The Wharton School Simplifies New Data Center With Dell

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is using Dell technology, including PowerEdge M600 blade servers and Dell EqualLogic PS5000X storage arrays, as the foundation of a new data center designed to support students, faculty and academic research.

The enhanced capabilities of the new datacenter will provide the Wharton School researchers the ability to operate a Linux grid cluster powered by Dell blade servers, and expanded mailbox storage for students and faculty. The Wharton School is raising its mailbox quota from 300 megabytes to 1 gigabyte for all staff and tripling the storage capacity available to students and faculty.

“The demands on the Wharton School’s network are increasing and with our continued growth, we are committed to developing an infrastructure that is flexible and efficient,” said Dan Alig, senior IT director of Wharton Computing. “Dell blade servers and Dell EqualLogic storage will allow us to do more with less and manage our budget as effectively as we manage our technology resources.”

In the process of consolidating existing IBM BladeCenter infrastructure onto Dell technology, Wharton Computing IT professionals were able to unload and set up one of the Dell M1000e blade enclosures in four hours, compared with a 24-hour process using the previous hardware. The Dell enclosure was delivered in one box, replacing technology that previously arrived in about 60 boxes, a reduction of approximately 45 cubic feet of packaging material.

The Wharton School also has implemented PowerEdge R900 servers that are providing a small hardware footprint and intended to deliver stronger performance than the previous generation of servers, with the goal of quintupling the computing power per node in Wharton’s Microsoft Exchange 2007 environment. And Wharton has chosen Dell ProSupport for IT.

“The Wharton School has been focused on maximizing its technology investment to free up financial and human resources,” said John Mullen, Dell vice president of higher education. “Dell’s approach to simplifying IT enables customers to reclaim the time, money, and personnel needed to drive true innovation into daily business processes.”