In Telecom, There’s a New Kid on the Block

Our appreciation for building blocks starts when we’re young. How many of us, for example, have watched a child play with Lego blocks® and thought, “There’s a future engineer.” While it’s only playful speculation, it’s more than just intuition. Engineers tend to think in terms of building blocks even as adults, whether it’s an OSI stack or a network topology.

Of course, there’s a big difference between building a rudimentary castle and, say, a telco cloud. If the first one gets breached, you can usually chase off the intruders with an imaginary dragon or two. The stakes are considerably higher, and the remedies less simple, for a tier one telco cloud network.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t make it simpler to build telco clouds. In fact, that’s exactly what Dell Technologies and Wind River have set out to do with joint reference architectures and, most recently, our Dell Telecom Multicloud Foundation. And today, we are taking it one step further with the announcement of Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Wind River. These infrastructure blocks are pre-integrated, pre-validated, pre-sized and pre-packaged blocks of hardware and software that are engineered systems designed to support specific telco cloud use cases. The first Telecom Infrastructure Blocks will support vRAN and Open RAN virtualized centralized units (vCU), distributed units (vDU) and management controllers for Telecom Multicloud Foundation with more to follow. And they are all backed by unified support from Dell Technologies.

Not Just Another Chip Off the Block

The idea of a prepackaged block of infrastructure isn’t new; it dates back to converged and hyperconverged infrastructure solutions such as VxRail. Where Telecom Infrastructure Blocks differ is that they’re built, not for generalized IT workloads, but specifically for cloud-native, telecom workloads. Today, no other vendor is offering something like this. Yes, there are other hardware vendors that are developing reference architectures with telecom solutions vendors. And there are hyperscalers that offer some level of infrastructure automation. But, Dell Technologies is the first and only company to bring to market an engineered system co-developed with Wind River, a global leader in software for mission-critical intelligent systems, that is designed and factory integrated to host telecom workloads at scale with automation and single call support for the full hardware and software stack. Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Wind River address complex CSP challenges in deploying and managing a physically distributed, ultra-low-latency cloud-native infrastructure for intelligent edge networks.

Later this year, Dell and Wind River will begin shipping Telecom Infrastructure Blocks direct from Dell’s factory with pre-configured hardware and pre-loaded software including Wind River Studio. Bare Metal Orchestrator is integrated with Wind River Studio to support discovery, inventorying and future upgrades of the infrastructure in a service provider’s network. Wind River Studio delivers single pane-of-glass management, orchestration, automation and analytics that help service providers optimize their cloud infrastructure. Together, Dell Technologies and Wind River create a complete, end-to-end solution for 5G RAN and edge deployments that can be sized to any workload and scaled easily on demand – all backed by a unified support model from Dell Technologies.

A 5G Solution That Works Right Out of the Box

Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks are designed to accelerate telecom transformation by allowing service providers to quickly deploy a best-of-breed cloud-native infrastructure featuring solutions from the industry’s leading vendors. As opposed to network transformations of the past, which were often tied to a single vendor’s roadmap for the future, no single vendor will “own” the telco cloud. The ability to mix and match industry-standard hardware, open-source software, and emerging tools from cloud software developers will be critical to the success of 5G.

Dell Infrastructure Blocks simplify cloud adoption by:

◉ Delivering integrated solutions straight from the factory to reduce costs, deployment time and risk

◉ Leveraging the cloud experience of Dell Technologies and our cloud partners to jointly build pre-configured solutions around specific workload requirements based on extensive testing and industry best practices

◉ Offering unified support from Dell Technologies for the entire cloud hardware/software stack

This joint solution with Wind River is the first of what is planned as a series of Telecom Infrastructure Blocks featuring cloud software from other Dell partners. Each block will be aligned with specific 5G use cases and integrated to work as a single, seamless cloud solution based on Dell’s Telecom Multicloud Foundation. We’re very excited about the future of 5G and look forward to making that future happen sooner for service providers around the world. I guess, in one sense, you could say it’s the realization of a childhood dream.

Source: dell.com

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Empowering Partners to Sustainably, More Securely Retire Technology

As the global population continues to grow, with more people comes greater consumption of products, including electronics. This is contributing to concerns associated with e-waste, which has become one of the fastest-growing waste streams across the globe.

Adopting a circular economy is a critical business model for our collective future. Businesses can impact change by embracing an asset disposition strategy designed to help reduce and reuse e-waste with the goal of preventing it from going to a landfill, and by extending the useful life of products and materials.

Alarmed by the urgent e-waste crises, many companies already take sustainability seriously and are adopting circular strategies for IT. In fact, a recent Forrester study revealed 84 percent of respondents claimed reducing e-waste is a top priority for IT procurement decisions.

Offering convenient and simple solutions to retire legacy IT equipment is critical to this initiative. Dell Technologies Asset Recovery Services is just that – convenient and simple.

Currently available for resell through the channel across 36 locations, Dell-authorized solution providers are empowered to leverage Asset Recovery Services as their seamless end-to-end asset recovery solution. The services apply to any brand of laptop, desktop, server, peripheral or accessory and provide partners with a more secure, responsible way for their customers to retire legacy IT equipment.

Dell Asset Recovery Services benefit businesses of all sizes, require no unit minimums and can be used whether a business’ workforce is centralized or remote. Dell handles every logistical detail – from pickup to final reporting – and the entire process is managed digitally via the self-service TechDirect portal for real-time visibility and control.

Asset Recovery Services provide partners with:

◉ Flexible options for managing customers with multiple permission levels, on-demand reports and secure value transfer

◉ Access to real-time appraisals to estimate value in just a few clicks before ordering, with the ability to choose how and when to distribute value

◉ Increased earning potential through rebates and tier revenue credit

◉ The ability to address their own sustainability goals, and those of their customers, all while contributing to the greater circular economy

Through our collective takeback programs, Dell has recovered more than 2.6 billion pounds of used electronics globally since 2007. And, in the last year, we increased the percentage of products taken back for reuse or recycling by 26% (Dell Technologies’ FY22 ESG Report).

Dell is committed to creating technologies that drive positive outcomes for people and our planet. We still have a lot of work to do and set an ambitious goal to hold ourselves accountable as we work to further this mission: By 2030, for every product a customer buys, Dell will reuse or recycle an equivalent product. In addition, by 2030, 100% of our packaging and more than half of product content will be made from recycled or renewable material.

