Dell improves technology efficiency for SMBs

ROUND ROCK, TEXAS: Dell has expanded its enterprise technology portfolio to help organizations become more efficient through the innovative use of technology. The introduction of flexible and modular virtualization and data center consulting services, business-ready virtualization configurations, new Dell PowerEdge servers and EqualLogic PS4000 storage array will further simplify the planning, deployment and management of virtualized and physical IT environments.  

The expanded lineup attacks cost and complexity for two key areas of enterprise computing – virtualization and high-performance computing (HPC) – while providing differentiated solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Virtualization: Virtualization is at the heart of data center efficiency. Dell is delivering enhanced virtualization solutions and services to reduce planning time for a faster path to efficient infrastructures, accelerate virtualization adoption and simplify management of virtual environments.

Improved Planning
Dell is introducing new flexible and modular virtualization consulting services. Dell’s technology accelerated Dell ProConsult offerings use electronic discovery, Web based surveys, best practices, comparative data and reference architectures for shorter, more impactful engagements.

To help holistically optimize data centers, Dell is introducing a variety of consulting options aimed at reducing the cost to plan, manage and run them:

Platform Optimization and Virtualization makes IT infrastructures more effective through an analysis of workload requirements, reference architectures and validated solutions. Dell virtualization services can dramatically reduce total cost of ownership, provision virtual machines in minutes instead of the weeks for traditional machines and help customers build a standards-based virtual environment.
Data Center Planning and Management helps customers make IT investment decisions faster based on sound best practices and key technology insights rather than long-term, manual consulting engagements.
Disaster Recovery helps customers plan and implement an effective and affordable disaster recovery program balancing people, processes and technology.
Data Management quickly diagnoses problems and recommends proven storage solutions to help eliminate unused capacity, provision storage faster, and comply with internal policies and external regulations.
Facilities Efficiency resolves space, power and cooling issues in priority order to help customers avoid expensive air conditioning upgrades and help reduce energy consumption.

Fast Deployment
Two business-ready virtualization configurations simplify the design, procurement and deployment of virtual enterprise infrastructures.

Data Center Virtualization Configuration: The unified virtualization platform with pre-configured architectures combines Dell PowerEdge M-series blades and EqualLogic PS6000 iSCSI storage technology, with Cisco Catalyst networking switches, VMware vSphere 4 and Platespin Migrate from Novell to achieve an intelligent, automated data center.
Small and Medium Business Virtualization Configuration: The Dell virtualization configuration combines the PowerEdge R710, Dell PowerVault MD3000i, PowerVault DL2000 powered by Symantec for backup and PowerConnect networking technology together with Microsoft’s virtualization suite, including Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and System Center Essentials and System Center-Virtual Machine Manager 2008, to reduce cost and simplify management of virtualization.

Dell is announcing additional virtualization solutions including Enhanced Hypervisors, Disaster Recovery and   Application Virtualization.

Simplified Management
Dell helps eliminate the complexity from managing virtual infrastructure by providing tailored management solution that best fit individual business needs.

Dell Virtualization Management toolkit: A choice of Dell and partner management tools that include Dell OpenManage and EqualLogic storage management, with key systems management platforms such as Dell Management Console, Microsoft, Symantec, and VMware, so you can easily manage virtual and physical environments.
Virtual Infrastructure Capabilities: Solutions from Novell and Vizioncore provide data protection with OEM virtual to physical, physical to virtual and physical to physical conversion solutions.
Virtual Server Remote Monitoring and Reporting: Dell ProManage Virtual Server Remote Monitoring and Reporting helps to provide improved visibility into VM performance and determine average utilization for processor, memory, network and disk at the VM level for better virtual and physical asset management. It also provides complete end-to-end VM reporting, monitoring and management 24X7 by Dell’s Service Operations Center. As a result, IT staff can be freed up from day-to-day administrative tasks and focus on driving strategic company value.

Small and Medium Business
With new Dell products and services, small and medium businesses can more efficiently deploy and manage technology with limited IT resources.

Dell, a leading provider of storage solutions and the number one vendor for iSCSI SAN solutions2 – the fastest-growing segment of storage hardware, is expanding its industry-leading architecture and product portfolio.

Dell is introducing the new EqualLogic PS4000 storage array and PowerVault NX3000 network attached storage (NAS) device to help SMBs and remote office customers meet the ever-growing demand for storage.

The EqualLogic PS4000 includes enterprise-class storage virtualization, thin provisioning and management capabilities and integrates seamlessly into existing EqualLogic storage area networks (SANs). The family is designed to address three key customer requirements:

Server Virtualization: PS4000 SANs act as virtual storage in remote offices with advanced integration and data protection capabilities for virtual servers including VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer. They can load balance workloads dynamically and automatically across disks and multiple arrays in a pool, eliminating the need for manual re-distributing capacity or application workloads which can incur downtime and services costs.
Consolidation: The peer scaling ability of the EqualLogic line allows small or remote office IT organizations to buy only what capacity or performance they need without huge upfront costs, and grow their SAN with additional PS Series arrays as business needs dictate. As data requirements increase, customers can easily add a second PS4000 or a high-end PS6000.
Data Protection and Disaster Recovery: The PS4000 includes full snapshot, replication and application and hypervisor integration features for simplified, automated, cost-effective data protection and disaster recovery. With built-in Auto-Replication, corporate IT managers can alleviate the risks, administrative burdens and slow recovery of backup at remote offices by replicating branch data to a centralized backup location.

The PowerVault NX3000 shares files across Windows and non-Windows clients and reduces duplicate files with Single-Instant Storage (SIS) technology. Additionally, the NX3000 is capable of serving as an optional iSCSI target to support application data.

Dell is extending its 11th generation PowerEdge portfolio with Intel Xeon 5500 series processors to include the PowerEdge T410 and T710 tower servers and R410 rack server. The new systems meet the unique needs of SMBs and remote office locations with enhanced performance for general business applications.

"Large enterprises, SMBs and public-sector organizations face common IT obstacles that impede their ability to efficiently assess, deploy and manage technology. From virtualization to high performance computing clusters, customers are seeking standards-based technologies that improve efficiency while reducing costs. With Dell, organizations benefit from a powerful, efficient and affordable portfolio of server, storage and virtualization products and services that help put them on the fast track to efficiency,” said  Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Enterprise Product Group, Dell.