Transforming the Network with OEM NEP Partner-Designed Solutions

Dell Technologies OEM Solutions was delighted to participate in the recent Dell Technologies Telecom Transformation event. It seems timely to reflect on how our organization contributes to the overall transformation of the telecom network through our Network Equipment Provider (NEP) partner-designed solutions program.

The intersection of 5G and edge

Why is transformation of the network so important now? The answer lies at the intersection of 5G and edge. By 2025, Gartner predicts that 75 percent of all global data will be produced, analyzed, and acted upon at the edge.

Meanwhile, 5G connectivity is essential to enabling the bandwidth, latency and device density edge environments and services will demand, especially at the enterprise edge. Communications service providers (CSPs) are ideally positioned to capitalize on this once-in-decade opportunity, but to exploit this opportunity, they need to transform.

In short, the telecom industry needs to completely redesign its end-to-end network architecture. The current equipment model simply cannot scale up to service 100 times the number of users plus 100 times the volume of data – nor is it ready to rapidly enable innovative new 5G services. Both NEPs and CSPs must automate, deliver speed, scale, and innovate, while driving down costs and increasing agility.

Reliable and scalable infrastructure

They both need built-in intelligence coupled with a reliable and yet simple infrastructure that can scale to meet demand. Think software-defined, flexible, open cloud-native, and virtualized solutions. As a result, the market is increasingly moving away from proprietary, expensive stacks and solutions into open standards and commercial off-the-shelf technology.

Other must-haves include carrier-grade platforms, industry-certified solutions, best-of-breed server switching and storage solutions, all fully optimized and designed to deliver a richer, more intuitive user experience.

How we can help

This is where Dell Technologies OEM Solutions adds value. Our dedicated Telecoms team has deep industry expertise, having successfully addressed the telecom market for many years. We have strong partnerships in place with leading NEPs, supporting them to bring their industry ready NEBS-compliant solutions to market.

Underlying technology

Today, our infrastructure and services are the underlying technology supporting both Network Function Virtualization platform (NFVI) and Virtual Network Functions (VNF) solutions, such as 5G core, vIMS, OSS, BSS, and private network for voice and IoT. The portfolio is now expanding to include virtual radio solutions.

A multi-faceted partnership

Our partnership with NEPs is multi-faceted, spanning everything from roadmap reviews, planning, architecting, customization, and solution design through to the verification of workloads, lifecycle management, and supply chain. For example, our edge server product line was designed by OEM Solutions in direct response to requests from NEP and service provider customers.

Our OEM Solution teams engage with the R&D departments of NEPs providing expertise and infrastructure technologies, where experts from both companies assess the proposed solution before conducting proof of concept, testing and certification. This means that CSPs can absolutely rely on our Tier-1 infrastructure solutions and services as a foundational layer, while maintaining their important relationships with NEPs.

Go-to-market option: classic OEM

How do we jointly go to market with these solutions? We offer two options. One approach is the classic OEM model, where the NEP delivers an integrated, pre-certified, ready-to-deploy solution directly to the CSP. In this scenario, the CSP is usually already working with Dell Technologies as well as having a parallel relationship with one or more NEPs.

To clarify, our NEP partner-designed solution program does not affect any of the existing supply chain or support relationships. We simply ensure that the NEP has access to the right products on time to deliver verified and integrated solutions.

Go-to-market option: sell-with model

An alternative approach is what we call the disaggregated or sell-with model, where OEM Solutions partners with the NEP to design and verify the solution. In this scenario, the NEP and Dell work together to supply the software, services, and infrastructure. The pre-defined, certified infrastructure is directly sold through the Dell Technologies Telecom Sales organization, who work closely with the OEM Solutions Telecom team. In terms of solution deployment, the CSP works directly with the NEP.

Both models have unique advantages and we’re happy to support whichever model suits your needs. Learn more about our telecom strategy and NEP partnership program by registering here to watch our keynote address and on-demand breakout sessions. OEMs will be particularly interested in, “Transforming the network with OEM NEP Partner Designed Solutions.”

Accelerating innovation

I am excited about the road ahead. I believe that this kind of open, modern ecosystem will accelerate innovation and revenue growth for industries the world over. You have only to think of the edge as the perfect ecosystem for new applications, some of which are already enabling more immersive, real-time experiences like visual recognition and augmented or virtual reality.

Based on Intel technology, our pre-integrated, pre-tested and pre-certified NEP partner-designed solutions will reduce complexity, ensure quality, lower risk, shorten time to market, and reduce total cost of ownership.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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How to Grab Job As A Data Scientist with Data Science Certification?

There is an increasing market for professionals who can extract insights from large amounts of data. The data science field is becoming one of the fastest-growing fields in tech today. If you want to see how to become a data scientist, the following guide provides you everything required to start a career in this high-salary tech field.

What Is Data Science?

Data science collects, analyzes, and interprets data to derive insights relevant to a given problem. The process includes several disciplines, from mathematics and algorithms to statistical analysis and machine learning.

Data scientists do these insights as a solution to a business problem. For example, they can make market growth by understanding its target users and expanding the customer base.

Learning Data Science

People commonly learn data science through online Data Science mock exams, university programs, and courses. Some people choose to get data science on their own through online programs.

All of these options differ in cost and time commitment.

How Long Does It Need to Become a Data Scientist?

It can take 3 to 5 years to learn data science. It typically takes four years for university students to go from beginner to ready for a career as a data scientist.

Varying factors decide how long it takes to become a data scientist, such as whether you are a part-time or full-time student and the curriculum of your chosen program.

How to Become a Data Scientist: Step-by-Step

If you require to learn how to become a data scientist, follow this step-by-step guide. This will set you well on your approach to beginning your career in this high-demand tech field.

Choose a Data Science Career Path

The first step is to recognize what kind of work you would like to do as a data scientist. There are many applications for data scientists. You can be a data analyst or a data engineer. Other uses include machine learning engineers and enterprise architects.

Each path has its advantages and disadvantages. Many have opted to take the best of any method to advance their education.

