Storage

The old ‘’rule of 3” adage goes something like this,

• You can have it fast with high quality, but it’s going to… Read morecost you;


• You can have if fast and cheap, but quality suffers,


• Or you can get it cheap with high quality, but it’s going to take until sometime late next year.

The best new products and solutions counter this rule and offer high-quality innovations with speed at a reasonable price.

Historically, data center infrastructure has leveraged custom, home-grown architectures built out with best of breed products, as decided upon by separate groups in an IT organization with different priorities. While this model offers customers lots of options, it is also a slow and cumbersome approach, as it involves lots of handoffs between vendors and teams, requires complex integration and is more difficult to support. Ultimately, this model is expensive, slow and results in lower quality infrastructure.

Within the Active" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://dell.to/P9JkEa">Active Infrastructure family, Dell provides three system delivery models that provide customers with options that balance integration and speed, depending on the customer’s unique requirements.

Pre-integrated systems

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Much like a sophisticated toy that arrives pre-built and ready to play with from the manufacturer, Dell pre-integrated systems offer the entire infrastructure needed to deploy workloads, and are pre-engineered, pre-assembled, pre-tested and optimized -- allowing IT organizations to deploy infrastructure quickly with fewer integration hassles. Dell offers the Active" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://dell.to/OUuOA3">Active System 800, vStart 50, vStart 100/200 and vStart 1000 in this offering area.

Platform Reference Architectures

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Similar to an instruction manual providing detailed instructions on different things that can be built using blocks when you were little, Dell offers platform reference architectures for customers that want to build a custom solution on their own, but still like expert guidance. These architectures, the same ones used to build our pre-integrated offerings, are designed to streamline integration and offer optimal performance, but can be tailored by customers for their unique circumstances. For example, your organization may have recently made a significant investment in storage, but would like to leverage the remainder of the architecture to build out a private cloud.

Active System Matrix

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For customers that already have an enterprise architecture in place, Dell also offers a system matrix comprised of high-quality Dell products designed for converged infrastructure solutions, comparable to a “Tub-O-Blocks” when you were little. This system matrix distills down the myriad offerings from Dell in the data center arena, into a focused portfolio of products perfect for building converged infrastructure. Each element in the matrix is easily discovered, configured and managed by Active System Manager. Today, the matrix comprises the PowerEdge M1000e blade chassis; PowerEdge quarter-height M420, half-height M620 and full-height M820 blade server; and PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator networking interconnect. 

Three paths to converged infrastructure success

Early on in life, we seek out different toys depending on where we’re at in our development, whether it be blocks designed to foster the imagination, a build-it-yourself set meant to encourage learning or a really cool and complex toy meant purely for fun. Similarly, as you evaluate your situation, you’ll find that Dell’s flexible delivery options are built to address your unique circumstance, whether that be a need for a turnkey pre-integrated system to quickly support the role out of a new application, or a need for top-quality building blocks to support an existing enterprise architecture.   

No matter the situation, Dell provides intuitive, flexible and comprehensive solutions designed to help you rapidly respond to dynamic business demands, accelerate IT efficiency and strengthen IT service quality. To learn more, visit dell.com/convergence.

Last week, Dell introduced its next generation converged infrastructure offering, Active" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://dell.to/OUuOA3">Active System, as part of the… Read moreActive" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://dell.to/P9JkEa">Active Infrastructure family. It is the most recent culmination of our multi-year, multi-billion dollar strategy to provide better end-to-end enterprise solutions and services to our customers by combining Dell-developed IP with innovations from our multiple acquisitions. The announcement of Active System is a great time to take a brief retrospective on the deliberate path that has led us to this point.

The original x86 server pioneer

The Active System story actually started more than a decade ago. When Dell entered the server market, it was a pioneer in the introduction of x86-based servers that today is the dominant compute platform. Dell believed that an open approach to the data center would create greater flexibility, scalability and better economics for IT organizations, relative to the legacy platforms such as mainframes and RISC/UNIX-based servers. Dell is now a leader in x86 server innovations with its second-generation embedded management, its outstanding power efficiency and the continued development of unique form factors that provide additional flexibility and better economics, such as the world's only quarter-height blade server -- the PowerEdge" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://dell.to/Qj2e7t">PowerEdge M420. 

 More recently, we have devoted R&D spend toward better systems management with tools like Open" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://dell.to/UsyWZc">Open Manage Essentials that provides holistic discovery, monitoring and updates  for Dell servers, storage and network systems without requiring agents. We have also simplified and streamlined the management of Dell hardware within the context of other popular tools with a range of management integrations for VMware vCenter and Microsoft System Center.

 We have also developed integrated systems such as vStart" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://dell.to/Qj1fUX">vStart for the rapid deployment of virtualized infrastructure, and accelerated the ability to implement OpenStack with private cloud solutions that include the Dell-developed Crowbar" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://dell.to/RXdRo6">Crowbar software tool.