Our vast partner ecosystem is critical to achieving these goals. By joining forces with partners to help their customers easily return devices after use, we’re working together to help promote a more sustainable, responsible future.

Source: dell.com

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Rising to the Challenge of a Green Data Center

You may have heard the old expression, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” It is often used to describe a situation in which the preoccupation with a minor detail prevents someone from addressing the problem in its entirety. When it comes to creating a green data center, the strategy must be comprehensive, and not with just a single solution, in mind. A photograph of trees can provide a façade of greenery but it lacks the depth and substance that exist within a real forest.

Conquering Overburdened Grids and Rising Energy Costs

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that in 2018, one percent of all electricity was used by data centers. Additionally, the IEA acknowledges published reports warning a, “tsunami of data could consume one-fifth of global electricity by 2025.” To make matters worse, that power comes at an increasing cost. According to the World Bank, the cost of energy commodities is expected to be 46% higher, on average, in 2023.

As companies address reducing their carbon footprint, the data center is often placed front and center for examination. The juxtaposition of data centers, in the context of sustainability, is that they are business critical for data access and operations but are responsible for significant power consumption and energy cost. This places companies in the precarious position of questioning how to drive progress while pivoting to a green data center which is not just positive for climate change but is also increasingly becoming a critical economic decision.

A Robust Strategy, with the Right Partner, is the Best Way to Tackle the Problem

Creating a green data center requires a strategic, all-encompassing approach, inclusive of the right partners, to drive the desired results.

At Dell Technologies, we place sustainability at the heart of everything we do. The race to net-zero involves immediate action to reduce emissions, increase the use of renewable electricity, and lower scope three emissions related to the use of our products.

As we continue to raise the bar on data center infrastructure solutions, we are committed to revolutionizing hardware, software and multicloud solutions that drive smart, efficient operational and environmental outcomes for our customers.

Creating a Green Data Center Is Not a “One Size Fits All” Equation

We partner with our customers on reducing carbon footprint in the data center, factoring in how to optimize things like power, energy efficiency, cooling and thermals, rack space and performance per watt. And that’s just the hardware. We also focus on other important factors like data center design, hot/cold aisle containment, cooling methods and energy sources.

Legacy hardware is a key contributor to high carbon footprints in the data center. Every customer has a unique footprint when it comes to their environment and stage of modernization.

Engineering advancements have helped Dell reduce energy intensity in HCI products up to 83%, since 2013, and we increased our energy efficiency on PowerEdge servers by 29% over the previous generation. Ten years ago, it took six servers to do what is possible in just one server today. In addition, our PowerMax storage is 40% more energy efficient than the previous generation. We drive innovations in all of our modern storage solutions including flash storage, data deduplication and compression which enables customers to consolidate their hardware and save energy, reducing their physical footprint. One such customer, Fresenius Medical Care, said, “PowerMax has allowed us to reduce our data center footprint by 50%, while decreasing power and cooling costs by more than 35%.”

Combine these types of hardware advancements with software solutions like OpenManage Enterprise (OME) Power Manager which provides visibility across the environment and leverages telemetry to make critical decisions and you have not one, but many, components working in your favor. This equates not just to reduced carbon footprint, but also to lower energy costs.

Putting It Together with the Right View

At Dell, we believe strongly that it’s every technology provider’s responsibility to prioritize going green and to deliver technology that will drive human progress. On occasion, we see our peers challenge our position on the sustainability features of one solution or another. While we welcome the increased focus on creating a sustainable future, we also know that looking at a single solution, or even one aspect of a solution, will not drive the results that are critically important to get to a green data center and more profitable bottom line.

We believe our advantage is that we not only work to lower the complete carbon footprint of each product in our portfolio, but that we also provide solutions for the entire ecosystem that contribute to the data center footprint.

Dell’s leadership in sustainability has been consistently demonstrated witsoch the right commitments, actions and business practices to deliver innovative products and solutions which help customers achieve their sustainability goals.

At Dell, we believe in helping our customers achieve their business and environmental goals by designing modern, high-performance solutions that comprehend all aspects of sustainability from recycled materials and packaging to power and energy efficiency. By providing the vision and experience to help them see beyond the “trees” to the “forest” that makes up a truly green data center.

Source: dell.com

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Transforming 3D Graphics Production with Dell and NVIDIA Omniverse

As the leaves begin to change color, the industry events calendar fills up for many IT folks. Next up? NVIDIA GTC. Just a few months ago, Dell was at GTC 2022 Spring, where we announced the Dell Validated Design for NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise.

Since then? We’ve seen a lot of interest in this solution. This is because as technology evolves, it can sometimes seem like creativity leads to complexity. In the case of 3D graphics, teams with a broad range of skills must come together. Each of the team members — from artists, designers and animators to engineers and project managers — typically has a special skillset requiring their own tools, systems and work environment.

Emerging collaboration-enhancing technologies – such as NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise – are transforming 3D design and accelerating content creation. The film industry, for example, used to require years of work from hundreds if not thousands of visual effects (VFX) artists to create a single 3D movie.

But the technical issues do not stop there. As existing technologies mature and new ones enter the scene, the number of specialized 3D design and content creation tools rapidly increases. Many of them lack compatibility or interoperability with other tools. And across the 3D graphics ecosystem, hybrid workforces require a “physical workstation” experience wherever they may be.

It is no small task to provide compute-power access to a geographically distributed team in a way that enables collaboration without compromising security. But to remain competitive and retain top talent, companies must provide the necessary tools to the remote workforce.

Enter modern, accelerated virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). Specially developed VDI environments for 3D design enable authorized users secure, from-anywhere access to a desktop environment containing the digital tools they need to do their jobs. The result is real-time collaboration across dispersed teams, more design iterations for higher-quality work and faster production.

Solutions for Remote, Collaborative and Secure 3D Graphics Creation

The Dell Validated Design for accelerated VDI with NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise and NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstations makes it possible for 3D graphics creation teams to work together from anywhere in real-time using multiple applications within shared virtual 3D worlds. NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise users can access the resources and compute power they need through a virtualized workstation, without the need for a local physical workstation.

By running NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise on Dell PowerEdge NVIDIA‑Certified Systems, companies can enable 3D graphics teams to connect with major design tools, assets and projects to collaborate and iterate seamlessly from early-stage ideation through to finished creation. And the flexible solution supports the varying needs of different industries.