Build Your Data Scientist Portfolio

To succeed in a career in data science, you will require to put what you read into practice. Few employers hire data scientists without real-world experience. So, finding methods to build some projects to add to your portfolio is essential.

Check out a guide on data science projects for beginners. There, you will encounter some basic data science projects with links to relevant datasets. Once you have accomplished these, your next step is to launch your project to the world.

Gain Data Scientist Experience through Internship Programs

Getting a data scientist internship is another method to boost your profile. Search popular job websites, such as Indeed and LinkedIn, for numerous internship opportunities. If you now have a company in mind, check its website for any internships. Even better, go in person and inquire.

Remember that you are not the only one on the lookout for some work experience, so use all the resources at your disposal.

How to Get a Job As a Data Scientist?

Now that you have done all four steps, it is time to make your data scientist debut. Below are a few valuable tasks and tips that will help you land a job.

Prepare a Solid Technical Resume.

Hiring managers glean their first opinion of you within your resume. A neat-looking CV that describes your skills well is thus essential.

Brush up Your Portfolio.

Your portfolio acts as evidence of your data science skills. It represents the quality of your work as well as how you work. Only enter the projects you are most proud of. Get quality over quantity.

Prepare for a Technical Interview.

While your portfolio may look good, hiring managers will require to make sure that you are well-rounded. It would be best if you presented an understanding of data science beyond the projects you have completed. A technical interview provides them the opportunity to test out their knowledge.

Should You Take Certification in Data Science?

Data scientist is an in-demand career field that anyone can be a part of. If you have statistics, analyzing data, and problem-solving, you may find success as a data scientist. Luckily, there are many ways to see if this is the career path for you. Multiple courses, books, and Data Science practice exams are designed to help you go from a newcomer to an experienced data scientist. Make sure to look into any of the programs and learn more about this exciting career field.

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Simplifying SaaS Data Protection on AWS Marketplace

Today, Dell Technologies announced the availability of Dell EMC PowerProtect Backup Service via AWS Marketplace, providing easy access for organizations who want to take advantage of the cloud for scalable, secure protection for SaaS applications, endpoints and hybrid workloads. PowerProtect Backup Service can be deployed in AWS in minutes and provides on-demand scaling to ensure growing data volumes are always protected, making it simple for you to immediately start using the service.

With the availability of PowerProtect Backup Service as a transactable offer through AWS Marketplace, you have access to the offering by leveraging your existing AWS subscription to draw down on your AWS committed-spend. What’s more, Dell Technologies gives you flexibility, allowing you to purchase PowerProtect Backup Service how you want – either directly through Dell, or through AWS Marketplace.

PowerProtect Backup Service is built upon a scalable, cloud native architecture that offers substantial cost savings over legacy, on-premises solutions, the patented global deduplication, and forever-incremental backups dramatically reduce the amount of data stored which further reduces overall costs. The platform offers unique features including long term retention, governance, centralized monitoring and management, automated feature updates, regulatory compliance, source-side deduplication and encryption in-flight and at rest.

Through a single console, customers have unified visibility and a consistent management experience across SaaS apps, endpoints, and hybrid workloads.

Protection for SaaS Based Applications: PowerProtect Backup Service for SaaS Apps protects Microsoft 365, Salesforce and Google Workspace with unified data protection, management, and information governance, including automated compliance and legal hold.

Protection for Endpoints: PowerProtect Backup Service for Endpoints provides centralized, secure protection for desktop, laptops and mobile devices. IT admins can remotely manage cloud backup and restore operations from centralized cloud portal.

Protection for Hybrid Workloads: PowerProtect Backup Service for Hybrid Workloads protects VMware & Hyper-V, Oracle & SQL, Windows, Linux and NAS. PowerProtect Backup Service for Hybrid Workloads offers advanced functionality including long-term retention, reporting and insight into cloud storage utilization. It protects workloads running in the cloud and on-premises workloads to the cloud.

Protect your data while taking advantage of the agility and flexibility of the cloud. PowerProtect Backup Service eliminates ingress/egress charges and enables you to respond to key business initiatives with agility.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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Realize the Value of APEX Data Storage Services

A Forrester study reveals up to 45% reduction in overprovisioned storage costs and net benefit value of up to $1,929 per TB over three years.

Stellar performance, rock-solid reliability, innovative features and seamless integration: The value of Dell Technologies infrastructure portfolio is easy to see. But when these technologies are operating as-a-Service as a part of Dell Technologies APEX, there’s significant additional value that becomes fully visible only as an organization experiences the APEX services over time in their day-to-day operations and planning.

Read More: DEE-2T13: Dell EMC Cloud Services Expert for Cloud Architects (DCE-CA)

It might become obvious when an organization is able to move IT budget from a capital expense (CapEx) to an operating expense (OpEx), or when the IT department finds they can align expenses with actual usage. And taking advantage of the intuitive Apex Console to track utilization and add capacity is bound to be an eye-opener. These are typical APEX experiences – and in each of them, there’s value above and beyond the underlying physical infrastructure, because APEX is a true service, not a purchase.

Organizations typically adopt as-a-Service models for on-premises infrastructure to move budget from CapEx to OpEx and increase flexibility in responding to often-unpredictable business needs. Dell Technologies APEX Data Storage Services provides scalable and elastic block and file storage in an as-a-Service model, enabling our customers to achieve these benefits while saving on costs and on the manual work associated with the traditional model of on-premises storage infrastructure.

But, how to quantify and communicate the value of that experience?

Recently, Dell Technologies commissioned Forrester Research to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study to examine the benefits, costs and risks enterprises encounter when deciding to invest in as-a-Service. The TEI methodology provides a framework which organizations can use to evaluate the potential financial impact of APEX Data Storage Services.

In the study, Forrester interviewed IT decision makers in a variety of industries with experience using APEX Data Storage Services. The customers in the study identified common challenges they had experienced with their traditional on-premises storage infrastructure prior to adopting APEX Data Storage Services:

➤ Difficulty forecasting on-premises storage needs led to overprovisioning with deployed but unused storage amounting to up to 45% of the total storage infrastructure, a burdensome capital expense.

➤ Hardware maintenance and software upgrades strained limited staff resources stealing their time from higher-value projects.

