating all PLCs and sensors installed in its manufacturing lines, collecting information during the brake production period. This allows it to gain DNA from each caliper and disc and integrate that information into big data, enabling the analyst to improve the quality and efficiencies of its brake systems. The data collected from each plant is used to see how Brembo can make the production process more efficient, optimizing the outcome of what they produce.

New career paths

These changed digital business models are also translating into new and exciting career paths. In parallel, lines between industries like pharma and IT are beginning to blur. As a result, a lot of young people struggle to know what to study. Relevancy is again a big driver. The big question is, if I study this course, will there be jobs when I graduate?

As a father of two children, I understand this dilemma. All I can say is that my love of technology started as a teenager, when I helped to provide technical support to my mother’s medical practice. And so, my career advice is simple – study what you love and what you feel passionate about. If you do, work will never become a chore, you’ll excel in what you do, and the rest should hopefully follow.

A positive force for good

Of course, I know from first-hand experience that it can be tough to always feel relevant. For example, when I ask my sister – a doctor – about her day and she tells me she saved a patient’s life, my work seems to pale into dim insignificance.

However, I remind myself it’s all about perspective. I might not directly be saving lives but nonetheless, the technology Dell is helping develop and implement is actually helping doctors and scientists better identify cancers, implement the most effective treatment regimes, address climate change, launch rockets, measure crop growth and conduct deep sea exploration.

My vision

And so, I believe that the work we do at Dell is making a positive difference to society. The truth is that IT technology is a big driver in human progress and a huge force for good. In my view, Dell Technologies OEM | Embedded & Edge Solutions is at the very vanguard of that movement. Under my leadership, rest assured that the team and I will work hard to remain relevant and become even more embedded in our customers’ product solutions and business models.

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Balanced Memory is Best: 2nd Generation AMD EPYC Processors for PowerEdge Servers

Understanding the relationship between a server processor (CPU) and its memory subsystem is critical when optimizing overall server performance. Every CPU generation has unique memory population guidelines that must be satisfied to attain the best memory performance.

2nd Generation AMD EPYCTM server processors can support up to sixteen memory modules across eight channels with two memory slots. This presents numerous possible ways of configuring the memory subsystem, yet there are only a couple of configurations that will achieve the peak memory performance for Dell EMC PowerEdge servers.

Memory that has been incorrectly populated is referred to as an unbalanced configuration. From a functionality standpoint, an unbalanced configuration will operate adequately but will slow down memory data transfer speeds. Similarly, a near balanced configuration is also suboptimal. However, memory that has been correctly populated is referred to as a balanced configuration and will produce the best performance.

By following the guidelines below, customers can yield the highest memory performance of their memory modules:

• Memory Channel Population
• Balanced Configuration
• Memory slots must be fully populated with one or two DIMMs for best performance; a total of eight or sixteen DIMMs per CPU
• Near Balanced Configuration
• Populate four or more DIMMs per CPU
• Populate an even number of DIMMs per CPU
• Populate DIMMs in sequential order
• CPU and DIMM parts must be identical
• Each CPU must be identically configured with memory

Memory Channel Population

To achieve a balanced configuration, populate either eight or sixteen DIMMs per CPU. This allows the data traveling across memory modules to move most efficiently; utilizing the internal architecture of the AMD Rome CPU. Following this guideline will yield the highest memory bandwidth and the lowest memory latency.

If a balanced configuration of sixteen or eight DIMMs per CPU cannot be implemented, then the next best option is a near balanced configuration. Three guidelines must be satisfied to create a near balanced configuration.

◈ The first guideline is to populate a minimum of four DIMMS per CPU to ensure enough memory bandwidth exists for all Rome processor types.

◈ The second guideline is to never populate an odd number of DIMMs.

◈ The last guideline is that DIMMs must be populated in the intended order so that memory performance will be optimized across all the AMD CPU models.

The figure below illustrates the assembly order in which individual DIMMs should be populated, starting with A1 and ending with A16:

Identical CPU and DIMM Parts

Identical memory modules must be used across all slots (i.e. same Dell part number). Dell EMC does not support memory mixing in Rome systems; only one memory model should exist within a CPU. This principle applies to the processors as well; multi-CPU Rome systems shall be populated with identical CPU models.

Identical Memory Configurations for Each CPU

Every CPU within a server must have identical memory configurations. When only one unique memory configuration exists across every CPU within a server, memory performance is further optimized.

Configuring for Maximum Performance

Balancing memory with 2nd Generation EPYCTM (Rome) server processors optimizes memory performance. When memory modules are configured in a balanced configuration, requested data traveling from the CPU to memory modules can perform most efficiently on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers.

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Built to Evolve: The Kinetic Enterprise

Our clients are recognizing the need to evolve to stay competitive in the market. To achieve the evolving business needs, our clients will have to continue to transform & make their enterprise intelligent. Organizations are turning to SAP S/4HANA, AI, IoT, and Cloud technologies to make their enterprise intelligent & evolving – like a kinetic enterprise – one that embraces change and even prepares for it.

These enterprises are responsive, intelligent, clean, and inclusive. For them, waiting is not an option.

How do we see IT responding? Organizations are turning to emerging technologies like AI and IoT – automation that’s fueling data-driven intelligent enterprise applications with SAP S/4HANA, SAP Leonardo, and even non-SAP applications.

While organizations aspire to become a kinetic enterprise and reap the rewards, getting there takes time, investment, and risk, all of which may impact business.

First – IT needs to identify if their current data centers can support transformative use cases and workloads powered with SAP S/4HANA including workflows and data integrations with non-SAP applications.