3D Design Collaboration in Different Industries

Accelerated VDI offers enhanced collaboration among innovators in nearly any industry. Similarly, 3D workflows are also now an essential component of every industry. Everything that will be built, will first be designed and simulated in virtual worlds. Here are some of the ways diverse teams across different industries are leveraging a shared virtual space using accelerated VDI to revolutionize 3D design workflows.

◉ Media and Entertainment: Content creators can leverage accelerated VDI to operate in real-time using a variety of industry‑standard applications and bring together internal and external tool pipelines from multiple studios, enabling multiple personnel to collaborate, render final shots in real time and create massive virtual sets.

◉ Architecture, engineering, construction and operations (AECO): Building design models can be handled from any location. The RTX-powered VDI environment can be used, for example, to connect leading design software tools so a geographically dispersed architectural design team can collaborate in real-time on a single platform and quickly iterate on a physically accurate 3D model.

◉ Manufacturing: Geographically distributed design and engineering teams and third-party contractors and suppliers can seamlessly connect and collaborate throughout the product development process, from early-stage ideation concepts to smart factory automation and robotics workflows.

Customer Example: ebb3

ebb3 are specialists in accelerated computing. Their solutions are at the forefront of innovation, redefining the concept of the digital workspace, helping unleash the productivity and performance of any workload.

Using the Dell Validated Design for NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise, the company designs, builds and manages accelerated computing platforms that enhance the way businesses work with NVIDIA vGPU and Omniverse Enterprise. ebb3’s accelerated computing platform is built to prepare businesses for workloads of today and the future — with artificial intelligence, graphics rendering, virtual desktops and virtual reality being just some of the workloads their platform accommodates.

“The Dell Validated Design for accelerated VDI with NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise and RTX Virtual Workstations brings users all the performance of physical workstations, enabling secure remote access to complex graphic and data-intensive workloads,” according to Chris Brassington, CEO for ebb3.

Enabling Remote 3D Design to Build the Metaverse

At Dell Technologies, we are excited about NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise and its ability to enable collaboration for designers, engineers and other innovators leveraging Dell infrastructure. Dell Validated Design solutions for accelerated VDI, with NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise and NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstations, have the potential to transform every stage of 3D production, a crucial step toward the metaverse.

Source: dell.com

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Meeting Modern Application Needs with Data Processing Units

IDC finds that most enterprises today understand that IT infrastructure must be modernized and digitized to meet the demands and imperatives of digital transformation. After all, structure – and certainly infrastructure – must follow and enable strategy.

That said, aspiring to modernize infrastructure is one thing, and actually doing it successfully is another proposition entirely. IDC sees this challenge clearly in the context of how enterprises address the complementary but sometimes competing resource requirements of business workloads and network and security functions.

While insertion and chaining of network and security functions are challenges in their own right, an added complication is that the processing of network and security functions and services claims valuable CPU cycles and resources that should be dedicated to business workloads. While important to the performance and protection of business workloads, network and security functions are secondary supporting elements that should serve the purposes of business workloads rather than detract from their effectiveness. What’s more, network and security services have their particular resource requirements that must scale elastically in distributed infrastructure environments to support the ebbs and flows of digital business.

The solution to this challenge obviously cannot involve eschewing or otherwise eliminating network and security functions, which are necessary but can individually and collectively consume a growing percentage of CPU resources. Virtualized and containerized network and security services are essential to digital infrastructure and must be accorded the resources they require to provide resilient and robust connectivity and strong security to the business. So, what is the right architectural answer to meet the challenge of prioritizing business workloads for better performance and optimization, while also ensuring that those workloads receive adequate support from integral network and security services?

An integrated, streamlined and elastically scalable offload element is required to relieve overburdened CPUs, freeing processor and memory resources to serve application workloads. In adding an offload complement to this modern IT architecture, we must ensure that it offers certain capabilities and characteristics including:

◉ Hardware-based mitigation capabilities to minimize the impact of any low-level security vulnerabilities in the central execution environment.

◉ Provisioning ability for a consistent operating model across distributed processing, addressing service quality issues that can be difficult to troubleshoot and remediate quickly.

◉ Built-in hardware-based isolation, for separation of network and security functions, as well as for management and control functions, protecting against attacks that might compromise the operating system or workload execution environment.

A technology that checks all these boxes is the data processing unit (DPU), also called a SmartNIC, which has emerged to meet the secure scale-out challenges mandated by distributed IT architectures. In essence, a DPU is a programmable system on a chip (SoC) device, with hardware acceleration and a CPU complex capable of processing data.

In that DPUs are designed to operate independently of the CPU, the architectural result is that CPUs are aware of the presence of DPUs but do not control them. Consequently, the DPU controls access to physical resources such as network interfaces, through which sensitive data can be accessed. Any payload executed on the CPU, including on the kernel itself, that must gain access to those resources must go through function-offload interfaces, presented in virtualized form to the operating system environment running on the CPU. This architectural dualism allows the DPU to assume direct execution of network and security functions.

The challenge of accommodating the needs of business workloads and attendant network and security function is thus solved. As a result, several compelling benefits accrue, including the following:

◉ Improved and uniform resource utilization for business workloads. Offloading network and security services to the DPU ensures that CPU processing resources are fully available to enhance the performance of business workloads. In offloading the compute-intensive network and security, as well as management and control plane functionality, to the DPU and off the host CPU, business workloads receive optimal processing resources.

◉ Protected architectural environment. Security is enhanced through the ability to execute network and security services on the DPU, which ensures that payload code is isolated from other components executing on the host processor.

◉ Ability to support offload of additional functions and payloads. A long-term benefit of using DPUs is that they provide a foundational management fabric that spans physical, virtual and containerized compute architectures, allowing for a CPU-agnostic approach to platform offload. DPUs can be particularly beneficial in shared cloud infrastructure environments where multitenancy and workload isolation are required to host a heterogenous mix of traditional and cloud-native workloads.

◉ Automated extension of network policy. The DPU is a natural extension for SDN architectures and network-virtualization overlays, which can define policy for the creation and extension of specific network and security services that require dynamic offload for elastic scale. This is particularly useful during spikes in network demand and traffic and in providing mitigation or protection against network-security incidents.