➤ Planning and provisioning storage took months ballooning costs and, in some cases, impacting the productivity of employees who were unable to complete work due to lack of available storage.

Additional issues these customers identified included the costs of removing end-of-term storage hardware safely and sustainably, and the difficulty of staying up to date with hardware due to lack of staff time to perform the updates.

In all these areas, APEX Data Storage Services customers interviewed for the Forrester TEI study anticipated the following benefits:

➤ Eliminate costs of overprovisioning, reducing storage costs by 20% to 45%

➤ Save as much as 50% in IT time

➤ Accelerate deployment time of storage by as much as 86%

Based on the customer interview responses, Forrester constructed a TEI framework and performed an aggregate financial analysis that projects the value of an organization’s investment in APEX Data Storage Services after three years.

Key findings of the Forrester study include:

➤ Reduced costs of planning and provisioning storage between 63% to 86%

➤ Net benefit value of up to $1,929 per TB

➤ Up to 129% return on investment

As you can see from this brief summary, the experience of APEX Data Storage Services adds up to quite a lot of value. To learn more, read the full Forrester report, New Technology: The Projected Total Economic Impact™ of Dell Technologies APEX Data Storage Services.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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Bridging the Data Divide with Dell Technologies and Vertica

As I look back on the world of data analytics, I see such a huge divide. There are organizations making use of their data and those who are not. Even 10 years ago it was not uncommon for organizations to not take full advantage of their own unstructured data. Sure, they were doing reporting or building dashboards, but only looking back historically at what happened in the past. A recent IDC report states business leaders are working to enable 90% of new enterprise apps to be cloud native. However, many of these projects are over budget or miss their timelines. How do we bridge this data divide? By giving Data Teams the power of choice in their data architecture.

Read More: DEE-2T13: Dell EMC Cloud Services Expert for Cloud Architects (DCE-CA)

Everywhere we turn data analytics is top of mind. Rare diseases now are quickly identified with the help of analytics. An evening out to dinner is replete with analytics as restaurants use handy apps to predict how to staff for the day based of historical data, current events, and the weather. However, the challenge for data teams is only compounding. Sure, budgets are larger than before, but that comes with greater scrutiny and higher expectations. Gone are the days when data teams could provide results six months down the road. The democratization of data has helped the business both understand the power of data, and the risk involved in not utilizing data correctly. Results are needed in weeks, not months.

So, how do enable data teams to leverage the data deluge? The answer is simple: by separating compute and storage.

Utilizing Resources in Data Analytics Architectures

IDC predicts that by 2023, file and object capacity will grow by 300%, requiring organization to invest in rapidly scalable and adaptable technologies to handle the deluge of data. We have the power to choose when it comes to many aspects of our lives. Why then, when it comes to data analytics must we choose to add compute and storage at the same time?

Suppose you are working with a project that is heavy on historical data,  with a huge capacity footprint, but doesn’t require a lot of compute resources. Typically, data teams are forced to deploy the compute resources to cover the data needs. Continue this process two or three times more, and your team has a lot of underutilized compute. Many customers I talk to are at 40-50% compute utilization.

The Power of Choice in Data Architecture

We recently announced our collaboration with unified analytics warehousing leader Vertica. Our joint data team customers now have the power of choice in their data architecture. By switching from Vertica Enterprise to Vertica EON mode using Dell EMC’s ECS object storage system as the underlying data lake, your analytics workloads can dictate how much compute or storage is needed.

This unique joint solution enables your data teams to:

◉ Extend infrastructure resources individually– Storage can be scaled up without the addition of expensive compute, which can be scaled up or down with variable or intermittent workloads.

◉ Isolate the workload– Business analysts and data scientists can work independently of a single source of truth, without competing for resources.

◉ Simplify database options– Customers can experience improved node recovery, better workload balancing, and faster compute provisioning.

◉ Hibernate compute nodes– Customers can start and stop analysis more efficiently by hibernating compute nodes when they are not needed.

Now, the next time you need to crunch an enormous dataset, data teams don’t have to wonder if they can add that data into their workflow. Scale eliminates the worry about bringing on new datasets because of costs or storage availability.

Bridge the Data Divide Today

By combining ECS enterprise object storage with Vertica EON Mode, data teams can now extend infrastructure resources independently. Ready to give data teams more choice when it comes to their analytics architecture? Checkout the Dell Technologies session at Vertica’s Unify Conference on July 21st with Mark Guerra, of Analytics at Jaguar Racing Speed: Driven by Vertica | Powered by Dell Technologies. Registration is free and sessions will be available on-demand.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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DLm Enhancements Deliver PowerScale, Isilon Connectivity

Dell Technologies’ history of innovation and leadership in mainframe storage spans more than three decades. That legacy of innovation and leadership continues today with the announcement of Dell EMC  Disk Library for mainframe (DLm) virtual tape release 5.4. This release enhances the DLm model 8500 adding Dell Technologies PowerScale and Isilon storage support, 3-site GDDR automated tape failover for PowerScale / Isilon, and leverages S3 connectivity between DLm and Dell EMC ECS storage. These new features will be detailed at SHARE Virtual Experience August 9-13.

For environments where mainframe tape data can’t leverage the great deduplication rates that DLm can provide with PowerProtect or Data Domain, Dell EMC PowerScale and Isilon storage enable DLm to potentially lower the cost of mainframe virtual tape compared to using DLm with PowerProtect (Data Domain) storage. As an example, consider tape backup of transaction data with a high daily rate of change, data that appears “unique” every time it’s backed-up to tape. Deduplicating this type of data may offer near zero benefits. For this type of data, this announcement makes available a wide variety of Dell EMC PowerScale and Isilon models to fit every range of capacity and performance required when data simply can’t take advantage of the great deduplication ability of PowerProtect DD or Data Domain storage (determined by your Dell Technologies tape specialist’s study).