That’s where hybrid cloud becomes critical; it is responsive to business needs as they evolve. To enable a kinetic enterprise, IT needs a scalable on-demand platform that brings together networking, storage, and compute, so organizations can dynamically manage their IT resources. Modularity includes providing a single interface – one that simplifies and streamlines deployment and management of disruptive technologies in multi-cloud operating models.

According to IDC, more than 70% of companies are using multiple cloud environments, and the most significant data center challenge many companies face is developing a successful multi-cloud strategy.

Our customers agree: Cloud is not a destination, it’s an operating model.

Second – next generation applications and data management platforms powered with SAP HANA need to be deployed & managed with minimal business impact. Moving from legacy SAP ERP applications can be complex and often involves migrations and upgrades, defining and implementing new use cases, and integrating applications from edge to core to cloud.

To address these challenges, Dell Technologies, Intel & Deloitte are collaborating to address deployment, migration & operations of enterprise applications in the right cloud environment, bringing experienced resources across IT domains.  This may be a private cloud that is fully under the company’s control, a hybrid cloud that provides the appropriate resources across on-premises and public cloud, or extension to the edge.

Imagine if you could …

◈ Use Dell Technologies solutions for a unified operational experience across public cloud providers, on-premises, and the edge, enabling true hybrid cloud allowing you to deploy applications and data in the right cloud – a private cloud fully under your control, or a hybrid cloud that provides the resources across multiple locations.

◈ Benefit from Deloitte Cloud Managed Services to deploy multi-cloud by giving you single point of contact, and a single engagement model, as well as transformation services for SAP S/4HANA.

◈ Deliver processes and data workflow integration with non-SAP applications using the Dell Boomi platform.

The Deloitte and Dell Technologies collaboration strives to enable a kinetic enterprise running SAP. Intel endorses this as an example of their strategic intent – evidenced by the recent announcement with SAP to supercharge SAP applications.

Empowering the kinetic enterprise helps ease the transition to SAP S/4HANA. Deloitte’s experience in SAP S/4HANA industry-specific solutions combined with Dell Technologies’ digital transformation knowledge and technology can help create a flexible and scalable data management platform. Furthermore, Dell Boomi enables businesses to integrate workflows and transfer data between SAP and non-SAP applications.

Additionally, CIOs and their management teams can take advantage of a simple consumption model that offers a single point of contact and a single engagement model to accelerate their path to SAP S/4HANA on a hybrid multi-cloud. This can help reduce risk in migrations, applications can be made transient, and customization requirements are reduced for an agile, kinetic IT environment.

Deloitte and Dell Technologies are working together to help clients transform, migrate, and operate their businesses by deploying SAP S/4HANA on a dynamic multi-cloud operating model, that allows organizations to enhance, integrate & operate applications and business process. Dell Technologies and Deloitte are proud to help our customers evolve to the Kinetic Enterprise running SAP – only then will they be able to truly Reimagine Everything… Anywhere.

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Bridging the Gap Between Virtual and Physical Networks

The evolution of networks has seen a shift from legacy, proprietary technologies that are hardware-bound to modern, open technologies that are software-driven and driving innovation. As seen with the rapid adoption of server virtualization throughout data centers, today’s organizations are embracing the concepts of a software-defined network based on virtualization concepts that bring enhanced efficiency, agility and security. The challenge that remains is how to ensure the physical underlay network is provisioned and optimized for these virtual environments.

The Dell EMC SmartFabric Director, co-developed by Dell EMC and VMware, enables data center operators to build, operate and monitor an open network underlay fabric based on Dell EMC Open Networking PowerSwitch Series switches. SmartFabric Director automates and simplifies the provisioning and monitoring of the fabric using Openconfig based models and protocols. Tight integration with VMware vSphere and NSX-T allows SmartFabric Director to dramatically simplify fabric provisioning for dynamic virtualized workloads and overlays.

Let’s take a moment to take a closer look at two key features within SmartFabric Director that directly contribute toward helping data center cloud, system and network administrators to automate and simplify management of both a physical and virtual network environment.

Leaf-Spine Fabric Automation

SmartFabric Director uses a declarative model that allows the user to express intent of a given network topology with a set of well-defined fabric types. User input to SmartFabric Director is in the form of a Java Script Object Notification (JSON) formatted file that includes wiring diagram information.

The three pre-defined fabric types that SmartFabric Director supports include:

◈ A layer 2 leaf-spine fabric

◈ A layer 3 Border gateway protocol (BGP) leaf-spine fabric

◈ A layer 3 BGP leaf-spine fabric with NSX-T overlay

Network topologies with edge/border leaves with BGP as the peering protocol are also supported.

Fabric discovery is an ongoing process by SmartFabric Director and ensures that the fabric wiring is consistent with the user-defined intent. The quick error-free deployment of the Dell EMC SmartFabric OS10 configuration on Dell EMC PowerSwitch switches takes away the guesswork and enables rapid auto-provisioning of fabrics. Complex Day N operations such as add/remove switch, links, etc. are easily handled with a few clicks.

VMware vSphere® and NSX-T Data Center™ integration

Tight integration of SmartFabric Director with VMware vCenter and NSX-T ensures that the physical underlay/fabric is correctly provisioned to help ensure seamless functioning of the application workloads in a VMware Software-Defined-Data-Center. This includes provisioning virtual LANs (vlans), auto-creation of Link aggregation (LAGs)/port-channels, auto-detecting add/remove of ESXi hosts and Maximum transmission unit (MTU) consistency checks.

Dell EMC and VMware are working closely together to rebuild the network for the cloud era – with everything open, automated and software-defined. SmartFabric Director is a co-developed software-defined networking solution that enables the physical underlay infrastructure to keep pace with the changing demands of virtualized overlays and the Software-Defined-Data-Center. By simplifying the definition, creation and deployment of data center fabrics with intent-based auto-provisioning and enhanced visibility and management between virtual and physical network environments, organizations can overcome earlier challenges between these two environments and pave the way for the future.