 Transforming the rest of the data center

In 2008, Dell started down its path of data center-related acquisitions with the purchase of EqualLogic, the iSCSI storage leader with a unique scale-out technology specifically designed for virtualized servers. We subsequently added four more storage-related acquisitions, most recently Compellent with its advanced auto-tiering capability. In 2009, we acquired Perot Systems that provided additional data center capabilities around application migration and modernization and cloud-based managed services. In 2011, we added Force10 Networks, a leader in 40 GbE and distributed network core technologies. The recent acquisition of Quest Software in 2012 adds a range of new capabilities around security, data protection and application and infrastructure performance management. We continue to invest in these acquisitions, as evidenced by the new EqualLogic" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://dell.to/W3liuG">EqualLogic Blade Array, a simple, yet powerful bladed SAN array.

The result: Dell Active System

Dell Active System is a balanced hybrid of Dell-generated and Dell-acquired IP.  The new Active System Manager takes it roots from Dell’s own system management tools. The new PowerEdge" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://dell.to/RxDRU2">PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator leverages Force10 networking IP and is a module in the Dell-developed M1000e blade chassis. Active System includes our latest 12^th generation compute platforms as well as our key storage acquisitions of EqualLogic and Compellent. Lastly, it benefits from Dell’s heritage of strong technical support while also providing a link to Dell’s new public cloud services. With the recent Quest Software acquisition, the opportunities to further enhance Active System to address our customers’ challenges are boundless. Stay tuned to see the future chapters of Dell’s and Active System’s evolution!

It’s hard to believe that … Read morehref="http://www.dellstorageforum.com/?elqPURLPage=317"> style="color:#0000ff;font-family:Calibri;font-size:small;">Dell Storage Forum Paris is already coming up next month!  But planning for another extraordinary set of http://www.dellstorageforum.com/?elqPURLPage=320"> style="color:#0000ff;font-family:Calibri;font-size:small;">syndicate sessions, networking events, http://www.dellstorageforum.com/?elqPURLPage=328"> style="color:#0000ff;font-family:Calibri;font-size:small;">hands-on labs, and plenary sessions is well underway.   The theme for Dell Storage Forum Paris is “Fluid" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.dellstorageforum.com/?elqPURLPage=268">Fluid Forward” – designed to empower you, our customers, to get more out of your storage investment. 

Last week, I got a sneak peek at the plenary sessions planned for this DSF, and took down some notes to share:

Thursday November 15^th at 9:00AM: Storage Plenary Session

The first Plenary Session for all our customers and partners is Thursday morning.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVzWUQIz3Sk"> style="color:#0000ff;font-family:Calibri;font-size:small;">Darren Thomas (VP & GM for Dell Storage) will be taking the stage to make a series of exciting announcements about our storage product portfolio.  We know that you want the technical details behind these products; following his talk, he’ll be joined by General Managers and key engineers for each of the storage lines.  There will be a live Q&A to get into the details of our announcements and evolving technology.

Friday November 16^th at 9:00AM: Architecture Plenary Session http://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/4062.carter2.jpg"> style="border:0px currentColor;float:right;" src="http://en.community.dell.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/4062.carter2.jpg" width="200" height="133" alt=" " />

http://dellstorageforum.com/">… Read morestyle="background-image:none;padding-left:0px;padding-right:0px;display:block;float:none;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;padding-top:0px;border:0px;" title="Dell Storage Forum - Fluid Forward" border="0" alt="Dell Storage Forum - Fluid Forward" src="http://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07-metablogapi/5008.image_5F00_153F7B9B.png" width="554" height="217" />

There was a time when all you really needed to do with data was manage it. Today, data is the fuel on which your company runs. You need a storage solution with the future built in – a solution that will move your business forward.

This is a theme you’ll see reflected at our upcoming Dell Storage Forum events in Paris" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.dellstorageforum.com/?elqPURLPage=317">Paris (Nov. 14-16, 2012) and San" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.dellstorageforum.com/?elqPURLPage=335">San Jose (June 4-6, 2013) – using our Fluid Data architecture as the foundation, we are integrating innovative technologies to deliver end-to-end storage solutions that prepare our customers for the future. It’s Fluid Forward.

From virtualization to convergence to cloud, the Fluid Data architecture is at the core of everything we do in Dell storage – and its built on what our customers want. Customers like Safeway" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/corporate/case-studies/en/Documents/2012-safeway-10010656.pdf">Safeway Insurance Co., the largest privately held, family-owned insurance company in the U.S. The company was losing potential sales to performance issues with its legacy storage. By implementing a virtualized infrastructure with Dell EqualLogic and PowerVault" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.dell.com/us/enterprise/p/storage-products?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz&mp=www.dell.com/powervault&redirect=1">PowerVault storage, PowerEdge" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.dell.com/poweredge">PowerEdge servers, and KACE" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.kace.com/">KACE management appliances, Safeway has reduced its storage footprint by 60 percent, while supporting 71 percent more agents with no increase in IT staff. Now they have an infrastructure that can scale to meet future demands.

Storage that prepares you for the future, while accelerating your business today? That’s Fluid Forward.

The best place to learn more about the Fluid Data architecture and what it means to be Fluid Forward is Dell Storage Forum. It’s a unique opportunity to gain actionable insights through technical breakouts, hand-on labs, executive keynotes, roadmap sessions and demos of the latest products. Unlike other industry events, you’ll get open access to Dell experts and executives in an environment focused on helping you maximize your storage investment and accelerate business outcomes.

Learn more at DellStorageForum.com.