◉ Improved network performance and observability. Offloading of network and security services to the DPU enables the use of hardware acceleration to enhance the performance of virtual networking and security functions such as overlay networking, load balancing and firewalling. Furthermore, network visibility and analytics functions implemented on the DPU provide comprehensive visibility for all traffic flows directly on the SmartNIC.

Source: dell.com

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Data Placement and Management Strategies with Microsoft Hybrid Cloud

Developing a strategy to build, deploy and run workloads in a cloud operating model across your Microsoft data estate is not as easy as simply moving everything off-premises. Considerations include:

◉ Preparing for varying types and volumes of data you are managing and meeting the performance and availability SLAs for applications working with the data.

◉ Ensuring mission-critical data hosted off-premises is adhering to the security policies and government regulations governing this data.

◉ Avoiding the traps associated with costs, including costs associated with moving and accessing the data, and the general fees of hosting on third party platforms. Some businesses have had to repatriate workloads from the cloud because the cost of storing their data on a public cloud was prohibitively expensive.

It is also not as easy as just leaving everything on-premises. You still have the same concerns as when considering moving the data to an off-premises cloud. However, you also must consider:

◉ Is it an efficient use of people, resources and budget to manage all the data on-premises?

◉ What is more cost effective when it comes to application testing and development?

◉ What about storage of cold, archived and read-only data you must maintain for regulatory requirements?

◉ Can you still easily access and query the cold/archived data residing in S3 object storage using T-SQL?

◉ Do you have the infrastructure and technology in place to support the development of cloud-native applications or unprecedented increases in demand to meet performance SLAs?

Then there is the human aspect to consider—the need for trust and control. There is comfort in working within an environment you already know, knowing where your data is at all times and having complete ownership/management.

As you can see, there are many aspects to consider when developing a cloud strategy for your Microsoft data estate, especially when it comes to data placement and management. A hybrid or multicloud approach brings together the best of both worlds, making it possible for IT organizations to select the optimal location for their data, while reducing risk and complexity.

Dell Technologies and Microsoft have responded with secure, innovative and scalable technology solutions designed to meet you wherever you are in your cloud strategy, so you can unlock the value from your data, wherever it resides. When a strategy is put in place using the right software and hardware solutions, the possibilities can be endless. By deploying a flexible and agile architectural approach with Dell, IT organizations can bring together private, public and specialty cloud services into a single comprehensive, hybrid/multicloud operating model. They can also adjust their strategy more easily to changes in businesses priorities, resources and regulations.

Data Placement and Management is Integral to any Cloud Strategy

Data placement practices that respect the rules of data gravity can provide the performance, availability and security business critical workloads require. For example, Dell Technologies offers Infrastructure as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions with Dell APEX. APEX Cloud Services can be deployed in a variety of ways including colocation sovereign IT adjacency via Equinix, which lets you bring data closer to the applications and analytics hosted by hyperscalers, such as Microsoft Azure, while providing the security and control of an on-premises cloud.

A cloud adjacent solution using APEX and Equinix provides enterprises with the flexibility to deploy a private IT infrastructure in locations where users, clouds, networks and digital ecosystems physically meet with secure, highly performant, network connectivity. This approach can help reduce latency dramatically so organizations can get the best performance for any hybrid/multicloud architecture, all while eliminating unnecessary networking cost and bandwidth constraints.

When used with Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute, businesses can create private connections between Azure data centers and their on-premises or colocation environment. ExpressRoute connections offer more reliability, faster speeds and lower latencies than typical internet connections because they do not go over the public internet. Businesses that wish to take advantage of ExpressRoute, but do not have the budget or resources to invest in deploying the underlying network fabric, can benefit greatly from this colocation model powered with Dell Technologies infrastructure as-a-service solutions.

Of course, this is just one example. Businesses have many options when it comes to building a cloud operating model. The key to realizing their goals often means evolving their approach to the placement and management of structured and unstructured data across their entire data estate. This includes:

 

◉ Simplifying data management by embracing a new paradigm for managing data virtually, from the edge to the core to the cloud, with solutions designed to simplify management and accelerate deployment.

◉ Securing data with security-enabled hardware and software solutions from Dell Technologies and Microsoft designed to secure data across the Microsoft data estate.

◉ Maximizing the value of data by enabling users to access data quickly and easily across all platforms and environments, wherever it lives, to make better informed decisions—faster.

There are many aspects to consider when developing a cloud strategy, especially when it comes to data placement and management. IDC describes it this way, “Hybrid cloud platforms enable enterprises to select the right infrastructure for the right workload, thereby enabling them to make efficient workload placement decisions that help better meet requirements while controlling costs.”

Read our white paper Winning in the New Era of Data Management to learn more about how Dell Technologies solutions for Microsoft data platform can help businesses develop a placement and management strategy that aligns with their hybrid/multicloud objectives.

Source: dell.com

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Computing on the Edge – NEBS Overview

This blog series is a review of the specifications and design methodology required to create compute platforms that can be deployed into Edge Telecom Environments.

NEBS™, or the Network Equipment-Build System, was initially developed by Bell Labs in the 1970s, for North American markets, with the intent of creating a common set of performance and safety specifications for their equipment vendors. Today, these specs have been widely adopted throughout the telecom industry and drive the designs of telecom-focused equipment.

Not legal requirements, these are North American industry adopted specifications that are, in many cases, required by telecom customers as a minimum threshold for deployment into their critical communications networks. NEBS specifications are often the foundation of equipment Request for Proposals (RFPs) that telecoms issue at the start of their procurement cycles. Poor performance in these NEBS sections, regardless of the quoted price, will often disqualify an equipment vendor from further participation in a particular opportunity.

Telcordia (previously Bellcore) was the historic creator and maintainer of the NEBS Specifications. Ericsson purchased Telcordia in 2012 and now manages the NEBS documentation tree. Continued development of the specifications is jointly conducted by Ericsson’s Telcordia-NIS (Network Infrastructure Solutions) division, TSPs (Telecommunications Service Providers), Equipment Manufacturers and Testing Organizations.

For NEBS Certification, there are three primary GRs (Generic Requirements) specifications, which are:

1. GR-63-Core, Physical Protection. At a high-level covers temperature/humidity operational/storage ranges, fire resistance and spread and vibration/earthquake survivability.

2. GR-1089-Core, Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) and Electrical Safety. Primarily covers safety and immunity concerns involving electrostatic discharge (ESD), EMC and requirements for power and grounding.

