Category Archives: Uncategorized

Dell Introduces New Solutions and Services to Support and Protect Scalable, Cost-Efficient Datacenters

DELL WORLD, AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 20, 2015 – Dell today announced new solutions and services designed to help large-scale datacenter customers achieve mission-critical business goals faster and more consistently with less cost and downtime. Dell helps customers with infrastructures that can scale easily and adapt quickly now and into the future with new servers designed specifically for the fastest growing datacenter market, new highest-end enterprise storage arrays and hyperconvergedappliances, next-generation data protection software, and new IT deployment and automation services.

“With today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape, Dell focuses on designing datacenter solutions that offer market-leading performance and have the agility and flexibility to keep pace with new workloads and demands, changing architecturesand business growth,” said Marius Haas, chief commercial officer and president of Dell Commercial Sales and Enterprise Solutions. “The new solutions and services announced today demonstrate the ability to scale simply and cost-effectively, allowing large-scale customers to reap the benefits of intelligently designed solutions that reduce total cost of IT ownership and shift the prioritization of resources from day-to-day IT management to higher-value services that help achieve business results and support growth.”

“The proliferation of digital technologies is quickly driving IT organizations to transform their infrastructure and partner more closely with business counterparts to deliver greater insights and value necessary to help improve customer experiences,” said Matt Eastwood, SVP, IDC Enterprise Infrastructure and Data Center. “Dell has a good pulse on the needs of its customers and is investing in and developing the right set of 3rd Platform-based technologies and solutions. This will be critical to help meet the needs for increased utilization rates and productivity requirements of the digital economy.”

Dell Introduces First Dell DSS-branded Servers

Formally announced in August 2015, Dell Datacenter Scalable Solutions (DSS) is a new line of business within Dell’s Enterprise Solutions organization designed to meet the specific needs of web tech, telecommunications service providers, hosting companies, oil and gas, and research organizations. After engaging with over 200 customers in this growing market, Dell is responding to their needs by introducing its first DSS-branded products that provide great versatility and scale while reducing infrastructure costs. 

The Dell DSS 7000 is the industry’s densest storage server built to meet the storage needs of an exascale future. Building on its hyperscale leadership, the new storage server is based on the DCS XA90 and is capable of delivering up to 720 terabytes of storage in a single 4U chassis. The DSS 7000 packs up to 90 hot-serviceable 3.5-inch drives and two 2-socket server nodes to provide cloud builders with a low dollar-per-gigabyte cost for object and block storage. 

The Dell DSS 1500, DSS 1510 and DSS 2500 are new 1U and 2U servers that have been purpose-built to provide this set of customers with the technology they need for their specific workload needs. Featuring a minimalistic design, flexible storage and IO options, industry-standard baseboard management controller (BMC) systems management and the latest Intel Xeon processors, these new DSS servers help customers maximize operational efficiency while providing optimal performance.

Dell Launches Highest-End Dell Storage Arrays and Industry-Leading All-Flash Cost-per-Gigabyte

The combination of Dell’s new flagship Dell Storage SC9000storage array controller, new 12Gb SAS expansion enclosures and next generation array software offers customers the highest-performing, most enterprise-focused SC Series release to date. Dell once again offers the industry’s lowest cost-per-gigabyte for SSD storage1 with enterprise SC9000 all-flash arrays as low as 65 cents (US)-per-gigabyte net effective capacity including the array, all storage software and three-years of Dell Copilot support.3

The Dell Storage SC9000, based on Dell’s 13th generation PowerEdge server platform, offers all-flash and hybrid flash configurations and delivers 40 percent more IOPs –with the ability to achieve more than 385,000 IOPS4—and more than double the throughput5 compared to previous SC Series arrays.Supporting the most demanding large-scale workloads, the flexible and self-optimizing SC9000 provides more than three petabytes of raw capacity per array and scales-out even further in federated multi-array configurations with seamless volume movement among arrays.  