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Leading Innovation in the Data Era – Dell EMC Takes Another Step Forward

I’m a numbers guy – stats, facts – real data. Maybe it’s the engineer in me – but I also know that there’s a story behind data. It’ll reveal what’s really working well and often, what’s not working so well. You apply that information as you move forward to make decisions, realize new insights – drive better outcomes. And man do we have more data than ever right now in the Data Era, driving both opportunity and complexity for our customers. Data growth projected at 26% per annum through 2023. Further, 75% of infrastructure decision makers use three or more platforms – that means different tools, SLAs – almost little consistency in operations or automation. Complexity.

When we brought our Client Solutions, Infrastructure Solutions and Global Operations together as a single Products and Operations organization – there was a lot of data that told me there would be a huge opportunity for our company and our customers to simplify that complexity. Afterall, it was – and is – the only organization of its kind spanning the end-to-end IT infrastructure continuum – supported by the world’s most powerful supply chain in technology.

We knew that if we had the ability to create holistic solutions across Dell and Dell EMC – while driving greater integration with our aligned businesses like VMware – we could drive significant value for our customers, take share and continue win in the markets we play. Notably in our ISG business where we had an opportunity to deliver a powerful IT infrastructure spanning edge, core data center and multi-cloud environments.

But the data also told us we had work to do – we needed to remove the complexity from our portfolio and drive forward on innovation across fewer, stronger products. We needed to put more of our talented team of engineers and data scientists on the development of that winning roadmap. We needed to accelerate our innovation cadence – which meant new methodologies like Agile for software and hardware development.

Two years later – we’ve made significant progress in ISG.

◈ We’ve simplified our portfolio – PowerMax, PowerVault, PowerProtect, PowerSwitch – we’ve launched them all. By Dell Technologies World this coming Spring, we’ll have announced the full Power portfolio.

◈ We’ve tripled the number of engineers working on new products, leading to new features and enhancements…in fact, PowerMax, which launched last year – the world’s fastest storage array, is first to market with Storage Class Memory and persistent storage…full end-to-end NVMe.

◈ We took share again in H1: for the 8th consecutive quarter, Dell Technologies is #1 x86 server and Mainstream provider in the world for both revenue and units.

◈ We’ve extended our leadership across products: leader in HCI, CI, External Storage, and Server.

These results and progress make it clear to me that we can accelerate our growth and mission to be the essential IT infrastructure provide with an extended leadership of the business.

With that in mind, I’ve asked Jeff Boudreau to assume leadership of the ISG business, overseeing Storage, Servers, Data Protection and Networking.

Jeff Boudreau has played a leading role in the evolution of our Storage business, working across the ISG organization and Dell Technologies to simplify our portfolio and drive share gain and growth. PowerMax, Isilon and Unity XT are clear examples of Jeff’s leadership in the business – pulling together teams across various product lines to share processes, IP, ideas and inspiration.

We’re continuing to make important investments in our core IT infrastructure capabilities that enable us to build and deliver the Dell Technologies solutions that solve the complexities of Cloud, AI/ML, Edge, Security and ultimately, Data Management. Jeff Boudreau’s leadership and partnership with the ISG leadership team and Dell Tech businesses will undoubtedly ensure that we continue to build the foundation of the IT architecture of the future – and deliver the simplicity and power our customers need in the Data Era.

We have an advantaged position in the market – and what lies ahead has me optimistic and excited for the possibilities our teams will make very real for our customers today and into the future.

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Customer Feedback Drove the Design of the New Dell EMC PowerEdge XR2 High Performance Chassis

Is it possible to improve on perfection? Rarely but if you’re lucky, it can sometimes happen. Take the Dell EMC OEM PowerEdge XR2, first announced in December 2017.

Small but mighty

Built for harsh OEM environments, the PowerEdge XR2 packs a huge punch in terms of performance, despite its compact size. Thanks to long-life and extensive customization capabilities plus certifications in shock, vibration, dust, humidity, EMI and maritime, this little beauty can comfortably deal with any challenge thrown its way.

Nothing can rattle its cage

While 20 percent less deep than a standard server, the PowerEdge XR2 can operate continuously while withstanding heat 10°C hotter than non-rugged offerings. You can read what I previously wrote about the product here.

Your data center anywhere

Whether you’re providing compute at the edge in a busy factory, installing satellite communications, conducting military operations in the desert, rigging offshore, working underwater or doing remote field work that requires your vital data and hardware to travel with you, this is the server you can absolutely depend on to keep your operations up and running.

Now delivering even higher performance

Over the last year and a half, customer feedback about this product has been phenomenal. While you told us that you loved the product, you started telling us recently that you needed even higher performance, better graphics support and faster storage for challenging environments, particularly in response to the huge shift to computing at the edge.

You needed even faster response times

You explained that as you were now processing ever-growing volumes of data being produced by edge-connected sensors, you needed even faster response times to glean business insights from data generated at source. Some of you said that you anticipate increasing application, workload or environmental complexities either for you or your customers.

You needed server mobility

Some customers needed server mobility compute to increase business growth and drive market penetration. Others said they needed to understand what appliances were doing at the edge or felt that it was becoming too costly to transfer all the data to the cloud for processing.

Even more powerful and flexible

We listened to all your requirements and are delighted to now unveil the PowerEdge XR2 High Performance Chassis. While, we all know that it’s tough to improve on perfection, I hope you agree that my team in the Dell Technologies OEM | Embedded & Edge Solutions Product Group has done just that.

Building on all the successful features you love, we have delivered even more powerful and flexible options in a short-depth server to increase flexibility and performance at the edge. You can now leverage performance from the latest Intel® Cascade Lake processors and extract peak processor performance with 8 x 2.5” chassis with support for up to four NVMe drives.