Today’s announcement also enhances DLm’s use of Dell EMC Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) as a Long-Term Retention (LTR) storage option for physical tape replacement. Release 5.4 replaces DLm’s existing NFS connection to ECS with an S3-compliant interface for improved performance when storing or retrieving object-based tape volumes. All of DLm’s  storage options combine to ensure that your physical (or virtual) tape requirements for mainframe data protection are exceeded, whether you need to stretch your tape TCO to cover newer requirements, commit data to the public cloud with Amazon AWS or private cloud with Dell EMC ECS. In all cases, simply, finally, say goodbye to cumbersome, complex physical tape.

DLm’s common S3 interface for Long Term retention can leverage Dell EMC ECS or AWS  

Dell Technologies recognizes that your mainframe storage strategy must increasingly leverage your organization’s expanding cloud infrastructure to reduce costs. Ideally, this is done using capacity within an existing cloud infrastructure and offloading mainframe physical or virtual tape data identified as requiring long-term retention. According to Gartner, “by 2025, 35% of data center mainframe storage capacity for backup and archive will be deployed in the cloud to reduce costs and improve agility, which is an increase from less than 5% in 2020.”

In the years since DLm first wrote to the cloud, Amazon has expanded their cloud offering, tailoring AWS to include US government users with an offering known as “Amazon GovCloud” which DLm has supported since release 5.3, making it easier for US federal agencies with mainframes and an AWS account to store their data.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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Automotive Manufacturers Start Thinking Seriously About Cybersecurity

Remember in 2014 when millions of people woke up to find a U2 album on their devices, which they hadn’t downloaded? A lot of people were rightly annoyed about it. They thought they were the ones who controlled what was installed and downloaded onto their phones – so it was quite unsettling to realise that it could be manipulated by third parties. We saw the same thing happen this year, but with darker implications, when users received a system update with malware which was downloaded to their Android devices automatically.

What if that happened to your car? We tend to think of a car as a closed unit, where the driver is in control and responsible for driving. But imagine if someone hacked your car and turned up the radio so loud that you couldn’t think or concentrate? Or they switched on your hazard signals without your consent? Or, even worse, they deactivated your autonomous driving software, so the car couldn’t detect obstacles or pedestrians?

As vehicles become more and more software-defined, cybercrime is going to be a huge issue. In this blog, we’ll explore some of the risks – and what manufacturers can do about it.

Why the automotive industry is at risk

Although everyone knows the danger of cybercrime, the automotive industry is not as mature as other sectors in their defences. Industries like financial services deal with sensitive customer data daily, meaning that security has been a high priority for a long time.

However, many automakers are just getting into the technology business. They understand the risk of losing valuable IP – but manufacturers haven’t had to deal with sensitive data in the same way as other companies before. Now though, with vehicles becoming more like software platforms, these auto manufacturers are becoming ‘data businesses’. And that means there are a lot more areas where criminals could cause damage.

Evolving types of cyber threats

I talked about the risk of AD/ADAS algorithms developed in the public cloud. But that’s only one part of the problem. As automakers move further into cloud technology, there are a lot more potential attack surfaces.

You could attack self-driving vehicles directly, with adversarial attacks into the visual sensors – which is one of the risks I discussed previously. New legislation in the EU, Japan and South Korea will make black boxes mandatory in all cars over the next couple of years. Hackers could infiltrate the black boxes, to manipulate the data that is being recorded.

But you could attack the infrastructure too. The cloud backend that a fleet uses (as happened in the Gigaset example above) could automatically transmit malware to millions of vehicles at once, rather than just one. In fact, researchers at Fraunhofer IESE Institute highlight those risks due to attacks on the IT backend are increasing – the impact could be worse, the attack surface is bigger, the driver has no power to stop an attack, and there are more safety-critical processes which could be affected. This issue is increasingly addressed by standardization initiatives like ISO TR 4804. Fraunhofer IESE has been researching the impact of security on safety for more than a decade, and its Safety Meets Security conferences show that the interest in this topic is increasing. It recently established an alliance to develop safe-system architectures for self-driving vehicles, which includes Volkswagen Group and DENSO, among others.

Another target that is of interest to attackers is all the proprietary data related to the different technologies that go into an automobile. This type of data is the source of the competitive differentiation for auto makers and can help attackers use it for demanding ransomware. According to Accenture, the average cost of such attacks is estimated to be $15.8M for the automotive industry. For most automakers, IT infrastructure is a relatively new thing. But now is the time to get serious about it.

The rules are changing

Cybersecurity is not just about IP theft. It could have enormous real-world (and potentially fatal) implications. Automakers should take cyber-safety just as seriously as they take physical crash testing.

Fraunhofer IESE states that the cost of investment to guarantee automotive cybersecurity will increase significantly. Several studies have made realistic estimates for the overall cost, including one which predicts that the ‘global automotive cybersecurity market will reach $10.92 billion by 2030, growing by 21.7% annually over 2020-2030, owing to the rising need for cyber security among smart vehicles, self-driving cars and connected transportation.’ This is in line with previous studies from McKinsey.

Because of the risks, it’s no surprise that regulation is coming in to keep consumers safe. For example, the UNECE WP29 regulation is already in effect. It stipulates:

◉ Demand for a Software Update Management System (SUMS)

◉ Demand for a Cybersecurity Management System (CSMS)

From July 2022, the new cybersecurity regulation will be binding for all new vehicle types in the European Union and July 2024 for all new vehicles globally.

This was signed into law in 2020. Yet I’ve spoken to maybe eight to ten automotive clients in the last month or two who didn’t even know it exists. The rules come into force just one year from now, so there’s no time to lose.

What to do about it

There are certainly some serious concerns for automakers around cybersecurity. But it’s not a nightmare scenario – there’s still time to act, partners who you can work with, and plenty of clear ways to secure your software and vehicles. There are a lot of strong options for security out there, which automakers can take advantage of, especially if they don’t have cloud security experts in-house yet. Some suppliers, like Bosch and Continental, have begun including security testing in their ‘control as a service’ offerings.

Dell Technologies is working with new and innovative security partners who are at the cutting edge. An example I found recently is a company called Pilot Systems, who support cybersecurity in AD/ADAS software. On the IT Infrastructure, side Dell storage portfolio comes with data isolation based cyber-protection and recovery solutions. These solutions are powered by machine learning based models to detect the attacks in real time and take actions to minimize the impact of the attack as well as recover data from an isolated cyber vault.