New Dell Storage Center 6.7 array software offers substantial enterprise enhancements, boosting overall SC Series support for private clouds and other mission-critical applications. Highlighted new capabilities include Live Volume auto-failover for built-in disaster recovery with zero workload downtime and integrated host-side data protection for Oracle, Microsoft and VMware environments. New active data compression capabilities offer up to 93 percent flash capacity savings6, and innovations, such as the industry-first deployment of TLC 3D NAND technology in a true high-performance, high-endurance setting, provide further cost savings. 

Dell Ushers in Next Generation of Backup and Recovery with Dell Data Protection | Rapid Recovery

Next-generation Dell Data Protection | Rapid Recoverysoftware, engineered in the cloud era with cloud recovery in mind, integrates proven and familiar features of AppAssure and other leading Dell IP designed to eliminate downtime for customer environments.

Rapid Recovery features “Rapid Snap for Applications” technology that can capture an entire application and its relevant state, enabling complete application and system recovery with near-zero RTOs and aggressive RPOs. A new “Rapid Snap for Virtual” capability, based on Dell vRanger technology, provides scalable protection of growing VMware environments without agents, and automatically detects and backs up VMs provisioned on an ESXi host. In addition, a simple bare metal restore (BMR) feature from cloud-based archives reinforces Dell’s ongoing focus on powerful cloud connectivity and recovery. The solution also features a Rapid Recovery Repository (R3) with encryption and client-side deduplication based on proven Rapid Data Access (RDA) technology. R3 delivers direct-to-target backups and significantly reduces the deduplication workload, resulting in quicker snapshots, reduced data transfer times, and greater scale. 

Dell is also expanding its capability around endpoint protection by delivering the first release of Dell Data Protection | Endpoint Recovery, a new software solution with proven IP to deliver continuous backup and fast, easy endpoint recovery.Complementing the new releases, Dell is offering  new simplified pricing for vRanger, giving organizations with growing virtual environments access to a scalable VM backup solution starting at $699 including 24/7 support. 

Next Wave of Dell XC Series Appliances Expand Dell’s Software-Defined Storage Portfolio

Dell also announced the next wave of Dell XC Series of Web-scale Converged Appliances, which integrate compute, storage and hypervisor resources into a single offering to help reduce TCO and streamline datacenters. The new appliances help Dell support the growing customer interest in hyperconvergedsolutions where spending  is expected to grow by almost 60 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2014 to 2019, reaching a total of $3.9 billion by 2019, according to analyst firm IDC.7

The latest hyperconverged solutions include the Dell XC6320,the highest-density XC Series appliance to-date, with four compute nodes that support more than 44 terabytes of storage in a 2U form factor. This substantially reduces datacenter hardware rack space, power and cooling required to run various workloads in service provider, ROBO and large customer datacenters. NewDell XC630-10F and XC6320-6F All-Flash Nodes are the first XC Series all-flash appliances, offering a cost-for-performance boost with data tiering between flash drives types based on actual data usage. 

ProDeploy Enterprise Suite Gets More Out of Technology Starting Day One

The Dell ProDeploy Enterprise Suite includes three deployment services and full training and certification to help secure the path to a future-ready data center. The flagship ProDeploy Plus, the industry’s most complete deployment service, rapidly integrates new technologies and optimizes the long-term performance of critical systems. Expert deployment means customers are able to deploy up to 39 percent faster2 and save up to $2,000 per deployed device8, giving them time and money to fuel innovation. 

For channel partners, Dell offers the flexibility to deliver, resell and co-deliver deployment services. Through new training and certifications, customers and partners gain the same storage and networking expertise as Dell certified engineers. By reselling Dell deployment services, partners can significantly expand their capacity and cover the globe by supplementing their capabilities. PartnerDirect premier and preferred partners also can earn a deployment services competency to access Dell methodologies and tools while becoming eligible to co-deliver ProDeploy with Dell.

Dell Services Introduces Dell Application ModernizationPortfolio

As customers look to move to new data center technologies, they also need to re-host or re-architect their applications. Dell Services today introduced the Dell Application Modernization Portfolio, a comprehensive set of integrated software solutions for application modernization and simplification. The Application Modernization Portfolio helps customers more easily enhance business agility through application simplification, place their applications in secure solutions to address vulnerabilities, and integrate applications with digital services.  

