Dell Introduces Virtualization Solutions, Enterprise Products and Services to Fast Track Efficiency

* New virtualization products and services simplify data center performance
* Dell improves technology efficiency for small-and-medium businesses with turnkey virtualization configurations, PowerEdge servers and advanced EqualLogic storage arrays
* New Dell PowerEdge R410 server brings 80 percent improved performance* to technical and high performance computing

Dell today 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.

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:
o 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.
o 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.
o Disaster Recovery helps customers plan and implement an effective and affordable disaster recovery program balancing people, processes and technology.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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:
o Enhanced Hypervisors: Support for VMware vSphere 4 and Citrix® Essentials for XenServer™ 5.0, and will support Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V to help customers deploy the latest virtualization software solutions. Dell now supports VMware vSphere 4 across 37 Dell PowerEdge platforms to help customers deploy the latest virtualization software solutions for both enterprise and small and medium business customers. VMware vSphere 4 helps customers of all sizes transform their datacenters into internal private clouds.
o Disaster Recovery: Dell EqualLogic Auto-Snapshot Manager 2.0 for VMware vSphere 4 simplifies data protection and recovery through automation and integration with VMware vSphere 4. It delivers “Always On IT” for reduced application downtime and data protection managed under a single pane of glass for simplified and affordable disaster recovery. Dell EqualLogic arrays integrate with the VMware platform through support for the VMware vStorage™ APIs, enabling disaster recovery support for VMware vCenter™ Site Recovery Manager and enhanced performance with the EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module for VMware vSphere 4.
o Application Virtualization: Dell helps companies make critical decisions for virtualizing business applications with published best practices and validated workloads for Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server applications for faster and more cost effective deployment.

Simplified Management:

* Dell helps eliminate the complexity from managing virtual infrastructure by providing tailored management solution that best fit individual business needs.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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 solutions* – 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.
o 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 serve virtual storage for virtual servers 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.
o 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.
o Performance: The Dell PowerEdge T410 provides an average of 11 percent greater performance* and is 16 percent more energy efficient (performance/watt)* than the HP ProLiant ML150 G6 .
o Compact design: Standing only 24 inches deep with an interactive LCD panel, the PowerEdge T410 is an ideal choice for small businesses looking for technology that fits in tight work spaces. The PowerEdge R410 features a short chassis that fits in small spaces like closets, shallow racks, mobile server enclosures, wall server enclosures and A/V racks.
o Easy to manage and use: The PowerEdge servers include Lifecycle Controller for one-button deployment, easy-to-manage technology that helps improve productivity. The new rollback features provides confidence during the deployment of critical system updates with fall back to the last known good state.
o Grow with your business: The PowerEdge T710 has the capability to include 16 drives for large local storage capacity to allow remote offices and growing business with large internal storage to scale as they grow.
o Virtualization for Small Business: New Dell ProConsult service provides a simple tool to remotely evaluate business’ existing IT environment and quantify the return on investment for implementing virtualization.

High Performance Computing: Dell believes future high performance computing clusters will be powered by standards-based cluster technology. For HPC and technical computing environments within the public and private sectors, Dell is adding the PowerEdge R410, a powerful, compact and quiet rack server that provides the right balance of features and performance, to its HPC server line-up.

* Balanced Performance: Configured to increase productivity for intensive HPC workloads, the R410 has the raw computational horsepower needed for technical computing, with up to 80 percent performance improvements* over last generation servers. It is designed to save energy with policy-based power and thermal management, and standards-based Energy Smart components.
* Increased scalability and performance: High-speed interconnects such as InfiniBand QDR and DDR provide the throughput needed for communication-intensive applications using PCIe gen2 I/O slots that double the theoretical I/O bandwidth of PCI gen1.
* Simplified Management: The server comes pre-loaded with Dell Management Console (DMC) and Dell Lifecycle Controller for simplified management.
* Inspired Design: Rack servers are designed with system and image commonality and an LCD screen positioned to provide aisle-level access for diagnostics. Convenient placement of interface ports and power make installation and redeployment easier. Clutter-free cable routing reduces complexity and makes airflow and maintenance more efficient.

The new PowerEdge T410 and R410 servers are available today on www.dell.com/PowerEdge starting at $999. The PowerEdge T710 server will be available in the coming weeks. The new EqualLogic PS 4000 is available today on www.dell.com/EqualLogic starting at $10,000. Servers, storage, virtualization solutions and Dell services are available through Dell or any of the company’s more than 49,000 Global PartnerDirect Channel Partners. In addition, as part of its ongoing commitment to the channel, Dell will continue to expand its partner certification program for consulting.

Customer Quote:

“Investing for long-term IT efficiency is fundamental for any business, but the energy savings and flexibility we get with Dell’s virtualization solutions have made substantial, immediate business impacts for New York-based retail software business and our Boston data center. Our data center consolidation savings with Dell solutions gave us an immediate 50 percent decrease in energy expenses - $20,000 average savings each month. Yet when we need to scale our capability with seasonal demand, we simply copy the virtual environment onto new virtual machines and have extra capacity on Dell PowerEdge servers ready in minutes instead of hours. That kind of savings and business flexibility makes all the difference for me and my business.” -- Tim Maliyil, president and CEO, Data Guard Systems.

Partner Quotes:

“Organizations of all sizes, from SMBs such as HotSchedules and Atlanta Journal Constitution to multi-national enterprises Ingersoll Rand and Bouygues Construction, turn to Microsoft virtualization and management solutions to realize greater value and, IT efficiency with familiar tools. More than ever, customers are looking to make the most of their server hardware investments and we’re proud to partner with Dell to deliver the solutions and capabilities customers have come to expect from Microsoft.” -- Larry Orecklin, general manager, System Center at Microsoft Corp.

“As a longtime partner, Dell continues to deliver innovative solutions which, combined with the VMware platform, enable customers of all sizes to maximize their IT investments through flexible, reliable and efficient virtualized infrastructure. With VMware vSphere 4, even SMBs can now obtain affordable business continuity, improved application quality and deployment, and strengthened security to help ensure their businesses continue to run smoothly.” -- Raghu Raghuram, vice president and general manager, Server Business Unit, VMware.

Dell Quote:

“Large enterprises, small-to-medium sized business 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.” -- Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Enterprise Product Group, Dell.