IT Superheroes Can Boldly Conquer Software-Defined Data Centers with PowerEdge Servers and VMware

Increasing pressure to shift IT to a competitive advantage is driving many companies to modernize their data centers with software-defined solutions, including hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI). IT must support new and dynamic workloads, often with limited resources. Do more with less. It’s the mantra of our world, it seems. And, IT administrators must play many roles for a multitude of constituents within their company. For the C-suite, IT is required to do much more than simply support the company’s day-to-day business operations; it’s imperative they enable faster, more efficient business outcomes with a goal of enabling competitive advantages in today’s digital economy. For the office workers, IT must provide troubleshooting and support. For R&D, IT is required to play yet another role by enabling dev ops or even advanced modeling. We expect IT administrators to be our everyday superheroes, our avengers in action. To accomplish this feat, they need the best tools, the right skills, and a trusted team, Dell EMC and VMware. Oh, an epic costume doesn’t hurt, either!

My recommended superhero toolset

Dell EMC and VMware can help IT administrators suit up, simplifying IT with Dell EMC PowerEdge, the world’s #1 server[1], and industry-leading server and storage virtualization.[2,3] Design your software-defined data center (SDDC) based on your needs, with flexibility to build from the ground-up with PowerEdge servers, or leverage HCI building blocks such as Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes, which are PowerEdge servers that have been pre-configured, tested and jointly certified to run VMware vSAN™, a radically simple software-defined storage (SDS) solution for HCI. vSAN is a core building block for SDDC, and it powers leading HCI solutions with a VMware vSphere®-native, high-performance architecture.

Dell EMC offers one of the broadest vSAN Ready Node portfolios in the market, with over 100 certified ready node configurations available, spanning options such as all-flash, rugged, hybrid rack and kinetic infrastructure models.[4] One unique, super feature in select Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes is the Identity Module, which enables the node to self-identify upon boot-up as a Dell EMC vSAN Ready Node, streamlining deployment, updates, inventory management, and support.

Superhero skills

There are a lot of superheroes in IT, ranging from server admins to storage admins to IT generalists and more. Dell EMC understands the requirement to manage hardware and software in a more seamless manner, which is why we aim to help IT staff bridge the physical and virtual gap by automating and consolidating key PowerEdge server management tasks within the VMware vCenter® console with OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter (OMIVV) 4.3. OMIVV is a proprietary Dell EMC plug-in for vCenter that dramatically reduces complexity, speeds deployment and minimizes risk in IT operations. Manage up to 10 vCenters and 1,000 servers using a single OMIVV plug-in. The following video shows how you can create and save ESXi deployment profiles with just a few clicks in OMIVV and apply it effortlessly to achieve 130% faster deployment with 97% less administrator time required.

Superhero sidekicks

Team up with Dell EMC and VMware as your superhero sidekicks, and get up to 66% faster deployment with Dell EMC ProDeploy Services[6] which includes software installation and configuration of the operating system, firmware and VMware hypervisors. Dell EMC has over 1,800 VMware-certified support professionals, offering IT a single point of contact for hardware and software support. And, Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes with Identity Modules further streamline support as the Dell EMC ProSupport team will know the server is a vSAN Ready Node once they are provided the service tag. Everyone will marvel at how quickly IT resolved the issue!

Being in IT at large and small organizations alike is challenging, but thousands of people around the world do it every day. Trust Dell EMC and VMware to help you conquer your biggest IT modernization and SDDC obstacles with the right hardware and software to maximize your superhero skills and obtain legendary status!

VxRail Rockets from Data Center Modernization to Hybrid Cloud

Over the last three years, we have built VxRail to be the fastest and simplest way to modernize and extend your VMware environment. From talking with our customers, we know many of them are looking for a hybrid cloud strategy. In fact, according to a recent survey by Enterprise Strategy Group, 92% of respondents reported that their company’s cloud strategy includes on-premises data centers1. And with good reason! No single cloud offering is a perfect fit for the great breadth of workloads that IT organizations are tasked to support.

Hybrid cloud allows IT organizations the flexibility to choose the resources best suited to address application and business needs. However, implementing a hybrid cloud architecture can introduce additional complexity and risk.

It was only natural for us to extend our market leading platform and address the changing needs of our customers. Once again, through joint development with VMware, we are helping our customers get the benefits of a hybrid cloud strategy while alleviating the complexity and risk that may be introduced.

I am thrilled to announce the arrival of VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell EMC VxRail—a fast and easy path to deploy and operate hybrid cloud through a fully integrated platform. Cloud Foundation on VxRail offers the operational hub for your hybrid cloud, delivering consistent infrastructure and consistent operations with full stack integrity—meaning a seamless experience from the hyperconverged infrastructure

VxRail delivers an experience that is not available on any other on-premises infrastructure running VMware Cloud Foundation. Delivering a unified user experience, VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail is lifecycle managed as one complete, automated, turnkey on-premises experience, greatly reducing risk and increasing IT operational efficiency. This tight integration facilitates smooth, rapid deployment and a simplified management experience while also delivering infrastructure agility that can accelerate your organization’s ability to offer IaaS and PaaS.

Optimized for performance, scalability, user experience and TCO savings, Cloud Foundation on VxRail incorporates many unique Dell EMC and VMware jointly engineered integration features that simplify, streamline and automate the operations of your entire SDDC stack with end-to-end lifecycle management. In its recent releases, VMware has made architectural updates to Cloud Foundation that marry well with core VxRail functionality, such as networking flexibility enabling Dell EMC networking  benefits, as well as deployment options ranging from appliance . Another example of the synergistic relationship between the two companies is the synchronous release of VxRail and VMware software updates, so the latest HCI and cloud software benefits are in customers’ hands sooner. Not only sooner, but better—Cloud Foundation on VxRail is based on VMware SDDC best practices, an approach that is future-proof for next-generation VMware cloud technologies that will be developed around the same architectural design principles.

If you’ve determined that hybrid cloud is in your IT organization’s future, I want to leave you with this: the best way to improve service outcomes and reduce operational risk while evolving to a hybrid cloud operating model is by leveraging trusted technologies and operational processes. Dell EMC VxRail is designed with VMware, for VMware, to enhance VMware-enabled organizations’ ability to streamline operations and predictably evolve. Cloud Foundation on VxRail empowers the next step of that evolution.

I’ll be attending Dell Technologies World next month to discuss Cloud Foundation on VxRail, as well as other exciting hyperconverged happenings. One of my favorite things about these events is the opportunity it affords to interact with our amazing customers who are leveraging our technology to make a difference in the world. I hope to see you at Dell Technologies World, and look forward to continuing this conversation with you in Las Vegas! Until then…