3. GR-3108-Core is of interest, as this contains requirements for the deployment of electronic equipment in outdoor environments.

Figure 1 – Dell MDC415 OSP

The GR-3108-Core specification should not be confused with GR-487-Core, “Generic Requirements for Electronic Equipment Cabinets”. GR-3108-Core deals with the electronic equipment that is deployed in outdoor environments, also called Outside Plants (OSPs) and GR-487-Core addresses the requirements of the actual outdoor enclosure. For this series, only GR-3108-Core will be covered.

Tying all these together is a Special Report, SR-3580, which defines the scope of the NEBS Levels. These NEBS Levels range from one to three, increasing levels of tolerance and testing requirements for each level, with Level 3 being the most demanding. For our purpose in Telecom, NEBS Level 3 is the typical requirement. Perhaps over-blunt, but NEBS Level 1 and 2 gives assurance that the vendors’ electronic equipment will not burn down a facility or be a human hazard. NEBS Level 3 is the “minimum” level of environmental tolerance that is acceptable to deploy equipment into a telecom provider’s network.

Additionally, some Cellular Service Providers (CSPs) have their own “hybrid” NEBS requirements which can either exclude certain tests or expand the range of NEBS testing beyond their defined values. So, it’s important to understand your target customer’s requirements when creating NEBS-compliant products, and what your customer will demand to gain acceptance for installation into their network.

For instance, NEBS is used as an equipment foundation for AT&T, such as found at AT&T’s NEBS Site, and adds to it additional specifications to deploy into AT&T’s network. Other large telecom providers may have similar expanded specifications.

NEBS Certifications are performed by third party testing labs and are achieved at considerable planning, time and cost. These labs subject the equipment under test to the range of environments specified in GR-63-Core and GR-1089-Core, for the NEBS Level of testing that is being requested. At the end of this process, a sizeable compliance test report is generated with the detailed test result and, if passed, a Certificate of Conformance that can be provided as proof to a customer that NEBS Testing was performed, completed, and passed.

Other standards bodies, such as the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) and American National Standards Institute (ANSI), have documented standards similar to NEBS. Compliance with ETSI is a requirement for most of the EU countries, but the test specifications for ETSI are generally lower than NEBS, so achieving NEBS certification will also cover ETSI requirements.

In the future, we’ll further explore each of the specification documents, highlighting the major testing criteria.

Source: dell.com

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Manufacturing Insights for Next-Level Productivity and Sustainability

It’s Friday. Stephanie, the plant manager at a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, is excited about her weekend plans with her family. Two hours before her shift is to end, she is informed that a bioreactor’s agitator slowed down without the operator’s knowledge. The batch must be scrapped and remade. As a result, the production schedule is now delayed, causing the plant to miss the promised customer ship date. If the operator had known that the agitator had slowed down, this could all have been avoided. Stephanie’s weekend plans just got interrupted.

While this scenario is hypothetical, it is based on real-world experiences. Traditional manufacturing metrics, such as overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), help measure operational productivity. However, OEE cannot generate actionable, root cause analyses that help correct issues before they occur. Dell Technologies is helping manufacturers adopt edge computing to modernize and digitize operations and exploit untapped data and gain proactive new capabilities to do just that – and more.

Opportunities Abound

By measuring the percentage of manufacturing time that is productive, OEE helps quantify efficiency. In general terms, an OEE of 85 percent is considered high and a benchmark of world-class manufacturing. Moving beyond OEE helps to continuously improve and optimize operations and can deliver next-level outcomes.

Specifically, there are several root-cause areas where new capabilities can help manufacturers move beyond OEE, such as:

◉ Manual processes. Consider manual processes such as “walk the floor” assessments that create poor visibility into shift performance, progress status and analyses that consume too much time and effort, taking resources away from other priorities.

◉ Bottlenecks, siloed data and inconsistencies. Bottlenecks due to siloed data and inconsistencies in performance measurements prevent proper benchmarking and integrating data into a holistic operational view. This hampers site-wide prioritization, optimization and accountability.

◉ Sustainability. As a pressing and universal need, it is difficult to advance and accelerate sustainability efforts due to productivity constraints.

That’s why leveraging untapped data and optimizing edge capabilities can be – and is – a real game-changer for manufacturing.

What to Do

Simply put, the solution lies in implementing a digital performance management system to enable optimization beyond OEE.

Dell Technologies has crafted manufacturing edge solutions that allow for fast, simple implementation to better support the rapid achievement of business results. Dell Validated Design for Manufacturing Edge with PTC is a scalable, interoperable Digital Performance Management solution that simplifies edge insights for operational excellence.

Manufacturing Outcomes

The real “a-ha” is what a Digital Performance Management solution can do for manufacturers. Outcomes can be significant and include:

◉ Gain insights that drive continuous improvement initiatives

◉ Focus efforts and time on the highest-impact opportunities

◉ Accelerate identification and prioritization of top losses

◉ Confirm value based on production data

◉ Facilitate team huddle and continuous improvement initiatives tracking

◉ Measure factory performance consistently across the network

◉ Drive top floor to shop floor visibility and accountability

The solution deploys a closed loop capability that keeps process improvements on-going. This helps manufacturers gain efficiencies and reduce the hours required for production. As a result, less energy is required for production, helping to advance sustainability efforts.

Technology is transforming manufacturing. The traditional KPI landscape – beyond OEE – is expanding to provide more actionable insights, generated continuously. In turn, these insights are creating next-level improvements in manufacturing. So, going forward, plant managers like Stephanie can further elevate world-class production while also enjoying family weekend time.

Source: dell.com

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Boost Your Workload Performance with NVMe/TCP

According to ESG research, 33% of IT organizations already use NVMe-based flash storage, and another 41% are poised to deploy NVMe technology in the next 12 months. These survey results reflect the need for organizations to keep up with fast-growing application environments as they scale without sacrificing performance. According to ESG Data Infrastructure Trends, organizations expect their on-premises data environment capacity to grow on average 35% annually and to double in less than three years.

Benefits of NVMe/TCP Technology

NVMe/TCP technology comes with a slew of benefits. According to our customers, the most critical of these benefits are:

Cost savings: With NVMe/TCP technology, you can save money by leveraging an Ethernet network for a lower cost per port. Not only this, NVMe/TCP doesn’t require special RDMA Ethernet controllers (RNICs). Taking everything into consideration, an NVMe/TCP implementation is a fraction of the cost of a comparative Fibre Channel implementation.