Unifying these solutions in a common framework enables Dell Services to address customers’ complex legacy challenges with fit-to-purpose hybrid approaches. Dell can apply the right solution and modernization technique to each diverse challenge in a real-world legacy portfolio, instead of trying to fit every problem to a one-trick solution. 

Availability 

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Dell Reinforces ‘All-Data’ Strategy with Enhanced Big Data Analytics Capabilities to Help Companies Thrive in the Modern Data Economy 

DELL WORLD, AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 20, 2015 – Dell today announced a series of new big data and analytics solutions and services designed to help companies quickly and securely turn data into insights for better, faster decision-making. These include a new release of Dell’s advanced analytics softwareplatform and new Analytics-as-a -Service offerings for multiple industry verticals such as banking, healthcare and insurance. Together, these new offerings and capabilities enable companies to embed analytics across their core processes and disseminate analytics expertise across the organization to drive better business outcomes.

Data-driven decision-making is the pathway to competitive advantage in the modern data economy. The Dell Global Technology Adoption Index 2015 (GTAI 2015) revealed that those organizations robustly using big data show 50 percent higher growth rates than organizations that aren’t.  However, the study also found that 44 percent of organizations still don’t understand how to extract value from their datai. With the latest enhancements to its big data and analytics portfolio, Dell is helping customers overcome that uncertainty and invest wisely in data technologies by delivering flexible, end-to-end solutions that help organizations foster IT and business alignment, drive operational efficiency, and leverage the power of predictive analytics.

Launch of Statistica 13 Further Simplifies Deployment of Advanced Analytics Across the Enterprise  

The launch of Statistica 13, the latest release of the company’s popular advanced analytics software platform, helps simplify and improve the process by which organizations deploy predictive models directly to data sources inside the firewall, in the cloud, and in partner ecosystems. An easy-to-use solution that requires no coding and integrates seamlessly with open source R, Dell Statistica delivers a full range of data blending, data discovery, and advanced and predictive analytics tools that help organizations tap into all data to predict future trends,identify new customers and sales opportunities, explore “what-if” scenarios, and reduce the occurrence of fraud and other business risks. Enhancements and new capabilities in Statistica 13 include:

NDA functionality pushes predictive algorithm model-buildingand scoring functionality directly into the data source. This eliminates the time-consuming and data–limiting process of pulling data to an intermediate server or desktop, allowing all analytic processing to occur directly in the database and enabling organizations to leverage the power of Hadoop clusters, database appliances and other high-performance platforms. Statistica 13 will initially feature NDA capability for Microsoft SQL Server databases, with additional databases to be added in subsequent releases.

Dell Services Continues to Strengthen IP-led Service Offerings in Advanced Analytics and Data Science

Dell Services is expanding its Analytics-as-a-Service offerings with industry-specific services that help customers unearth insights, predict business outcomes, and improve the accuracy and efficiency of critical business processes.  For example, new BPO services help embed analytics across an organization’s core processes and disseminate analytics expertise to give scalability to data-based decision making. The new services include:

In addition, emphasizing Dell’s continued focus on enabling Analytics-as-a-Service solutions, the Dell Services team has introduced Dell Service Desk Analytics and Dell ModelHealth(DMH) Tracker. 

These new offerings join the more than 50 solutions from Dell Services in the area of advanced analytics, including healthcare analytics offerings focused on critical issues like population health, patient readmission, and health risk stratification; financial analytics offerings focused on online transactions and fraud detection; and insurance-focused offerings centered on reducing customer churn via analytics embedded within Lifesys, Dell’s platform for insurance claims processing.   

