Dell Simplifies Virtualization with Breakthrough Performance, Centralized Management and Ready to Deploy Services

Building on the momentum of its “Virtualization Blockbuster” in May of this year, Dell today announced more new products, management tools and infrastructure consulting services designed to provide customers a smarter path to virtualization. With this announcement, Dell expands its leadership in offering its channel partners a broad line-up of industry-standard virtualization solutions that help customers simplify and lower the cost of managing their IT environments.

• New Dell PowerEdge full-height blade servers, four-socket blade ranks no. 1 in four-socket blade virtualization performance
• Integration and support of Microsoft’s virtualization solution for centralized management of virtualized environments
• Dell partners with industry leaders to give customers flexibility, choice and simplified management of end-to-end solutions
• Advanced EqualLogic integration across industry-leading hypervisors
• New services help customers simplify the design, deployment, security and management of virtualized environments
  

Building on the momentum of its “Virtualization Blockbuster” in May of this year, Dell today announced more new products, management tools and infrastructure consulting services designed to provide customers a smarter path to virtualization. With this announcement, Dell expands its leadership in offering its channel partners a broad line-up of industry-standard virtualization solutions that help customers simplify and lower the cost of managing their IT environments.

“The question isn’t will businesses virtualize, but when, and who can provide the platforms and services to make the rollout a success,” said Rick Becker, vice president of Software and Solutions, Dell Product Group. “While our competitors thrive on complexity to push proprietary hardware, management and services lock-ins, Dell’s virtualization strategy is grounded in choice and defined by industry standards. By offering our customers the latest, industry-proven, technologies, services and reference architectures, we are helping simplify their IT operations without limiting their options for future growth.”

New Dell PowerEdge Full-Height Blade Servers, Four-Socket Blade Ranks No. 1 in Performance

Dell’s new full-height blade servers, the PowerEdge M905 and PowerEdge M805, leverage the innovative virtualization design of the PowerEdge R805 and R905. The PowerEdge M905 delivers the ultimate four-socket blade-based virtualization performance and is the first blade server to support 11 tiles and 66 Virtual Machines (VM) in VMmark testing1. The PowerEdge M805 delivers the same number of DIMM slots in a two-socket blade that requires a four-socket blade from either HP or IBM2. With a choice of hypervisors including Citrix XenServer, VMware, and now Microsoft Hyper-V, PowerEdge servers can deliver the optimal platform for virtualized environments. The Dell PowerEdge M805 and M905 servers are now available worldwide with a starting price of $1,699 and $4,999 USD respectively. Also available later this month, the updated PowerEdge R900 rack-mounted system.

In addition to the new servers, Dell announced full, high-speed 10Gb Ethernet and 8Gb Fibre Channel switches and mezzanine cards designed to provide customers increased bandwidth and performance. The company also announced an OEM solution from PlateSpin, a Novell company, including PlateSpin PowerConvert software, which enables enterprises to optimize their data center by streaming server workloads over the network between physical servers, virtual hosts and image archives. Dell is also utilizing PlateSpin PowerRecon for the planning and assessment of customer virtualization projects as part of its Virtual Readiness Assessment (VRA). In addition, Dell will sell and support PlateSpin’s broader solutions which provide customers with a unified suite to help them adopt, manage and extend their use of server virtualization in the data center.

Dell and Microsoft Help Simplify Virtualization

Dell announced integration and support of Microsoft’s new virtualization technologies. Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V is available as a factory-installed option on Dell PowerEdge servers. Also available for PowerEdge servers, Microsoft’s new System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 which provides unified management for Hyper-V and other hypervisors in multi-vendor environments. Customers can use Microsoft’s System Center Management Suite, integrated with Dell OpenManageTM functionality, to effectively manage both their physical and virtual environments with a single management solution. Dell and Microsoft’s simplified approach to systems management helps customers increase efficiency, maximize resources and reduce total cost of ownership (TCO). Dell has invested thousands of hours in the development of field readiness and expertise around Windows Server 2008 implementation and server virtualization. Microsoft’s server virtualization rapid deployment program has enabled Dell to establish field experience implementing highly available solutions with Hyper-V and SCVMM, serving hundreds of thousands of users.

Integration for Simplified Data Protection, Backup and Recovery

Protecting and managing data in virtualized environments can present significant challenges. Dell, along with its partners, has integrated advanced storage technologies to help customers simplify these processes. The new Auto-Snapshot Manager/VMware Edition for EqualLogic storage arrays delivers automated, integrated and scalable protection of VMware Infrastructure 3 environments. Its direct integration with VMware Virtual Center and use of VMware File System’s folder structure helps simplify data protection issues especially as virtualized environments scale. The company expects to have ASM/VE available by the end of the month as a free download for customers with valid support contracts.

The Citrix XenServer Direct Storage Adapter enables out-of-the-box integration with EqualLogic storage arrays. The integration of EqualLogic’s advanced storage capabilities into XenCenter makes it easier for IT managers to create snapshots, clones and single client images by directly controlling their storage array through the XenServer management interface. Citrix XenServer Dell Express and Citrix XenServer Dell Enterprise Editions are factory-integrated via embedded USB key or hard drive ready and also feature enhanced support for blades, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Vista, making it even easier for customers to begin implementing their virtualization strategies. Dell also announced an OEM solution with Vizioncore, Inc. to deliver premier offerings including vRanger Pro for backup and recovery of virtualized environments, vCharter for virtualization monitoring, and vReplicator to support high availability and disaster recovery.

New iSCSI SAN Triples EqualLogic Scalability, Supports Consolidated Virtual Environments

Dell is expanding its EqualLogic product line with a new, highly-scalable array – the PS5500E. The new storage array packs 24 or 48 terabytes (TB) of enterprise-class in 4U of rack space – more than doubling the density and tripling the capacity of previous EqualLogic models. The PS5500E extends the family’s scalability to 576 TB, enhancing the EqualLogic line’s position as the premiere virtualized SAN for virtual server environments, and delivering better opportunities for consolidation, tiered storage and disaster recovery sites. The PS5500E is available worldwide, starting at $78,000 USD.

New Virtualization Services to Ease Planning and Deployment

Dell today announced new services designed to simplify the design, deployment, security and management of virtualized environments including:

• Infrastructure Consulting Services for Microsoft Hyper-V deployments – A comprehensive assessment, design and implementation service to accelerate deployment of Microsoft virtualization technologies. The WS2008 Hyper-V Technology Introduction is available starting at $15,700 USD.
• Site Recovery Manager (SRM) for VMware environments – Automates VMware disaster recovery with implementation, on-site installation and configuration of Site Recovery Manager. Dell consultants assist with preparation of a disaster recovery plan and configuration of SRM to execute the plan in the event of an outage.
• Lifecycle Management for VMware environments – Design and implementation planning, with proof-of-concept for installation and configuration of the lifecycle manager in customers VMware environments.