Easy to deploy & manage

And that’s not all! The XR2 High Performance Chassis is also GPU-ready for further increasing compute power as you need it. It goes without saying that it continues to be certified for Military and Marine applications, surpassing historical server threshold parameters for performance in harsh environments. It also comes OpenManage and iDRAC-ready to support optimum deployment and off-site management capabilities.

No beating about the bush

What else can I say? The PowerEdge XR2 High Performance Chassis doesn’t beat about the bush. This product more than delivers what it says on the tin. If you need extraordinarily high levels of compute outside the data center, you won’t find better. Wherever you go, you can take rugged with you.

This little beauty is now available globally.

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The Research-Backed Reason Why the Best IT Shops Crush the Competition with Data

According to new survey results from ESG, just 1 in 5 respondents are very confident in their IT organization’s ability to properly support data goals over the next three years. However, there is reason for hope. If you are a modernized IT shop, it’s highly (94%) likely that your business does have confidence that you can deliver infrastructure to support these data-driven goals over the next three years. The key lies in that word, modernized.

What does it mean to be modernized? New survey results from ESG show modernized IT is nearly 3x as likely as aging IT to report their analytics server infrastructure is less than two years old. The importance of refreshed, up-to-date servers in your mission to organize and crunch data can’t be overstated. Per ESG, “A modernized IT allows organizations to swiftly respond to the needs of the business, act upon opportunities in real time, maintain a competitive advantage, and ultimately improve the bottom line.”

Moor Insights & Strategy agrees, finding that without the right infrastructure, businesses will not be able to reap the full benefits of data analytics. Servers that aren’t data optimized come at a price, and that price is reflected in higher total cost of ownership (TCO) for IT and lost business opportunities for your company. Infrastructure with enabling technologies like Intel® Optane™ DC Persistent Memory is key to making sure your data applications run smoothly. As Moor Insights points out, “Data analysis can only transform as fast as the underlying hardware enables it.” Their paper demonstrates it is no coincidence that businesses that have modernized infrastructure are best prepared to capitalize on the bounty of benefits that refined data can deliver.

What do these potential business opportunities look like? In short, why should you care? Here’s a look at what you are missing out on if your servers aren’t modernized and tuned for data management and analytics success.

Companies with modernized IT:

◈ are nearly 7x more likely to report their analytics environments are very effective at driving business value than aging IT companies.

◈ are 6x more likely than aging IT orgs to report analytics are increasing customer spend.

◈ report that analytics are reducing the cost of business operations at nearly triple the rate of those with aging IT.

◈ are 5x more likely than aging IT companies to report that analytics are helping uncover new market opportunities.

◈ report analytics are shortening time to market nearly 3x more often than those with aging IT.

Conclusion? Data management and analytics, done right, enable businesses to capture value-driving insights that help the business win in the marketplace. In order to run top-notch analytics, you need modern servers with the latest technology to enable your pursuits.

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Pure//Accelerate 2019 – After 10 Years, Still a lot of Questions

Pure//Accelerate 2019 finished last week. I hope you had a great time in Austin and had a chance to enjoy downtown riding on the Dell Technologies sponsored pedicabs. This event marked the 10th Anniversary of Pure Storage, and there was a lot of hype and anticipation created by Pure around “big” product innovation announcements. Well, I would hardly consider the announcements made as “earth shattering”–they actually left me with even more questions to ask Pure.

Let’s take a look at a few key takeaways from the event, as well as several announcements made during the conference.

New SLOWER FlashArray//C Optimized for QLC flash…but shipping with TLC first.

Clearly Pure is trying to extend the appeal of their FlashArray//X line by adding a new lower-end cost-conscious version announced as the FlashArray//C, which is targeted at addressing the Tier 2 workload use cases.

FlashArray//X with SCM as Read-Only Cache…but not as persistent storage

Pure announced optional support for Intel’s Optane SCM (Storage Class Memory) drives in their FlashArray//X, models //X70 and //X90 only, but only as a read-only cache extension and not as a persistent storage tier. Also, something different with Pure’s approach is that it requires the customer to swap out persistent storage capacity to add DirectMemory modules.

Questions – Why would Pure go through the effort of supporting the Intel Optane SCM drives and then not use them for persistent storage? Leveraging them as read-only cache, at the expense of persistent storage capacity, will bring a slight performance benefit to read-intensive applications, likely at a cost premium, but why not use them for actual persistent storage? (Hint: we believe this is related to the reason they introduced the FlashArray//C, with QLC flash, as separate array – NO Persistent STORAGE TIERING in FlashArray. If they had mixed SCM and NVMe flash modules together, as one big pool without tiering, the SCM would have been severely bottlenecked by the slower NVMe flash.)

Quick commercial for Dell EMC storage – We have been doing storage tiering for years across all our arrays! A recent example, shows how PowerMax can now mix SCM with NVMe AND provide intelligent and automated storage tiering to get the most out your storage investments.

FlashBlade Gets Bigger…but still does not support CIFS/SMB 3.0

Pure announced only one substantial new feature for its FlashBlade product – it can now scale to 150 blades instead of only 75.

Question – How does this help address some glaring gaps like the lack of support for CIFS/SMB 3.0 protocol? Moreover, if NAS capabilities are added to the FlashArray next year, as mentioned at Accelerate leveraging Compuverde, does this mean the end of FlashBlade?

Re-branding of ES2

Pure also announced their intent to offer “everything-as-a-service”, a similar promise made by other vendors in the market. In my opinion this announcement adds little differentiation to their portfolio. Pure talked about a unified contract for on-prem and cloud, but little details were available.

Question – Will cloud and on-prem subscriptions cost the same? It is unclear how this will look in practice so we will see.