High performance: Thanks to recent technology enhancements, NVMe/TCP provides nearly equivalent performance as Fibre channel. Furthermore, Dell Technologies PowerStore now supports up to 100GbE speeds. Compared to iSCSI, NVMe/TCP has superior performance and less complexity thanks to SmartFabric Storage Software.

What Were the Challenges of Adopting NVMe/TCP Technology?

Ecosystem: Unlike Fibre channel, NVMe/TCP’s ecosystem of vendors and comprehensive test validation was lacking. Customers needed to take on the tedious tasks and risks required to validate the hardware and software to ensure they were interoperable, limiting NVMe/TCP’s adoption.

Deployment: Even knowing all of the benefits that NVMe/TCP can provide, some customers were still hesitant to adopt it because of the complicated and manual deployment process that relied on a Direct Discovery approach, especially when considering large-scale deployments and longer distances.

Dell Technologies One-Two Punch to Simplify Adoption

To simplify and accelerate our customer’s ability to benefit from NVMe/TCP, Dell Technologies is leading the industry by providing comprehensive NVMe/TCP component validation and pursuing a standards-based approach to discovery automation. We are also providing an open-source Linux-based discovery client to simplify host deployment and connectivity maintenance.

Ecosystem validation: Dell Technologies is committed to expanding the ecosystem of validated NVMe/TCP components. Our goal is to enable organizations to adopt NVMe/TCP technology confidently. We validate the most popular hardware and software across storage, servers, Ethernet switching products and Operating systems. As with Fibre Channel, our validation work goes beyond just Dell Technologies’ product offerings.

Deployment automation: SmartFabric Storage Software (SFSS) is designed to simplify your NVMe/TCP adoption by automating manual tasks such as storage service discovery, endpoint registration, connectivity and zoning. SFSS also orchestrates NVMe/TCP fabric setup, provides discovery, naming and zone services to the SAN.

Leading Linux-based Discovery Client Innovations

In addition, Dell is the maintainer and primary contributor to the Linux-based open-source nvme discovery client “nvme-stas”. Nvme-stas handles all aspects of discovery automation as well as connectivity maintenance and can even automate connectivity between NVMe Hosts and subsystem ports over an L3 network.

What’s New for the August 2022 Release?

With the latest release in August 2022, we are expanding our support to more hardware and operating systems across storage, servers and networks to give you more choice and flexibility. 

Ecosystem validation: PowerMax and VxRail solutions are now included in the validated NVMe/TCP ecosystem, along with adding support for 100GbE to PowerStore. For PowerEdge, we’ve also validated SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4, in addition to VMware ESXi 7.0U3 or later.

Automation: SFSS automation now supports PowerMax, PowerStore and VxRail solutions. For PowerEdge, SFSS also supports SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4, in addition to VMware ESXi 7.0U3 or later.

Dell Technologies is committed to reducing the risk of adopting NVMe/TCP and making NVMe/TCP as easy as possible to deploy, allowing organizations to boost workload performance with their existing ethernet infrastructure investments. Discover how you can get started today by visiting Dell’s SmartFabric Storage Software solutions page.

Source: dell.com

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Enabling Indian Small Businesses with the Right Technology Infrastructure

The past few years have demonstrated our tremendous potential for hope and resilience. With the use of technology, we learned, adapted, and most significantly, opened new growth opportunities. I had the good fortune to interact with our customers and partners regularly and witness firsthand the incredible things they are accomplishing with technology. This has been a watershed moment for India’s small business sector, as entrepreneurs took advantage of digital technologies to rethink their business models and better serve their clients. They rose to the occasion, demonstrating incredible resilience and agility in the face of adversity.

However, many businesses found it difficult to pivot and adopt a digital-first approach as they faced a host of challenges ranging from IT infrastructure, capital, security, among others. I firmly believe that small businesses have a positive sentiment towards revival, but all they need is a technology advisor who can provide tailor-made solutions that match their requirements. If India is to fully grasp the potential of technology, it will be critical to assist these firms in their digital transformation journey. As per NASSCOM, there will be a 20x demand for digital skills by 2024, which can create 1.3 million jobs and a trillion-dollar opportunity for Indians and Indian SMBs.

At Dell, entrepreneurship is part of our DNA, and we aim to help people and organizations achieve more with the help of technology. We are helping small businesses expand their networks, find valuable resources and ultimately showcase how technology can enable innovation and growth. We are committed to supporting their digital transformation journey by offering customized solutions, as they form a priority segment for the company. Our Small Business Advisor Program is for companies with 1-99 employees can receive free assistance on planning for and optimizing their technology investments. These are highly trained specialists with over 160 hours of training and are dedicated and available when needed via email, chat and phone. Dell also has a unique Rewards Program, exclusively for small businesses, which involves discount coupons for their purchases. We are also working closely with these businesses to evaluate if certain investments can help reduce costs, solve business issues and drive growth.

As work landscapes continue to evolve, there are five key tenets that small businesses must follow to maintain a perfect mix of efficiency, customization and security, thereby enhancing the overall employee experience.

◉ Find the right technology partner – It is important to find the right technology partner who can understand the requirements and provide customized solutions. This also helps in reducing costs and ultimately driving business growth

◉ Install the latest technology updates – Not only does technology offer a better experience, it helps employees’ efficiency and effectiveness. According to a study conducted by Dell Technologies titled, Brain On Tech, employees can achieve an astounding 37 percent more in a workday when using technology that is not only newer but supported with the correct software and services

◉ Reskilling and upskilling employees to increase productivity – As technology continues to play an increasingly important role across industries, one of the most important things that these businesses must consider is assessing skill gaps and identifying the digital skills that employees need to develop. Investing in reskilling and upskilling programs will significantly contribute to increased productivity and talent retention

◉ Pre-emptive solutions to safeguard from technical difficulties – Now is the time for businesses to plan against IT issues and arm themselves with IT support. Dell’s ProSupport Plus with SupportAssist warns businesses about hardware issues so they can fix them before they cause downtime. Leveraging the use of emerging technologies like AI and ML helps in detecting any unusual activity that could indicate and prevent a breach

◉ Secure and productive solutions for a hybrid workforce – Small businesses must have a holistic, new approach to security and must consider endpoint security as an integral part of their business. They must also protect the BIOS which is critical to their security posture

Resilience, agility and adaptability are what continue to define the small business landscape in India and we’re extremely thankful to our customers who are forging their paths with ingenious pivots and perseverance. As they look to unlock the next phase of growth, we will sharpen our focus on providing them with the essential technology infrastructure required to thrive in this digital-first era.

