SCIENCE

Dell expanded its networking, server and storage portfolios for enterprise and small-to-medium customers who require a scalable, flexible and high performance data center environment. These new product offerings from Dell are designed to utilize and extend a customer’s existing IT investment while providing a cutting edge approach to help drive business success in the future. Customers in the Virtual Era rely on Dell’s open, capable and affordable technology solutions to help them access, store and move mission-critical data and applications across physical and virtual resources.

“With ever-increasing user demands, enterprises are looking to manage growth by scaling bandwidth and delivering more virtualized services,” said Dario Zamarian, vice president and general manager, Dell Networking. “While complementing existing infrastructures, these new capabilities deliver seamless scalability and advanced virtualization features for a more efficient fabric and improved operational efficiencies.”

Dell Networking Portfolio Enhancements:

• Delivering advanced virtualization capabilities and 10GbE flexibility in all slots of the PowerEdge M1000e chassis, the Dell PowerConnect M8024-k Ethernet blade streamlines fabric deployment for customers. Key features include:
• Next-generation 10 GbE KR-based networking support for enhanced fabric scalability and virtualization functions to provision multiple vNICs, each with a different service level.
• Up to 24 ports of 10 GbE with backward compatibility to 1GbE networks.
• Dell Simple Connect mode streamlines switch deployment, simplifies management and helps reduce operating costs.
• Expanding wireless connectivity, management and deployment, new Dell PowerConnect W-Series wireless products include:
• The scalable PowerConnect W-6000 chassis and controller module are designed to deliver mobility, security and centralized management for large campus environments, up to 2,048 access points and over 30,000 mobile users.
• Outdoor connectivity with the Dell PowerConnect W-AP175P Access Point, supporting harsh environments including warehouses, container and transportation facilities.
• Enhancing the data center edge with intelligent solutions, the Dell PowerConnect B-Series switch solutions include:
• Dell PowerConnect B-TI24x is a flexible 10GbE switch featuring 24 dual-speed ports allowing customers to migrate from 1 to 10GbE at their own pace. It is ideal for large enterprise data centers, virtualized environments and high-performance computing (HPC) clusters.
• Dell PowerConnect B-FCX and B-FCXs series are Top of Rack (ToR) GbE switches featuring simplified deployment through auto-configuration to reduce deployment time and effort. The switches support resilient stacking up to eight switches, all of which are manageable as a single, logical unit, for improved manageability and high availability.
• Dell PowerConnect B-FCoE 1024 blade delivers 24 ports of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connectivity for the PowerConnect B-DCX 4S Director Chassis, enabling SAN and LAN traffic over a converged fabric to help reduce management expenses and power consumption through switch consolidation.

Dell Server Portfolio Enhancements:

• The Dell PowerEdge M915 is a full height four or two-socket AMD-based blade server that’s ideal for running mission critical applications in data centers needing maximum I/O scalability and increased efficiency, flexibility, reliability and performance.

Key Features include:

• Up to 512GB of RAM deployable in its 32 DIMM slots, and up to 48 Cores of processing power, delivering robust database and virtualization performance.
• Cost effective, large memory capacity that provides full redundancy with two SAS or SSD hot-swappable hard drives, and the optional Dell PowerEdge Failsafe Hypervisor.
• Up to two dual-port, modular networking adapter cards and up to four additional mezzanine-card options in a full height-blade form factor.
• Dell is also delivering the industry's first switch-independent NIC partitioning technology into its blade portfolio, making it possible for the first time to partition a 10GbE port free of any fabric vendor lock-in. This technology enables optimal utilization of physical links by allowing each physical 10GbE port to be divided into multiple NIC partitions (i.e. each 10GbE port can be divided into up to four NICs totaling 10Gb) and can be used in virtualized and non-virtualized environments.

Dell Storage Portfolio Enhancements:

• The Dell DX Object Storage Platform is a comprehensive, integrated solution that helps customers intelligently access, store, protect and distribute fixed digital content.
• The DX6000G is a CIFS/NFS protocol gateway for applications that utilize common file-based networking protocols to interact with the DX Object Storage Platform for archiving purposes.
• The DX6000G Cluster File Server is an optional and complementary component of the overall DX Object Storage Platform, providing great customer flexibility for access to the DX solution.

Pricing and Availability:

• The Dell PowerConnect M8024-k Ethernet switch, B-series and W-series are shipping worldwide immediately with pricing starting at US$11,259, US$4,945 and US$4,463 respectively.
• The Dell PowerEdge M915 blade pricing starts at US$3,500 and will be available worldwide beginning on May 24.
• The Dell DX Object Storage Platform pricing starts at US$20,882 and is available immediately in Europe and North America with shipping in Asia beginning in mid-May.

“Dell continues to augment its portfolio of enterprise solutions in ways that deliver a tangible ROI to customers,” states Matthew Eastwood, group vice president of IDC’s Enterprise Platform Group. "They are enabling choice and flexibility across the infrastructure stack which provides customers with a clear evolutionary path for their IT infrastructure. IDC believes the ability to future proof IT investments is a message that is resonating well with IT managers and CIOs alike.”