Cloud Block Store for AWS is GA…Finally!

At last, Pure has launched a Cloud based offering, joining the ranks of storage vendors that already had options to offer replication and DR to the cloud, as well as software defined storage array running on AWS.

Question – How will Cloud Block Store make it easy for customer to migrate workloads to and from the cloud? How expensive will it be for a customer to subscribe to Cloud Block Store? Will they get two bills – from Pure and from AWS? Moving applications to the public cloud can be really expensive depending on the service, I encourage customers to look at pricing and TCO models very carefully.

What about FlashStack and AIRI….and still no HCI?

Not much to say with regards to FlashStack and AIRI and no announcements around HCI, which is quite interesting. How can a Storage company call themselves innovators when they don’t participate a segment that is growing at double digits and enables customers to have “cloud-like” experiences on premises? Your guess is as good as mine.

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Award-Winning PowerVault ME4 Celebrates One Year Anniversary, Introduces New Features including CloudIQ

Dell EMC, the market leader in entry storage, is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the PowerVault ME4 Series, Dell EMC’s entry storage array, with an industry award and new features.

Delivering simplicity, performance and affordability, combined with advanced functionality, PowerVault has simplified our entry storage portfolio from four platforms down to ONE exceptional offering, without disrupting our customer’s businesses.

During the past year, PowerVault has demonstrated consistent growth with close to 11,500 systems shipped worldwide (100+ AFAs), representing over 1,400 PB+ of capacity including 35PB+ Flash and 22 million production runtime hours. This tremendous success has been balanced relatively evenly around the world proving the global appeal of PowerVault.

In Q4, PowerVault will join Dell EMC Unity XT, SC Series, XtremIO, VMAX, PowerMax and Connectrix switches with support for CloudIQ. CloudIQ delivers infrastructure insight in the palm of your hand. This cloud-based storage analytics application uses ML and predictive analytics, allowing you to easily monitor, analyze, and troubleshoot your storage environment from anywhere. Users easily connect to CloudIQ via their favorite browser or mobile device to see anomalies, alerts, efficiency ratios, comprehensive health scores and more, for their arrays. The best IT issue is the one you proactively prevent from ever happening.

And, in recognition of PowerVault ME4’s strong worldwide customer appeal and success, we gave it to StorageReview to examine. In June 2019, StorageReview posted their PowerVault ME4 Series Report, naming it their 2019 Editor’s Choice for Entry Storage, reinforcing Dell EMC’s leadership position in its market. Here are some of the StorageReview comments from the report:

◈ “The PowerVault ME4 is a clear leader in the entry storage market.”

◈ “PowerVault ME4 provides organizations with an easy to deploy and manage storage solution that offers a depth of features.”

◈ “The eye opener is just how well ME4 performs in our application tests focusing on SQL Server and MySQL performance…”

PowerVault’s momentum and innovation is moving forward with additional capabilities:

◈ New 3.84TB SAS SSD: Customers can use this flash drive for read intensive operations
◈ New Software and Host OS support:
     ◈ XenDesktop 7.1
     ◈ OME 3.2
     ◈ RHEL 8
     ◈ VMware 6.7 U2
     ◈ SRM 8.1.x
     ◈ vCenter Plugin 6.7

Customers are enjoying PowerVault’s built-in simplicity, incredible performance, flexible connectivity and impressive scale, allowing them to apply the array to a diverse set of use cases with ease and simplicity. Over 5,700 PowerVault customers – and counting – are implementing these systems to run workloads such as:

◈ HPC: Parallel File Systems, NFS, Capacity Expansion

◈ Surveillance/CCTV

◈ Cost effective virtualization leveraging PowerEdge, Hyper-V and VMware

◈ Storage consolidation in SAN environments without complexity or cost

◈ Direct Attach Storage for improving Read/Write operations without a network

◈ Remote Office / Branch Office environments

◈ And many more

“The PowerVault ME4 series has helped us quickly bring up a well-balanced 3PB Lustre file system,” Dr. Alastair Basden, HPC Technical Manager, Durham University notes. “We have found it simple to install this file system with a ZFS back-end, enabling us to store data from large cosmological simulations, aiding understanding in the processes involved in the evolution of the Universe.”

In one year, PowerVault has proven that it’s the ideal entry level storage solution to address customer SAN and DAS challenges – affordably. Customers trust and expect Dell EMC to deliver high quality and reliable products that meet their business needs. We consistently bring these attributes to all our products. PowerVault is no exception.

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The PowerEdge T40 –The Foundational IT Building Block for Your Business

As a small business owner, you are both the architect and the builder of your business. The first step to building a great house is setting a solid foundation. A solid foundation offers a sturdy home for a family to enjoy, endures everyday stresses, and enables expansion.

You and a home builder have a lot in common. You both must follow your blueprints to set a solid foundation to continue to build upon. You require a motivated and empowered team to accomplish your business goals. You are also focused on the hard task of growing your customer base and maintaining happy customers.

According to IDC, the three top small business priorities are to improve productivity, reduce complexity, and manage expenses. Unfortunately, as businesses grow their teams and customers, many begin facing IT challenges that get in the way of achieving their priorities. You may be struggling to keep business applications running efficiently, collaborating effectively with team members, or finding it difficult to scale. You may also have growing concerns about public cloud security and costs. Do these challenges sound familiar?

Don’t let your IT challenges get in the way of achieving your priorities. The Dell EMC PowerEdge T40 is the dependable IT building block for your small business. It builds upon the solid foundation you have laid for your business to thrive. It offers you the capability to efficiently support your small business.

Dependable

Builders invest wisely with reliable and sustainable materials and craftmanship that they trust. As the builder of your small business, it is important to invest wisely and choose a quality server engineered to specifically overcome IT challenges. If you require a reliable and efficient server for everyday business applications like file and print and mail and messaging, the PowerEdge T40 tower server has you covered.