End-to-End Portfolio Simplifies Deployment and Allows Customers to Achieve Insights Faster

In addition to software and services, Dell has a history of offering engineered solutions and reference architectures that speed deployment times and time to value. These solutions are tested and validated to relieve customer pain points associated with deployment of effective data management techniques. Most recently, Dell announced its 15th reference architecture in collaboration with Cloudera, this time also including SyncsortDMX-h software. The Dell | Cloudera | Syncsort Data Warehouse Optimization – ETL Offload Reference Architecturestreamlines the planning, design, construction and deployment process of transforming data into a ready state for analysis, also known as the extract, transform and load (ETL) process, using the Hadoop data platform. The reference architecture offers customers cost savings, faster time-to-value and quicker access to insights than an open-source, do-it-yourself solution.

In addition, Dell’s ProDeploy Enterprise Suite offers customers a complete suite of deployment services and professional certifications designed to simplify deployments and help customers rapidly adopt new technology with confidence.

Supporting Quotes: 

John K. Thompson, general manager, advanced analytics, Dell Software

“In the modern data economy, the ability to gain predictive insight from all data is critical to building an agile, connected and thriving data-driven enterprise. Whether the data comes from real-time sensors from an IoT environment, or a big data platform designed for analytics on massive amounts of disparate data, the new offerings from Dell enable detailed levels of insight and action. With the new capabilities and enhancements specifically delivered in Statistica 13, Dell is making it possible for organizations of all sizes to deploy predictive analytics across the enterprise and beyond in a smart, simple and cost-effective manner, ultimately empowering them to better understand customers, optimize business processes, and create new products and services.”

Prasad Thrikutam, president and global head of applications, Dell Services 

“More than ever, our customers are looking for ways to make sense of the enormous amount of information they collect, so that they can focus on their core business. With the launch of our analytics-enabled BPO services, and our Analytics-as-a -Service offerings for industry verticals such as banking, healthcare and insurance, we are able to provide actionable insights customers can use to grow their businesses, enhance their customers’experience, and gain operational efficiencies.”

Nik Rouda, senior analyst, ESG 

“ESG’s research continues to show that companies of all sizes and across all verticals are looking to data for answers to their critical business questions. Getting those answers not only requires modern advanced analytics tooling, but also a full range of supporting capabilities, including data integration and data and database management, as well as the servers, storage, and ready-to-go appliances that provide the engine. Dell has not only put together an increasingly comprehensive portfolio that delivers those critical capabilities, but has continued to build a complementary ecosystem of strategic partners, supporting vendors, and professional services that enables it to help customers wherever they are in their big data and analytics journey.”

Availability 

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Today Dell announced various offerings and updated in five major areas: Connect, Inform, Protect, Transform the Cloud, and Transform and Future Proofing of the Data Center. The various highlights are below. For more information go to http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/newsroom-press-releases

Connect

Dell Announces PC Industry Firsts, Connecting Emerging Technologies to Enhance Productivity

• Ground‐breaking “smart desk” concept demonstrates vision of what’s possible for design professionals
• Dell Venue 11 Pro tablets are the world’s most secure and manageable
• Dell Software Suite integrates best‐of‐class security and manageability software

Pricing and Availability:

• The Dell UltraSharp 27 Monitor (UP2715K) will be available on Dell.com in China on Nov. 20 and worldwide on Dec. 18 for less than $2,000.
• The new Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 Series starts at $699.99 and is available beginning Nov. 11 on Dell.com in the United States.
• The Dell Software Suite is now available on Dell commercial client products at no additional charge for one year.

Inform

Dell Bolsters Digital Services and Analytics Software Solutions to Help Enterprises Better Understand and Engage Their Customers, Improve Operational Efficiency

• As a digital and social pioneer, Dell has shaped its own offerings into Digital Business Services that enable companies to transform their businesses to improve customer engagement and operational efficiency
• Dell Software extends advanced analytics to hybrid cloud through new collaborative effort with Microsoft
• Dell enhances big data capabilities in recently acquired Statistica platform through integration with Kitenga

Availability:

• Digital Business Services are available today globally.
• The first phase of Dell and Microsoft’s collaborative effort is underway now, and customers worldwide can now use Statistica in tandem with Azure Machine Learning.
• The first iteration of the new Statistica big data analytics module will be available to customers worldwide in Q4 2014.

