Dell EMC PowerEdge + VMware: The Ultimate Hybrid Cloud Combo

We are constantly searching for the right balance to enable us to achieve our best possible life, whether in our professional priorities, diet, exercise regimen, relationships, or myriad other areas of our lives. Similarly, companies are searching for the right balance in their IT infrastructure across physical and virtual machines, storage, networking, security, and lifecycle management whether it be on-premises, public cloud or the edge. IT decision makers and administrators know that the right balance can lead to the capability to harness intelligence from huge amounts of data, driving competitive advantages and better outcomes.

Along with an exponential amount of data comes a growing number of clouds. Ninety-two percent of organizations have both public and private cloud environments installed, but the dynamic nature of these clouds, driven by ever-changing business demands, requires maximum flexibility, agility, manageability and security. More and more companies are turning to the world’s #1 global x86 server provider, Dell EMC PowerEdge, to give them flexible and secure infrastructure on which to build, run and manage their hybrid cloud, with the latest VMware stack including VMware vSphere® 7 with Kubernetes, VMware vSAN™ 7, and VMware Cloud Foundation™.

Thousands of companies across the world use VMware vSphere for server virtualization, but the new capabilities in vSphere 7 bring to market some great opportunities for both IT and app developers alike, with native support for Kubernetes built into vSphere 7. Now, applications can be deployed using any combination of virtual machines, containers and Kubernetes. In addition, one of the most exciting new features in vSphere 7 on PowerEdge servers specifically is the new vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM), which enables IT to deploy, manage and update both hardware and firmware drivers using a desired state model, when combined with OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter (OMIVV). OMIVV is the systems management plug-in from Dell for vCenter. Customers have maximum flexibility and control when patches and updates are deployed, with unified software and firmware lifecycle management. And they can do it simply within vCenter, a familiar and comfortable tool. Save time as cluster images are replicated automatically, at your desired pace, once an ESXi host or baseline cluster profile is established. Monitor for compliance and drift automatically, and schedule updates from within vCenter.

Dell Technologies is one of only two OEMs at this time that offer vLCM. For our Dell EMC vSAN Ready Node customers, this is an exciting step to offering simple, reliable and consistent lifecycle operations in vSphere and HCI clusters. If you’re wondering what a Dell EMC vSAN Ready Node might be, it’s a PowerEdge server that has been configured and jointly certified to run VMware vSAN™, which is one of the fastest-growing hyperconverged software offerings today. Think of a vSAN Ready Node as an HCI building block, and Dell Technologies is proud to offer customers flexibility to design their hybrid cloud for optimal performance and agility with one of the broadest vSAN Ready Node portfolios on the market.

To round out the full software stack, VMware has introduced VMware Cloud Foundation 4, the simplest path to hybrid cloud. It serves as an integrated software platform that automates a complete software-defined data center (SDDC) on a standardized hyperconverged architecture, such as Dell EMC PowerEdge MX. Access this Tolly report to learn how you can deploy your private cloud in days rather than weeks with PowerEdge and VCF 4.*

Flexible, scalable and manageable hybrid clouds are nothing without security. Together, PowerEdge and VMware deliver enterprise-grade security from chip to server to VM to cloud-native applications, starting with cyber-resilient PowerEdge architecture and extending through built-in intrinsic security in the VMware stack, including vSphere Trust Authority, network-level micro segmentation in VMware NSX®, distributed firewalls and VPN, storage-level encryption for data at rest and clusters, and much more.

Whether you’re an established vSphere customer, just beginning to look at HCI solutions like vSAN Ready Nodes, or looking to flexibly architect a better hybrid cloud to support traditional and modern apps, the new VMware stack plus PowerEdge can help you strike the right balance of flexibility, agility, manageability, and security. Simplify and accelerate your hybrid cloud journey from the core to the cloud to the edge, with Dell EMC PowerEdge and VMware.