You can run critical business applications that enable you to connect with your customers, prospective customers, and your team. It facilitates business applications to run quickly with faster computing capability than your everyday PC or laptop. It empowers multiple team members to work on the same file and print multiple documents efficiently. It allows you to communicate quickly and easily with customers and colleagues globally. Moreover, you can be assured with the reliable Dell EMC standard next business day hardware warranty.

The PowerEdge T40 helps you to manage expenses by avoiding unknown public cloud processing and storage costs. You can also control your sensitive data and access your data on-site instead of having it hosted on the public cloud. PowerEdge servers can be safer and cheaper than public cloud alternatives. As a matter of fact, independent research commissioned by Dell EMC uncovered that over 50% of mid-market organizations that have moved a workload from a public cloud service back to on-premise infrastructure cited security and/or cost as a reason for this decision.

Efficient Operations

Builders know time is money and strive to maximize efficiency. You can efficiently support your small business with the foundational features of the PowerEdge T40 which allows you to easily consolidate, store, and share files on-site. The PowerEdge T40 server is built to process and transmit data quickly. This will provide your everyday business applications to run faster and reduce the amount of interruptions you may be experiencing. The server simplifies team collaboration, reduces re-work and provides peace of mind. You are also able to share more with team members and customers with a 50% increase in on-site data storage.

As your organization’s primary developer, set a solid foundation for your company to achieve its business priorities. Choose the PowerEdge T40 as your dependable IT building block. It is the reliable and efficient foundation to withstand your IT challenges.

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Modernizing Your WAN: The Digitization of Everything, and an Easier SD-WAN Experience

We live at unique moment in time where personal experiences are being ubiquitously digitized. Some of the more common experiences are financial experiences like depositing a check or executing a stock trade with a mobile device. Organizations are continuing to innovate by digitizing their customer’s experiences to improve their competitive advantage. One unique personal example is a sport’s event I recently attended. The sport’s organization digitized their fan experience with ordering food from a mobile app and having delivery to the seat. How cool is that? This ubiquitous digitization ultimately translates into exponential growth of traffic over the WAN.

We’re our own best example

At Dell, we saw our WAN traffic double every 18 months; and every 18 months we were upgrading our physical WAN infrastructure. Jason Chan, the head of our network infrastructure stressed to me that the growth of our WAN traffic is very similar to what he has seen across a cross section of other customers. Like many customers, Jason, had a decision to make. Does Dell continue to upgrade a physical WAN infrastructure every 18 months, through a non-trivial process of change control, rip and replace of the physical infrastructure, large expenses for WAN appliances and expensive MPLS circuits, months for the upgrade, etc. or look for a better alternative. After many months of evaluation Dell decided to adopt SD-WAN. Dell is running SD-WAN in production today, to support mission critical functions like our global world-class supply chain. There was a lot of motivation to migrate to a virtual WAN infrastructure, including the ability to more quickly scale WAN capacity, future proof the WAN, provision edge device more quickly, and even save money. Dell IT has the freedom to select any vendor for its requirements. In fact, our legacy WAN infrastructure were non-Dell products. Dell IT choose to deploy VMware SD-WAN powered by VeloCloud software hosted on the Dell EMC Virtual Edge Platform.

Many customers have done their homework to conclude that they need to modernize and virtualize their WAN to innovate digital experiences for their customers.  Customers have concluded that continuing to upgrade the myriad of physical appliances (branch routers, firewalls, WAN optimizers, etc.) is becoming problematic in a world where WAN traffic is growing exponentially.

Customer requirements

Customers, like Dell IT, want to deploy SD-WAN with minimal risk and ease of deployment; and that translates into some common requirements such as:

◈ Software
     ◈ Feature rich SD-WAN software
     ◈ Software from market leading vendor
     ◈ Zero touch provisioning
     ◈ Monitoring feedback loop
     ◈ SLAs
◈ Hardware host
     ◈ Purpose built for the compute intensive demands of networking, not a general purpose server
     ◈ Capabilities to accelerate packet processing and security encryption
     ◈ Multiple configurations from small value-based desktop platforms to high performance modular platforms
     ◈ Sufficient processing headroom to future proof the hardware host
◈ Integration
     ◈ Validated and bundled software and hardware from one leading vendor
     ◈ Supported by a world-class supply chain
        ◈ Manufacturing to scale – large and small
        ◈ Attention to quality
        ◈ Rapid quotation
        ◈ Rapid order fulfillment
        ◈ Global delivery
        ◈ Global certifications and compliance
        ◈ Global sales, support and maintenance

The good news

The above list of customer requirements is a lot to ask for from one vendor. The good news is that Dell EMC and VMware recently announced the Dell EMC SD-WAN Edge, which is a high-performance network appliance bundled with industry leading Dell EMC SD-WAN Edge software; and the benefits are:

◈ All-in-one simplicity with a pre-validated solution combining industry leading VMware SD-WAN software and Dell EMC high performance appliances

◈ Maximum efficiency with rapid modernization your WAN without the need for continuing disruptive and costly upgrades

◈ Single-contact support providing Dell EMC ProSupport, with a single phone call.

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New Dell EMC ECS Software and Hardware Innovation Helps You Do More with Data

Object storage is quickly climbing its way to the top of the priority list for IT decision makers.

For the uninitiated, object storage is an approach that addresses data storage as discrete units, called objects, and grants an application freedom to store an unlimited amount of data in a flat namespace versus a file hierarchy. Without getting too deep into the weeds, object-based solutions are one of the best ways to deal with endless data growth, at a price that won’t blow your budget out of the water. So, as data from applications, websites, video cameras, IoT sensors, and the like continue to pile up, choosing the right system to capture and make this data available is of paramount importance.