Protect

Dell Makes Security a Business Enabler with Innovation and Integration Across Solution Portfolios

• With an approach based on simplicity, efficiency and connectivity, Dell is rapidly unifying the fragmented security market, making security a true business enabler
• Dell offers identity and access management‐as‐a‐service for companies that prefer to outsource rather than deploy and manage an on‐premises, enterprise‐grade IAM solution
• Product integrations across Dell’s comprehensive Security portfolio deliver effective, scalable services and solutions that uniquely meet both immediate and future threat‐protection needs
• Dell is the first in the industry to demonstrate 120 Gbps DPI NGFWs for carriers and ISPs, onsite at Dell World

Availability:

• IAMaas is now available in North America.
• Dell Change Auditor for Cloud Storage is available worldwide.
• Dell network security solutions are available through the channel.
• Dell Data Protection is sold on a worldwide basis except for China, Russia and Latin America.

Transform the Cloud

Dell Simplifies the Cloud Experience

• Dell launches Dell Cloud Marketplace public beta, giving developers and IT managers the ability to compare, purchase, use and manage the most popular public clouds, all from a single, unified console on dell.com
• New Dell alliances with Delphix, Docker and Pertino help solve customers’ cloud concerns over data portability, accelerated application development and secure connectivity
• Dell gives developers on‐demand tools to improve cloud‐based application performance with Foglight APM SaaS Edition

Availability:

• Dell Cloud Marketplace public beta is now open in the U.S. Individuals interested in participating can enroll at www.dell.com/cloudmarketplace. Beta participants can currently take advantage of AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Joyent public cloud infrastructure services. Offerings from Delphix, Docker and Pertino will be available in the Dell Cloud Marketplace next year.
• Additionally, Dell PartnerDirect Platinum partners have a significant opportunity as Systems Integrators to help customers integrate and maintain services from Dell Cloud Marketplace into their current data center environment to achieve a true hybrid cloud environment.
• Dell Foglight APM SaaS Edition is currently available globally in English language only. Dell is also offering the product and its full feature set for free for a limited time through the end of December 2014.

Transform and Future Proof the Data Center

Dell Introduces Future‐Ready IT Solutions to Help Customers Transform Their Data Centers and Businesses

• Dell delivers new solutions to help customers simplify and enhance flexibility for both traditional and new application and workload requirements
• A next‐generation converged infrastructure solution, the Dell PowerEdge FX architecture enables customers to precisely tailor data center technology to optimize myriad applications
• Expanded Dell Storage portfolio includes a new $25,000 (US) storage array that drastically lowers the entry cost for all‐flash storage, next‐generation storage arrays for SMB customers, and the first Dell series of web‐scale, hyper‐converged appliances
• Dell brings Open Networking to Network Functions Virtualization, working with Brocade and Intel to help accelerate Enterprise service delivery at the carrier edge

Availability:

• The PowerEdge FX architecture including PowerEdge FX2 chassis and initial sleds (FC630, FM120x4) will be available in December 2014.
• The PowerEdge FX architecture sleds including the FD332, FN IOA, FC430, FC830 will be available in the first half of 2015.
• The Dell Storage SC4020 Entry‐Level All‐Flash configuration will be available in early 2015. The Dell Storage PS4210 Series Arrays are available worldwide today.
• The Dell XC Series of Web‐scale Converged Appliances will be available starting November 11 with support for VMware ESXi and Microsoft Windows Hyper‐V.

Tuesday afternoon at the Dell PartnerDirect Summit, PC Connection’s President and CEO, Tim McGrath accepted the National Solution Providers Partner of the Year Award from Dell’s Jim Defoe (VP, North America Channel Sales).

Dell Outpaces Competitors with End‐to‐End Solutions Growth

This evening at the Dell Partner Central Awards party & ceremony held at “The Belmont” on Austin’s famous 6th Street PC Connection was awarded the Dell Healthcare Partner of the Year Award for 2013.

Picture of Dell Partner Central Executives presenting the award to PC Connection Executives for the Healthcare Partner of the Year.