Source: dell.com

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Multicloud on Your Terms with VxRail

With VMware Explore 2022 underway, we are pleased to provide more depth on how VxRail helps customers realize their multicloud reality. VxRail continues to be the only jointly engineered HCI system built for VMware, with VMware to enhance the VMware experience. According to IDC, Dell HCI has led the HCI systems market for 20 consecutive quarters, in great part due to the success of VxRail. In six short years, we have over 19,000 customers and have deployed almost 250,000 nodes.

The VxRail advantage, our VxRail HCI System Software automated lifecycle management, provides a common operational model from core to edge to cloud. Our VxRail team conducts over 800,000 hours of automated and human testing for each major release of VxRail. Why make that investment? To simplify technology adoption for our customers. At a recent customer forum, we surveyed attendees asking “Does VxRail HCI System Software simplify technology adoption?” Every customer responded “yes”.

We continue helping customers simplify technology adoption with new innovations that enable customers to accelerate breakthroughs, thrive at the edge and realize their multicloud reality.

Redefining the Infrastructure of the Future

In accordance with our 30-day synchronous release commitment, VxRail will support VMware vSphere 8, VMware vSAN 8 and VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5. One of the most anticipated new features is vSphere 8 on Data Processing Units (DPUs), previously known as Project Monterey.

VMware vSphere 8 on DPUs improves performance and security posture by offloading network infrastructure services to the DPU. Our initial offering of DPUs is on VxRail and takes advantage of a new element of ESXi (vSphere Distributed Services Engine), moving network and security services to the DPU.

◉ The industry’s first and only jointly engineered hyperconverged system running vSphere Distributed Service Engine (DSE) on DPUs

◉ A seamless customer lifecycle management experience with VxRail HCI System Software, automating every phase of the upgrade path including the VMware ecosystem and the new DPUs

The Next Evolution of vSAN and vSphere on VxRail

Another highly anticipated feature is vSAN 8.0 Express Storage Architecture, the industry’s first single-tier HCI storage solution that delivers optimized performance, greater efficiency and resilience. We introduced all NVMe VxRail models optimized for vSAN Express Storage Architecture, increasing performance by up to 4x, enabling users to run more high-performance applications in VxRail environments while maintaining the consistent, automated operational model.

◉ Automated lifecycle management of new vSAN Express Storage Architecture

◉ Easily add new vSAN ESA NVME cluster configurations to existing VxRail environments

◉ Simplify with a common operational model for traditional vSAN and vSAN Express Storage Architecture

Ultimate Compute and Storage Flexibility

When it comes to businesses and IT, one size does not fit all. For applications that need ultimate storage and compute flexibility, the new VxRail Dynamic AppsON enables connectivity between VxRail dynamic nodes and PowerStore storage appliances so users can scale compute and storage independently. The key new element to this announcement is the planned addition of PowerStore OS to the end-to-end, automated lifecycle management enabled by the VxRail HCI System Software.

◉ Scale compute and storage separately as business demands

◉ Consolidate to a single interface with native integration of VxRail HCI and PowerStore storage management in vCenter

◉ Automate lifecycle management of PowerStore OS via the VxRail HCI System Software

Thrive at the Edge with VxRail

Taking advantage of opportunities near to where data is created generates immediate, essential value. We are pleased to announce new VxRail edge nodes in the smallest, most flexible, and self-contained form factor ever. VxRail modular nodes will be the industry’s first and only vSAN HCI system utilizing a built in and purpose-built hardware witness for 2-node clusters enabling deployment in high latency, low bandwidth locations. Additional innovations include:

◉ Ruggedized, modular, half width blades can be racked, stacked, or mounted

◉ Scale with your business requirements from 2-64 nodes

◉ Extend VMware benefits to the edge with a common operational model

Bringing These Innovations to Market

As with all our VxRail innovations, we hope one common theme stands out – VxRail is designed to simplify the adoption of new technology. Please stop by our booth (902) at VMware Explore this week to learn more. We have some exciting virtual reality experiences featuring some of our key VxRail customers including Top Golf, New Belgium Brewing and Mercy Ships. Experts will also be on hand to answer your questions. If you are not at the show, we invite you to drop by our VxRail Expect Exceptional page to learn more about how VxRail delivers a future where anything is possible.

Source: dell.com

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Computing on the Edge: Design for NEBS

Communications Service Providers (CSPs) began their virtualization journey approximately 10 years ago with the initial move of core networks to private clouds. This move to an x86-based, data center typical server environment was a departure from a focused purpose, customized hardware platforms. Instead, rack designs were dimensioned and standardized for multiple Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) to co-exist in the same cloud, on common hardware, where multiple purpose-built hardware solutions were previously required.

With this transition complete in the core network, attention has shifted to the Radio Access Network (RAN), with the same promise of migration from multi-vendor, purpose build hardware solutions to a common base hardware platform, with a cloud abstracting the details of the underlying hardware. This will maintain a competitive, multi-vendor RAN software ecosystem and allow CSPs to decouple hardware from software to create even more vendor competition and opportunities to select best-in-class solutions.

The O-RAN Alliance has taken up the quest to transform the RAN into an open, intelligent, virtualized and multi-vendor interoperable network. While the O-RAN Alliance does call out Commercial-Off-The-Self (COTS) servers/storage/networking for regional cloud deployments, a very different environment can exist at the edge.

Figure 1 – Site Support Cabinet

Typical Telecom Edge Data Center (DC) deployments scale up from the site support cabinets and concrete huts, that you’ll typically see at the base of most every cell site in more suburban and rural deployments, to micro and container DCs. These enclosures scale from a few rack units (RU) to several or even hundreds of racks. These sites typically have the same infrastructure components that you find in a large data center. All the components of a traditional data center were scaled down to a smaller, more focused deployment. However, the availability (tiering as defined by the Uptime Institute) of the site is not on par with the larger data centers due to the cost of providing full redundancy for so many distributed sites. These sites are typically designed in a Tier 1 or Tier 2 level, with expected uptimes in the 99.6-99.7% range, or about 1.5 days of outage per year.