Dell EMC ECS is the right object storage platform to meet the needs of organizations now, and in the future. With a storied legacy of enterprise-class innovation, Dell EMC ECS boasts unmatched scalability, manageability, resilience, and economics to meet the demands of modern business.

Today, we make Dell EMC ECS more powerful and build on our long legacy of innovation with new hardware and software updates.

Dell EMC ECS EX500 Appliance

The perfect blend of economy and density, the EX500 injects greater flexibility into the Dell EMC ECS portfolio. With rack capacity that can scale from 480TB to 4.6PB, the EX500 is a versatile option for midsized enterprises supporting both modern applications or deep archive use cases.

Key Dell EMC ECS EX500 specifications include:

◈ Clusters ranging from 480TB to 4.6PB per rack
◈ Front-accessible and hot-pluggable drives
◈ Improved performance via dual, 10-core processors
◈ Scale-out nodes:
    ◈ Up to 16 nodes per rack
    ◈ 12 to 24 drives per node
    ◈ 8TB and 12TB disk options
    ◈ Identical performance characteristics with every node

The EX500 joins its EX300 and EX3000 brethren as the latest member of the ECS hardware family.

Dell EMC ECS Software Version 3.4

In addition to the EX500, Dell EMC is also releasing version 3.4 of the ECS software simultaneously. Dell EMC ECS version 3.4 features various improvements that empower organizations to:

◈ Ensure enterprise-readiness with capabilities such as advanced STIG hardening, external key management support, custom alerts, and additional security features.

◈ Enhance data visibility through improved monitoring metrics and native Grafana data visualization capabilities. With 3.4, it’s easier than ever to make accurate forecasts and act on capacity alerts.

◈ Improve storage efficiency via reduced metadata overhead per object. This increases usable capacity and delivers greater cost savings.

◈ Deploy EX500 appliances. ECS version 3.4 is required to make the full range of EX-series hardware functional, specifically the EX500.

“Dell EMC ECS is our platform of choice for dealing with growing data challenges in our customer environments and is a great fit for our Hybrid-Cloud offering. It’s cost-effective, easy to scale, and our developers love how simple it is to integrate with using ECS’s open APIs and multi-protocol support.” said Barry Silic, Head of Architecture and Product at Macquarie Cloud Services. “We look forward to the new EX500 appliance and the many security improvements coming in the 3.4 version of the software. ECS has helped us deliver IT transformation for our customers and we believe it will continue to do so in the future.”

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Three Approaches to Modernizing your SQL Server and Windows Server Environments

If your organization is like many, the fall is preparation and planning time. This means buzz words like “roadmaps,” “strategic priorities” and “growth drivers” start flying around in abundance. And yes, those are all important. But what makes detailed IT planning even more important this year are two critical events from Microsoft – the end of support of SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008. If you’ve waited until now to start a migration plan for SQL Server 2008, you’ve got some catching up to do as the end of support date has already passed. And for your Windows Server 2008 environments, the end of support date is coming in January 2020. With staff out for the holidays, peak shopping season, and end of the year wrap up, this date can pose a serious challenge.

And while it is tempting to cross your fingers and hope that everything is ok, we highly discourage that approach. This blog outlines the risks of doing nothing about your EOL environment.

While IT planning and budget discussions are taking place, we’d like to help you capitalize on this opportunity with a practical framework to modernize your SQL Server and Windows Server 2008 environments. At Dell EMC, we recommend looking at both your hardware and software platforms when thinking about modernization as the two are so intertwined. But ultimately there will a driving force – a need for a modern OS (perhaps caused by one of the aforementioned EOL events), the need for new hardware, or a third driver centered around an entirely different approach to IT delivery.

Approach One: Modernization Driven by the Need for a New Operating System or Database Platform

If your IT organization is using these Microsoft EOL events to drive a discussion around modernization (which they should) now is a good time to plan for a hardware refresh. The obvious reason is that without updating your server platform, you may not be able to upgrade to the latest version of the OS/DB. Say you’re running SQL 2008 or Server 2008 on an R720 – the best you’ll be able to do is upgrade to the 2012 edition of Windows Server or SQL 2017. That means you’ll be facing another end of life event in a few years. At the end of the day, you’re not buying yourself much time and it’s never a good idea to leap a chasm in two bounds if it can be avoided.

Furthermore, an incremental update will not give you access to all the latest features in Windows Server 2019. Specifically,

1. Unique hybrid capabilities: A simplified migration process and the new Windows Admin Center make on-premises and Azure cloud management seamless.

2. Faster innovation with containers: Windows Server 2019 provides support for Linux and Windows containers side-by-side, allowing businesses to run multiple isolated apps on a single system.

3. Enhanced Security: Integrated Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) prevents and detects zero-day exploits, network attacks, and data breaches. It can also discover security breaches and secure the operating system.

4. Unprecedented HCI Capabilities: Create highly available, highly scalable software-defined storage for a fraction of the cost of traditional SAN or NAS arrays.

Approach Two: Modernization Driven by the Need for new Server Platforms

If your IT organization has recognized the need to refresh your datacenter hardware, now is a good time to think about migrating to the latest Windows Server and/or SQL Server edition. There’s tremendous value in updating the hardware alone and this Forrester report demonstrates the advantages of modern server platforms. But that’s really only half of the story.

The latest editions of SQL Server and Windows Server are purpose-built to take advantage of some of the latest server advancements. And the Dell EMC PowerEdge family delivers on those advancements with:

1. Integrated Security: Complement the security advancements in Windows Server with a secure hardware platform – from the logical hardware design through the physical security of the supply chain.

2. Scalable Architectures: the flexibility and versatility of the PowerEdge Server portfolio means you can grow your infrastructure as you grow your business, and therefore your computing needs grow. Idle capacity is finally a thing of the past.