I’ll be discussing cybersecurity and safety-critical autonomous driving development on July 27 at 11 a.m. CT, with a panel including experts from the Fraunhofer Institute and Ward’s Intelligence. Register here to join the session or to watch an on-demand recording.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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Expanding Your Innovation Engine with Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers

Dell Technologies is your innovation engine, offering distinctive servers for distinctive needs.

Imagine that you were in a data center ten years ago, and while looking at the servers, you recognized that they were essentially built on the same technologies.

Read More: DEE-1111: Dell EMC PowerMax and VMAX All Flash Solutions Expert

They all came with similar CPUs, similar memory, and similar drives. They even all came in similar form factors. Your server environments were largely homogeneous — and with the advent of virtualization, they became even more homogeneous because one virtual machine was essentially just like another virtual machine.

However, in today’s world, a homogeneous server environment is an obstacle to success.

Organizations and workloads require different technologies. Some services require massive amounts of storage, others need the fastest possible drive technologies. Some workloads require many CPUs, others require GPUs.

The days of every server living in a data center are in the past. Today’s workloads put servers closer to the end user than ever before, in environments previously impossible, and for purposes not even dreamed of ten years ago. As today’s organizations are pushing the envelope around innovation, they’re finding it necessary to build a heterogeneous server infrastructure, with different servers that offer different capabilities for different workloads.

They’re also finding it necessary to extract the maximum value out of every server through right-sizing and right-featuring their servers to avoid overprovisioning, adding unused capabilities, and spending money that isn’t necessary.

Dell Technologies understands these needs, and we have committed to building out the broadest and most relevant industry-standard server portfolio in our history. Today, we’re making six new differentiated servers globally available after announcing them in March. These six servers offer the latest 3rd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, giving organizations the latest performance and feature sets, but each is intended to meet specific requirements.

“The era of Intelligent everything is here and it brings new requirements for platforms that can manage the vast amounts of data being generated both at the edge and in the data center.” – said Matt Langman, General Manager, Data Platforms Group at Intel. “Intel developed its 3rd generation Xeon scalable processors to deliver performance flexibility and compute power to manage the deluge of data generated both in the data center and at the network edge, where more decisions are increasingly made.”

PowerEdge customers can add versatility and flexibility to their server ecosystems, better meeting emerging demands, optimizing value, and powering their innovation engines.

PowerEdge XR11 and XR12: purpose-built for edge and telecom

The PowerEdge XR11 and XR12 take all the advantages of Dell EMC server design in a new direction. These servers are ruggedized and built with distinctively shallow form factors, intended for challenging environments at the edge. The XR11 (single socket, 1U) and XR12 (single-socket, 2U) are NEBS and MIL-STD compliant servers that are ideal for telco, military, retail, restaurant, and other edge requirements. Built with 16in/400mm deep chassis, these servers offer:

◉ A wide range of processor speeds

◉ Optane Persistent Memory 200 support

◉ Up to 2 GPUs

◉ SAS, SATA and NVMe drives

◉ Reverse mounting and airflow

The XR11 and XR12 reduce the risk of server failures in challenging environments and work within space constrained environments without compromising essential capabilities or performance. If you need servers that can stand up to heat, cold, dust, vibrations and shocks with a hardened chassis and minimal footprint, these are the servers for you.

PowerEdge R650xs and R750xs: providing a powerful compute engine while balancing cost constraints

The PowerEdge R650xs and R750xs also take Dell Technologies advantages in a new direction. We designed these servers with a customer-driven feature-set optimization that helps organizations get the most value out of their scale-out, software defined infrastructures. The R650xs (dual-socket, 1U) and R750xs (dual-socket, 2U) give customers value-optimized platforms that are perfect for cloud-scale, general-purpose environments that don’t require GPUs. They offer:

◉ Up to 32 cores per socket, with PCIe 4.0

◉ Support for SAS, SATA, SSDs or NVMe drives

With an ideal selection of CPU, I/O and storage performance for customers growing data centers, these servers give organizations a distinctive way to maximize value without compromising performance.

PowerEdge R450 and R550: ideal for small to mid-size organizations

Then we turned our design work toward a different set of needs. The PowerEdge R450 (dual-socket, 1U) and R550 (dual-socket, 2U) are built for affordability and versatility. Ideally suited for light duty virtualization and general-purpose IT, these servers are an ideal fit for value-sensitive and small business customers who demand the latest generation of Intel processors and PCIe technology. These servers include:

◉ A mix of processors, up to 24 cores per socket, with PCIe 4.0

◉ Support for SAS or SATA drives, not NVMe

These servers give organizations a way to move to the latest technologies while reducing capital expenditure. The R450 and R550 optimize return on investment where workloads don’t demand the fastest processors, storage capabilities, or support for GPUs.

Comprehensive solutions from a trusted partner

PowerEdge servers help organizations meet the demands of digital transformation with a portfolio that supports diverse workloads and business objectives. Every PowerEdge server is supported by Dell EMC OpenManage solutions that deliver automation and intelligent infrastructure management so that your team can spend less time on routine maintenance and focus on high value strategic programs.

PowerEdge servers are built with a cyber-resilient architecture, starting at the silicon design and permeating the system’s lifecycle, from manufacturing, through the supply chain, and retirement – all from a single, trusted vendor.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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Scale Databases Across Data Centers, Cloud and Edge

For IT leaders, application modernization is an ongoing imperative — and a critical enabler of digital transformation in the enterprise.

More Info: DES-9131: Dell EMC Infrastructure Security Specialist

Distributed and mission-critical applications, such as those for global financial services, require a modern database, such as Apache Cassandra. Organizations gain additional benefits from deploying modern databases in containerized environments that streamline management and operations, especially on a broad scale.

Application modernization also brings the opportunity to design a distributed database model that can span data centers, provide high availability and deliver high-performance data processing capabilities as data continues to grow in volume, variety and velocity.