Wow! I would love to have one of these for a home lab. Too bad it is too expensive for a small/home office system. It looks to be a good solution for small remote branch office solutions.

I wonder how Dell’s new Services system will sit with Partners? While customers may look to Dell as an answer to implementing projects, what do Dell Partners think about selling Dell Services or competing with Dell Services. Is there enough of a margin for Resellers to sell this to their customers?

Also what assurances does Dell Services provide to protect the Reseller-Customer relationship and not take these relationships in house?

Thoughts?

Here are the quick notes from the public releases from this morning’s keynote address.

Dell and Red Hat to Co-Engineer Enterprise-Grade, OpenStack Private Cloud Solutions

·         Dell and Red Hat collaboration to enable customers worldwide to build and use highly-scalable, open, private cloud solutions based on OpenStack

·         Dell becomes first company to OEM Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform

·         Dell joins the Red Hat OpenStack Cloud Infrastructure Partner Network as an Alliance Partner

·         Dell to deliver Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform through a dedicated practice within Dell Cloud Services

Dell and Google to Help Developers and Businesses thrive in a Cloud-Based, Mobile-Driven World

·         The collaboration builds on core strengths, making innovative cloud solutions easily accessible for companies of all types and sizes

·         Dell and Google’s cloud expertise will help organizations capitalize on the immense business value of cloud computing

Dell Brings CenturyLink into the Dell Cloud Partner Program, Enabling Customers Worldwide to Harness the Power of Public Cloud

·         Dell teams with CenturyLink to offer customers more choice and flexibility with an enterprise public cloud offering complete with IaaS, PaaS and cloud management

·         The Dell-CenturyLink alliance makes cloud computing easier, giving customers globally the confidence to implement cloud solutions to drive competitive advantage

·         The combined cloud expertise of Dell and CenturyLink will help customers tap into the full potential of cloud to transform their business

Dell and Microsoft Strengthen Alliance to Help Customers Take Full Advantage of Public Cloud

·         Dell expands Cloud Partner Program to include Microsoft and Windows Azure, building on Dell’s current Windows Application Services capabilities

·         The Dell-Microsoft relationship brings added choice and flexibility to customers, giving businesses a competitive advantage when implementing public cloud

·         With Windows Azure and Dell Cloud offerings, customers can easily deploy on-demand cloud infrastructure that scales and adapts to evolving business needs

Dell and Dropbox Partner to Help Businesses Embrace the Evolving Workforce

·         Dell and Dropbox bring cutting-edge solutions to businesses of all sizes with Dell Data Protection | Cloud Edition and Dropbox for Business

·         Dell is bringing Dropbox for Business to its customers via its global sales team

·         Thought leaders join forces to define the next frontier in corporate cloud storage use and policy

Dell Expands its Commitment to Entrepreneurship and Innovation with $300 Million Strategic Innovation Venture Fund

·         Dell Ventures helps identify, fund and fuel visionary technologies that anticipate and address future IT needs

·         New fund expands $60 million Dell Fluid Data Storage Fund to $300 million and re-focuses investment scope to reach to new frontiers of innovation beyond storage

Dell Services Helps Customers in Highly Regulated Industries Adapt to Changes and Innovate for the Future

·         Dell helps health plans and healthcare providers improve operations; makes medical images more accessible with record-setting clinical archive growth; and introduces new cloud solution for hospitals in India

·         New digital transformation solutions to help banking, financial services, securities and insurance (BFSI) organizations better engage customers and significantly improve operations

·         Dell Services continues gaining momentum with customers in healthcare and BFSI in 2013

Sorry for not posting a bit more often.  I am more often found on Twitter and or using some SocialCast.  Here lately the time has been spent with a new job and working on my Cisco DCUCI exam and getting my Cisco CCNA Data Center.

I still have plans to do my VCDX Data Center Virtualization but it will likely be for VMworld 2014.

I’m in the process of moving which has blown my plans for a defense at PEX 2014.

I’ll have another post later this morning as I am at Dell World this week and have some interesting announcements.