3. Intelligent Automation: iDRAC and OpenManage are perfect complements to the advancements in Windows Admin Center and integrate seamlessly.

Approach Three: Modernization Driven by the Need to Change your IT Delivery Model

Perhaps the drive for modernization comes from a need to make a big shift in how you deliver IT services to your organization and to your end users. Five years ago, we saw many companies make a monumental shift from bare metal to virtualization. That shift required newer, higher performing hardware platforms and new software technologies, chief among those VMware’s V-Center and Microsoft’s Hyper-V.

Today we are seeing an equally monumental shift with the emergence of hyper-converged infrastructure, containers, and hybrid computing. And it doesn’t come as a surprise that yesterday’s hardware and software platforms aren’t capable of delivering on the promises of these new technologies. They simply weren’t designed to do what is possible today.

And while we must all evaluate the benefit of adopting these new technologies, it’s also important to consider the impact of doing nothing. A recent study found that organizations who adopt modern cloud, data and AI technologies outperform:

◈ Nearly double operating margin
◈ $40K more revenue per employee
◈ 50% higher average net income on revenue

Where do I start?

If you’re ready to get started on your modernization journey and get ahead of the Windows Server 2008 End of Life deadline, you’ll first need to understand your environment as it exists today. Dell EMC offers a free tool to do just that. Live Optics is an online software application you can use to collect data about your IT environment. Nothing is more convincing than your own data, so take advantage of this tool to understand your organization’s needs and make a compelling argument to implement the latest data management and analytics applications.

If you’d prefer, Dell Technologies Consulting Services can perform a thorough, validated and rationalized view of your server and data estate to determine which Windows Server require attention and which SQL Server versions you want to move and/or consolidate.  Once you understand your landscape, then what? If you’re like most organizations, you don’t have the time or skilled resources to upgrade and migrate workloads to Windows Server 2019. And given most SQL Server databases/instances are running on Windows Server, it makes sense to upgrade both at the same time. The more complex the environment, the more complex upgrades and migrations can be.

Even though you may have a highly skilled IT Team, do they really have the expertise to migrate instances, database and/or applications to better performing and secure hardware infrastructure? Maybe not. As a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, Dell Technologies Consulting Services can help with the entire process. Depending on how much help your team needs, we offer services for every budget. Choose from one of our pre-packaged (ProConsult Migration or ProConsult Flexible) services or a fully customized engagement for both Windows Server and SQL Server.

Planning to be at Microsoft Ignite 2019? We will have Windows Server and SQL Server experts on site at Ignite.

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Fit Anywhere & Compute Everywhere Even at the Tightest Edge

We previously discussed the huge shift towards edge computing, with data processing close to where it’s created, versus the traditional data center. The reasons? Cost, speed and the sheer number of connected devices. These factors combined make it impractical to move huge volumes of data to the cloud.

Space-saving design with zero footprint

Given this new dynamic, what do OEM users need at the edge in terms of compute? Power is a given, but a small form factor is also critical, as space is usually at a premium. And of course, these two requirements are no longer mutually exclusive options. As a case in point, I’m delighted to welcome the world’s most flexible, modular, zero-footprint PC to our line-up of diminutive yet powerful systems.

Good things come in small packages

Meet our latest, little beauty, the Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra, offering innovative design for compute, even at the tightest edge. Think tiny, powerful, space-saving, and clutter-free; as well as flexible, allowing for placement in tight corners. Despite the Ultra’s tiny size, you can also configure, expand and upgrade it as needed throughout the product lifecycle.

Ideal for OEMs

One question you might ask is, how does this fit into our portfolio? As head of our OEM Product Group, I see the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra as the perfect complement to our existing and hugely successful gateways and embedded PC range. This is yet another great option for OEM customers, who cannot afford to compromise on performance, but who need to operate in the smallest and tightest of spaces.

Size matters

In what scenario, might this product be used? Our gateways and embedded PCs are rugged and ideal for challenging environments, for instance, on the side of a roof or embedded in a cabinet on the manufacturing floor. In contrast, this product doesn’t offer extended operating temperatures, but is ideal for certain OEM customers, those who might need to run large digital signage in air-conditioned environments, at airports, in kiosks or on the shop floor in retail. We’re also seeing huge interest from medical device customers.

Packing a punch

Despite its size, the Ultra packs a mighty punch. You get performance and scalability to match your OEM customers’ needs, up to Intel® Core™ vPro™ i7 processors, 64GB of RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD and 2TB HDD.

The Ultra can fit into a custom monitor stand to create an all-in-one PC that supports a broad range of monitors. If you opt for the monitor stand, it comes complete with physical security options, designed to protect against tampering. However, a special mounting kit is available as a customized option for OEM customers, who, I know, from experience are likely to have creative ideas and want to mount the PC in all sorts of unusual spaces!

Display options

If using the monitor stand, the Ultra supports up to three displays from 19 to 27 inches. Without the stand, there are no limitations on monitor size. While a VESA bracket is available, we can also design bespoke mounting brackets to match your requirements as part of the customization process.

Power, data, video and audio are transmitted in one single cable when the Ultra is paired with Dell USB-C enabled monitors. The system is also enabled for remote power button and remote antenna as a custom configuration for embedded applications.

Decreased footprint with increased flexibility

In summary, this is a unique and compact beauty that refuses to compromise on power or flexibility. The ability to independently and fully upgrade elements means any space can be customized to fit your needs, on your own terms. That’s certainly music to the ears of our OEM customers. Think of it as the desktop you didn’t expect!

Now available globally!

What’s your reaction to the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra? As an OEM partner or customer, do you have ideas about how and where you might use this product? Do share your thoughts and questions. We’d love to hear from you!

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