And this is where DataStax Enterprise software comes into play. Built on Apache Cassandra, DataStax Enterprise offers a scalable, highly available NoSQL database solution that can be scaled on premises, across data centers, across cloud providers and out to the edge. DataStax gives enterprises the freedom to run data in any cloud — Kubernetes, hybrid or bare metal — at global scale with no downtime or lock-in.

The distributed nature of DataStax Enterprise means that organizations can now deploy fault-tolerant databases that can manage high-velocity unstructured and semi‑structured data while providing high performance and 100 percent uptime. Along the way, DataStax combines the high performance and high availability of Apache Cassandra with enterprise-grade deployment, security and management tools.

Speed time to results

In recent years, Dell Technologies has worked closely with DataStax on the development of reference configurations for DataStax Enterprise on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers. These solutions are designed to help organizations gain the greatest performance and value from their DataStax investments. And this remains the case today as Dell Technologies and DataStax roll out a new solution architecture for DataStax Enterprise running on Dell Technologies infrastructure. This architecture is designed to enable a highly available and secure Apache Cassandra deployment that can handle the large data growth and processing needs of modern and modernized applications.

To develop this analytics solution, engineers from Dell Technologies and Intel deployed two DataStax Enterprise configurations that mirrored a typical yet smaller-scale Apache Cassandra deployment — both deployed on a containerized, cloud-native, Kubernetes platform. The first configuration was deployed on Red Hat OpenShift, while the second configuration used VMware Tanzu. Both  configurations are the foundation of modern Kubernetes container environments.

Details of this initiative are highlighted in a new Dell Technologies white paper that provides joint engineering-tested guidance for application modernization and data management. This white paper describes a baseline DataStax Enterprise solution architecture that was used by DataStax, Intel and Dell Technologies to test DataStax Enterprise performance. It also presents the results of the performance tests.

To cut to the chase: The benchmarks in this initiative show that DataStax Enterprise performs well in a Kubernetes environment using either Red Hat OpenShift or VMware Tanzu running on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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Achieving Equity and Belonging: The Critical Next Steps

It’s been just over two months since I stepped into my new role at Dell Technologies as chief diversity and inclusion officer. I’m keeping an open mind as we listen for the greatest needs of our team members and communities. Our team members have asked for equal opportunities to succeed, leaders who look like them and champions who advocate for them. Support as we navigate injustices in our communities and new ways of working has also been critical. Together, we’re working to meet the expectation we’ve set for ourselves: to build a workforce that is representative of society by making measurable progress toward our 2030 Progress Made Real gender and ethnicity goals.

More: DEE-1111: Dell EMC PowerMax and VMAX All Flash Solutions Expert

As we reflect on our progress in our 2021 Diversity and Inclusion Report, I’m proud of our improvement. We’ve made strides to lean into our inclusive culture and create an environment where all can succeed. We’ve seen representation grow at all levels among those who identify as women globally and Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino in the U.S. But representation – at Dell Technologies and across the technology industry – is still not where it needs to be to show we’re effectively addressing the 4.3M global tech talent gap we are facing by 2030. As a leading technology provider, we know there’s still more to do.

Our focus has been on taking critical steps to live who we are – a diverse company with unique perspectives – at our deepest level. So we’ve spent the past year taking purposeful action. The actions we’re taking will continue to help us address our most pressing societal issues and create a deeper sense of belonging among our global team of 158,000:

◉ Addressing the impacts of COVID-19: Injustices and disparities continue to take their toll on underrepresented groups around the world, and we saw these rise as the pandemic continued. Our team has come together – to support, advocate, give and live up to commitments we made to drive progress. As just one example, in 2020 women globally lost more than 64 million jobs or 5% of the total jobs they held – while 3.9% of men’s jobs were lost. We fortunately did not see the type of decline at Dell that we’re seeing in the broader workforce. But that doesn’t mean we haven’t been affected. Adding and extending benefits to working parents – like caregiving, childcare, tutoring and learning pod solutions – helped with that. Ongoing development and sponsorship will be critical ways we invest in women at the company and keep them moving forward.

◉ Investing in our supportive, flexible workplace: We are leaning into what it means to feel a deep sense of belonging in a hybrid environment, building tools and a culture that provide choice and flexibility to all team members. Connecting in new ways – through moments of reflection, support groups, and wellness and educational sessions – has been critical to supporting each other through a global pandemic. These connection points have helped our employee resource group (ERG) participation grow to 44% of the company – up from 34% last year.

◉ Expanding learning opportunities to drive inclusion: We evolved our diversity and inclusion foundational learning program and made it easier for team members to deepen their understanding of unconscious bias, intersectionality, in- and out-groups and microaggression. We’re excited that nearly 100% of our managers participated in learning experiences on these topics last year. But we need this to be something we all experience on a continuous basis. With our new approach, called Be the Change, team member participation will happen all year long at key points like performance reviews and check-ins with their manager or team.

◉ Closing the tech talent gap and continuing to build a diverse leadership pipeline: We expanded our current partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities, minority-serving institutions, and community colleges – connecting virtually to foster relationships and help students build technology skills. This has already increased hiring from these schools by 42% compared to last year. And close examinations of our current workforce resulted in the promotion of women globally and underrepresented minorities in the U.S. (Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino) at rates higher than our current representation. This accelerates our pipeline for a leadership team where 40% identify as women globally and 15% identify as Black/African American or Hispanic/Latino in the U.S. by 2030.

We’re moving forward with the understanding that we must hold ourselves accountable for ensuring Dell is a place where we all can thrive as our authentic selves. It’s why our most senior leaders have diversity goals tied to their performance expectations and our people managers receive feedback on how they are doing in the area of inclusion.

In the year ahead, we will focus on expanding opportunity for our teams and communities. We’ll support through action and advocacy, including continuing to support inclusive policy and legislation that impacts our local communities like access to digital technologies and skills. And we’ll keep continuous learning at the heart of our progress – to inspire more inclusive and equitable business practices we can embed throughout our organization.

Our success has ripple effects beyond our walls, into our communities and can serve as a catalyst for change. That’s our intention, and we look forward to sharing our journey and making our greatest impact yet.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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Delivering TLC At the Cost of QLC

I’ve been working with Flash NAND for nearly two decades and have had a very close-up look at the xLC flash drive transition as it shifts to the below.