Of course, with the increasing densities and redundancies of more data center-like environments comes an increase in infrastructure costs. This is the balance that telecom operators struggle with when planning to deploy an edge compute infrastructure.

Under certain failure conditions, such as HVAC failure or weather variations, telecom equipment can be exposed to temperature extremes for an extended period of time, either until a repair is affected or temperatures moderate. As a critical resource in times of emergency, telecom networks must be designed to handle extremes in environment, and the equipment being deployed to create edge clouds are no different. This necessitates that compute resources deployed into edge cloud conform to the design specifications of similar, existing, purpose-built hardware previously deployed.

Figure 2 – Dell’s XR11 NEBS Compliant Edge Server

This set of design specifications for electronic equipment being deployed into telecom environments is collectively called the Network Equipment Building Systems (NEBS) specifications. The details of NEBS specifications are not widely understood. Still, the results of NEBS compliant hardware designs are well understood in the Telecom Industry for their ruggedness and ability to operate safely in harsher environments that would typically break or dramatically shorten the operational life of an Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) device.

This is an introduction to our series exploring details of the NEBS specification and design decisions that create platforms that can not only exist in a NEBS specified environment, but often exceed those requirements to provide some buffered tolerance against the extremes of edge deployments. We’ll endeavor to cover the following topics and more:

◉ NEBS Genesis and Overview

◉ Physical Protection Testing

◉ Electromagnetic/Electrical Safety Testing

◉ NEBS Criteria Levels

◉ Other Design Considerations for the Edge (multiple parts)

◉ Dell’s Solutions for Edge Compute (multiple parts)

The goal is to provide a greater understanding of the design and testing efforts required for an equipment vendor to state that a product is NEBS Compliant. In addition, once the topic of NEBS and Edge Cloud deployments is better understood, the reader will be introduced to several of Dell Technologies’ Edge Optimized server offerings and how these servers are designed to meet and often exceed the requirements of NEBS.

Source: dell.com

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Building an SRE Community One Team at a Time

Deploying Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) throughout an organization has its challenges, both cultural and technical. We previously discussed how bringing an SRE practice inside Dell Digital, Dell’s IT organization, has improved the reliability and scalability of our eCommerce platforms. Today, we’re sharing more on how we’ve created a centralized SRE Enablement program and set out on a broader mission to help organizations across IT deploy an SRE approach to improve their site operations.

Eighteen months into our enablement effort, we are currently working to help five IT organizations create SRE teams and implement SRE solutions and automation capabilities. And we have several more organizations wanting to start or mature SRE capabilities.

Scaling SRE From the Center Out

In the wake of our successful eCommerce pilot, our SRE Enablement team created a Center of Excellence (COE) to provide the basis for an IT-wide outreach effort via a series of roadshows. 

The COE organization details SRE tools and best practices that will help teams improve site reliability by setting up a real-time, end-to-end monitoring ecosystem on desktop and mobile devices, delivering intelligent proactive notifications, automating solutions for recurring issues, reducing operational efforts and reducing mean time to find and mean time to repair performance incidents. 

If your organization plans to pursue SRE enablement, I recommend creating a centralized place where you build products and formalize a practice that can be scaled with consistency. This will bring down the cost, as well as time and effort to bring reliability to reality. 

As we added IT organizations to our SRE enablement effort, we have expanded our core team of SRE engineers in the COE and now have 35 team members overseeing our SRE products and processes. 

Sizing Up SRE Maturity 

In each case, the first step to helping a participating organization adopt an SRE strategy is to assess their SRE maturity. We first ask teams to assess themselves in terms of SRE work they may be doing. We then evaluate them based on a maturity assessment model that measures SRE fundamentals, including current operation monitoring capabilities, their track record in addressing issues, service level objectives and current roles and responsibilities.

The maturity assessment generates a score that helps teams set priorities and define the cultural shift they need to move away from the traditional ticketing approach to site reliability and to an engineering mindset.

Once we have a maturity score, we then help participating organizations create their own SRE team and develop needed skills. In some cases, we work with the organization’s own engineers, possibly from various backgrounds including software, architecture and networking. One organization we worked with, for example, had five engineers from differing backgrounds to start their SRE team. Another team only had one and we helped the leader create a brand-new team.

We offer training to team members as well as assist with hiring SRE engineers. Team size varies with the organization’s needs. In most cases for us, it is eight to 12 team members per major ecosystem.

Helping Organizations Build Capabilities

With an organization’s SRE team and priorities in place, we work with each team to build the first component of SRE capabilities—observability. This is where the organization creates an end-to-end, bird’s eye view of their IT ecosystems.

It starts with defining and gathering needed data. Insights from subject matter experts are crucial here to determine how the data should look, as well as defining significant performance changes to monitor operations and what key performance indicators (KPIs) should be.

In Networking, for example, SMEs were invaluable to defining performance issues across the complex network footprint of 26 data centers. While that team is still in the process of creating observability for all its data centers, the initial work provides a template to ease that process.

We put the compiled data into a third-party data platform tool to create a dashboard that allows each organization to continuously monitor capabilities and flag performance concerns via a single pane of glass.

Achieving observability is a major first step in our organizations’ SRE team progress. Benefits are clear. In Networking, for instance, the support team previously had to search through an array of spines, routers and firewalls that make up a data center’s ecosystem for hours to find the source of an issue; with SRE, the team can now pinpoint the problem in a matter of minutes via a single pane of glass.

After working with SRE enablement this past year, the Service and Connectivity teams have honed their observability processes and are about to begin the next SRE step, the orchestration phase. That’s where systems are put in place to notify the right sets of people, including product and operation teams, when an incident occurs.

From there, SRE teams will add automation and self-healing capabilities where possible—the final phase of SRE fundamentals.

With every step of the SRE enablement process, our organizations gain efficiency and are better equipped to keep their applications up and running for their customers. As customer needs keep changing, the SRE teams they put in place will continue to evolve their processes and provide support.

The Future of SRE 

Our efforts to scale SRE across Dell IT are ongoing and SRE Enablement continues to evolve our approach in expanding our practice. For example, we are in the process of launching an SRE Community of Practice where current and prospective SRE users can delve into SRE processes and tools and drive conversations and collaboration. The site will feature insights from participating teams about their experiences, the benefits of creating an SRE team and where they are in their SRE journeys.

Source: dell.com

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