Back around 2008, there were a lot of small enterprise SSD vendors who were looking to take advantage of the emerging enterprise flash trend. These solutions typically utilized single layer cell (SLC) NAND and new exotic architectures such as “over provisioning” and new ways to layout data across the NAND chips to reduce wear and increase performance. It was an exciting and very fast paced time.

SSD technology has quickly evolved from single bits per cell (SLC), to two bits per cell (MLC), then to three bits per cell (TLC), all in a matter of a few years. Also, very importantly as we saw the volume of enterprise SSDs grow, the cost of these devices reduced significantly.

Why did the transition happen so quickly? Three reasons:

◉ SSD technology improved and hardened very quickly

◉ Industry flash production supply quickly shifted to MLC and later to TLC

◉ Most importantly, a larger cost advantage for the transition

Let’s focus on that last point. The real reason to move to more bits per cell historically was around economics. Moving from SLC to MLC dropped the cost of production roughly in half. Moving to three bits eventually gave an additional 50% density for the same cost. I deliberately said “eventually” because when new technologies emerge, the NAND vendors need to deal with issues like wafer yields, ramping up production, testing performance, monitoring quality and maintaining reliability.

With this reduction in costs came tradeoffs. With each additional bit added, there is a reduction in NAND endurance as well as NAND latencies (i.e. SSD performance). When Dell Technologies released one of the industry’s first TLC based all-flash systems, we made sure that the systems could easily ensure more than five years of heavy enterprise use from a reliability perspective. The significant reduction in cost more than made up for any performance tradeoffs. Very quickly we saw our high-performance drive business (15K HDD) drop to zero and customers make a very quick pivot to our all-flash systems.

The industry is now looking at QLC (quad-level cell) as the next big inflection point in all-flash systems. The reality is the shift to QLC is a much smaller, more transitional step in lowering the cost of storage. This is especially true as I write this in 2021 from a Dell technologies lens. As one of the world’s largest end-to-end IT suppliers, we gain a huge competitive advantage by allowing us to use our massive supply chain to purchase at scale and provide our customers with the best economics – better than QLC in many cases.

We’ve been looking at QLC technology before some of our competitors existed. There really isn’t any magic for integrating QLC devices into our systems. So why haven’t we?

It’s simple. Any “potential” saving that we could give to our customers, are more than offset by the reductions in endurance and performance at the device level. I can’t give specific values, but the cost advantages with QLC are currently between zero and low single digit percentages. That’s right, at least for Dell Technologies given our huge supply chain, there is little advantage to jumping to these flash transitions too quickly.

Right now, we are looking at exploring QLC especially as it approaches Gen 2, which promises important and needed improvements in reliability and performance. We will be there with solutions that address this when the time is right so that Dell Technologies support and our customers have the best possible experience.

After all, it’s the experience, not the drives that support our customer’s objectives to innovate with data.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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Sage Advice for Transforming IT in the Data Decade

The Chinese sage Lao Tzu once said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” In IT, the last mile of digital transformation is often the hardest part of the journey.

Consider that 94% of organizations surveyed identified the following top four barriers as impeding their path to the transformation finish line:

1. Information overload

2. An inability to extract valuable insights from data

3. Data privacy and security

4. Lack of budget and resources

These barriers all point to the same thing – organizations are struggling with data management. And yet despite an ever-increasing torrent of data and workloads flooding IT systems across hybrid, multi-cloud and edge locations, there are clamors from all corners of the business for still MORE data.

But how can organizations meet the demand for more data when they are having problems managing what’s already on hand? One thing to consider is the underlying infrastructure.

By modernizing your infrastructure, you can gain consistent operations, simplify data infrastructure management and enable your organization to innovate with data to stay competitive. Modernization is also key for laying the foundation for flexible IT and delivering a cloud-like experience for end users.

Modernized Infrastructure

Simplifying, automating and securing IT infrastructure are operational imperatives in the data decade. Organizations need solutions that deliver increased automation so that service level objectives for application performance (whether physical, virtual or containerized), security and data protection are consistently met across hybrid, multi-cloud and edge infrastructure.

Leading technologies that leverage AI/ML to automate IT delivery and tight integration with key management frameworks like VMware are necessary to ensure consistent and simplified operations wherever data and workloads reside. Infrastructure modernization also requires solutions that deliver increased data efficiencies so that as data grows, IT operational costs are kept in line.

As IT teams become less burdened with infrastructure care and feeding, they can begin spending more time with developers, data scientists and their business counterparts on enhancing their existing services, creating new products and delighting their customers. 

Innovating with Data

Modernizing infrastructure at the edge is especially critical given Gartner’s prediction that 75% of all new data will originate outside the data center and the cloud by 2025. Building modern data pipelines that enable organizations to innovate with data in real time requires adaptable, scalable and increasingly autonomous compute, storage and networking solutions that simplify edge workload management. By consolidating infrastructure at the edge, organizations can eliminate data silos and build a sustainable IT footprint that can fluidly adapt and scale over time as data and workloads grow.

And by deploying solutions with the same consistency of operations everywhere, organizations can simplify and accelerate their transformation at the edge. ​

Flexible IT

Perhaps one of the surest signs of how far an organization is along their transformation journey is how flexible their IT environment is. Can end users deploy any workload into any cloud of their choice whether it is on-premises, at the edge or in the public cloud? Can it be done with speed, agility and efficiency while maintaining performance, availability, security and data protection service level objectives?

Many IT organizations want to deliver a cloud-like experience that gives their end users the best of what public and private cloud have to offer. The speed and agility of the public cloud, combined with the efficiency, security and consistency of operations of on-premises infrastructure. Many of these capabilities can be achieved via integrated hybrid cloud solutions, but another arrow in the IT quiver is “as-a-Service” solutions for private cloud environments.

By offloading infrastructure management, private cloud as-a-service solutions are an ideal way for IT organizations to simplify IT, deliver just-in-time application resource capabilities, maintain service level objectives and stretch IT budget and resources by switching from a cap-ex to an op-ex operating model.

The road less traveled

IT organizations don’t have to go it alone as they tackle the final mile of their transformation journey. Dell Technologies and our extensive ecosystem of partners, can help IT organizations accelerate transformation, position themselves for success in the data decade and be ready for whatever comes next. After all, as Lao Tzu once famously said, “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” With Dell Technologies by your side, your transformation journey is on sure footing.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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Innovation Powers Data Protection Suite

Dell EMC Data Protection Suite, comprised primarily of the three data protection software solutions Avamar, NetWorker and PowerProtect Data Manager, has been and continues to be at the forefront of data protection innovation. The past year has seen Data Protection Suite as a whole and each of its respective components add capabilities, expand functionality and receive customer and industry accolades.

Read More: DES-1423: Isilon Solutions Specialist Exam for Implementation Engineers

It’s you, our valued customers, who inspire us to continue to innovate to ensure our products protect your vital business data as datasets grow, as workloads change and as environments expand.

There’s a saying amongst our data protection team, “if you can’t protect it, you can’t deploy it.” Think about that. Any workload worth deploying, or data worth creating, you must first consider how to ensure it will be properly protected.

That may be, at least in part, why customers have continued to rely on Dell Technologies data protection for decades. This extensive history is evidence of our ability to listen to our customers. As your environments and workloads change, we ensure you have access to enterprise data protection solutions you need. It is this cooperative relationship between our customers and ourselves that has kept us at the top of the industry. Dell Technologies is #1 in Data Protection Appliance & Software as well as being a leader for over 20 years in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for data center backup and recovery

Thousands of customers use Avamar and NetWorker for enterprise-level protection capabilities and reliability. Avamar and NetWorker allow administrators to perform their jobs and meet SLA’s, not to mention sleep well at night knowing their data, whether on premises or in the cloud, is protected.

We’ve always been committed to giving customers the power of choice, which is why our Data Protection Suite offers much more than Avamar and NetWorker. We introduced a new software platform in PowerProtect Data Manager with support of existing and modern workloads such as Kubernetes. Every Data Protection Suite customer is entitled to use PowerProtect Data Manager to take advantage of new innovations. The continuous cycle of customers inspiring innovation, plus the flexibility to use any, or all, of the software elements of Data Protection Suite, provides investment protection to meet our customer’s evolving data protection requirements.

The long-term use and reliance on Avamar and NetWorker is a testament to our unwavering commitment to continue our plan to deliver new software releases on a regular cadence. With an agile development model, multiple releases each year introduce updates across all levels of functionality, spanning the user interface to cloud availability to security. It should be noted that 100% of these updates have been customer-driven, underscoring our commitment to customer needs.

Avamar, NetWorker and PowerProtect Data Manager all incorporate a modern, HTML5 user interface, for easy, intuitive operations and each product supports cloud data protection in AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. It’s clear that our customers trust Data Protection Suite to protect their in-cloud data as Dell Technologies has 7.0 EB of data protected in the cloud. And organizations continue to be concerned about data loss and the ability to recover, Data Protection Suite customers can benefit from license entitlement to our PowerProtect Cyber Recovery solution.

New Data Protection Suite software is available to download now.

We are moving forward in bringing new innovations and advancements to market with Avamar, NetWorker and PowerProtect Data Manager to enrich the customer experience. Our recently extended partnership with global technology firm HCL will enable customers to take full advantage of our tightly aligned engineering relationship with new product enhancements and benefits. Growing our product innovation for future customer needs will always be our major priority.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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Increase Performance While Conserving Energy

Liquid cooling for latest generation Dell EMC PowerEdge servers

The latest generation of Dell EMC PowerEdge servers offers CPUs with higher performance than ever before, providing the capability to run artificial intelligence (AI), high performance computing (HPC) and other advanced enterprise workloads. However, the upward trend toward more powerful, denser computing infrastructure also requires continuing innovations in cooling to keep up with it.

Along with the latest processors, many of the latest generation of more powerful Dell EMC PowerEdge servers also come with the option for CoolIT Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) technology. DLC transfers heat away from the processors by placing a metal plate in direct contact with the surface of the processor. Liquid flows through sealed micro-channels in the plate to capture heat from the processor and then flows on to a heat exchanger, which dissipates the heat.

The heat load is removed from the data center via a warm water loop, potentially bypassing the chiller system. Because water can hold 4X more heat capacity than air, these new liquid-cooled servers can support higher-bin, faster processors with lower power requirements and greater reliability. By replacing or supplementing conventional air cooling with higher-efficiency liquid cooling, the overall operational efficiency of the data center is improved.

For example, DLC can help:

◉ Enable higher compute density. DLC cooling enables support of up to 25% more cores per rack for the C6520 system and 2X the core count for the C6525 system compared to air cooling alone.

◉ Support system configurations that may not be possible with air cooling alone, such as high thermal design power (TDP) CPUs, dense storage and/or add-in cards.

◉ Reduce energy costs by up to 45% relative to cooled air.

◉ Pay for itself with a 1.3-year break-even and 3X return on investment (ROI) within four years.

With the latest launch, we’re expanding our portfolio of servers with factory-installed DLC to include our dense Dell EMC PowerEdge C6520 and C6525 Servers, as well as the following Dell EMC PowerEdge rack-mount servers:  R6525, R7525, R650, R750, R750XA.

It’s a cool POD, literally and figuratively

Where a node-level DLC solution captures between 50%-60% of a server’s internal heat (depending on the configuration), the rack-level POD is designed for total heat capture. The POD solution contains front and back containment for racks of DLC servers, plus an In-row cooler integrated between the IT racks to capture any remaining heat for even greater cooling efficiency.

Air-cooled cars?

If you’re still thinking you don’t need liquid cooling in your datacenter, consider this: Liquid cooling in automobiles started in 1897 with the invention of radiators. Would you consider buying an air-cooled car? In the heat of summer, dip in the pool and check out Dell Technologies Direct Liquid Cooling Support for New PowerEdge Servers. The Dell Technologies HPC & AI Innovation Lab has dueling air and liquid-cooled racks.

Source: delltechnologies.com

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