Converged and Hyperconverged Infrastructure

Leadership: A Commitment to Our Customers

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Depending on who you ask, leadership means a number of different things. For many (including Merriam Webster), the defining attribute of a leader is simply holding an office or position of leadership. And sure, Dell—#1 in global hyper-converged systems revenue1—is by all accounts a leader. But the true impact of leadership cannot be measured in the absolutes of a chart or balance sheet, rather in the degree to which they empower the people—and businesses—they work with. In this spirit, I am thrilled to share the results of Gartner’s November 2018 Magic Quadrant and companion Critical Capabilities report for Hyper-converged Infrastructure (HCI).

We believe Gartner has recognized Dell for continued HCI leadership, reflecting both our Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. To evaluate Dell Critical Capabilities for HCI, Gartner again selected VxRail, our flagship HCI offering. Our overall Critical Capabilities rating for HCI increased over last year’s report. In particular, this year Dell scored higher than any other HCI vendor in the VDI use case, and for the 2nd year in a row, highest in Business-Critical and Cloud use cases.

A recent IDG survey shows that 50% of IT leaders are already running or planning to run business-critical applications on hyper-converged infrastructure, with another 20% considering it2. VxRail is the only fully integrated, pre-configured, and pre-tested HCI appliance on the market powered by VMware vSAN, the industry leading software defined storage solution designed for virtualized business-critical workloads and applications. Powered by the latest generation of Dell PowerEdge servers, VxRail is fully loaded with enterprise data services and configurable to meet any business critical use case—even floating active-active data centers aboard hospital ships (just ask Mercy Ships, a non-profit VxRail customer that provides free lifesaving surgeries to people where medical care is nearly non-existent). VxRail speeds time to value in the core data center (powering applications such as SAP HANA), at the edge, and importantly in the cloud as well.

According to Gartner’s own research, “In 2019, hybrid IT will be the standard. Technical professionals focused on cloud must continue to advance cloud-first strategies, embrace multicloud and maintain on-premises environments”3. As an integrated cloud platform, VxRail offers multiple options to simplify the path to a VMware hybrid cloud environment, including VMware Validated Design (VVD) and, coming soon, VMware Cloud Foundation, with a focus on integration and brokering, which will deliver a seamless customer experience with automated deployment of a VMware SDDC architecture and LCM of the full end-to-end hardware/software stack along with choice of networking. For more on how VxRail is transforming HCI networking and simplifying the path to the VMware Cloud, check out Gil Shneorson’s recent blog.

As the leader of HCI Product Marketing, on behalf of the entire Dell HCI team, I am proud that Gartner has recognized Dell in a continued HCI Leaders position. But more importantly, I am excited about what lies ahead for our customers. Dell and VMware are continuing to increase our level of collaboration on VxRail—and it is our customers that will benefit from these ongoing joint investments. The less time IT spends on administration, routine maintenance, and support, the more time they can dedicate to innovation that drives business value—and ultimately leadership within their industry. Which brings me back to the theme of this blog: leadership. My definition of a leader is someone—or some business—that empowers and creates new leaders. When I speak with VxRail customers, I am consistently inspired by the creative, impactful ways they are leveraging hyper-converged infrastructure to make a difference for their businesses, and the world—from powering the next disruptive innovation to providing free lifesaving surgeries. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Gartner, 2019 Planning Guide for Cloud Computing, Elias Khnaser, Lydia Leong, Douglas Toombs, Simon Richard, Joerg Fritsch, Alan Waite, Paul Delory, Traverse Clayton, Gregg Siegfried, Marco Meinardi, Gregory Murray, Nik Simpson, Kyle Davis, 5 October 2018

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure, John McArthur | Kiyomi Yamada | Philip Dawson | Julia Palmer, 27 November 2018

Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Hyperconverged Infrastructure, Philip Dawson, Kiyomi Yamada, Hiroko Aoyama, Julia Palmer, John McArthur, 28 November 2018

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

  1. Based on IDC Worldwide Quarterly Converged Systems Tracker, September 25, 2018
  2. IDG, CIO QuickPulse: Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Delivers Value as it Goes Mainstream in the Data Center
  3. Gartner, 2019 Planning Guide for Cloud Computing

About the Author: Shannon Champion

Shannon leads Product Marketing for Dell Technologies’ leading and comprehensive portfolio of primary storage, HCI, and CI offerings. Shannon joined Dell EMC in 2014, helped launch the first EMC hyper-converged solution in that year, and has been part of the hyperconverged marketing team since then. As a marketing and sales enablement expert, Shannon has more than 20 years of experience in several cross-functional and management roles within IT including product marketing, business development, manufacturing and quality with both direct manufacturers and channel partners. Before joining EMC, Shannon led Cisco product management and marketing for a national channel partner, PC Connection; was a product marketing manager and quality engineer for the IBM/Lenovo PC Division; and worked as a manufacturing process engineer for IBM’s microelectronics division. Shannon received her M.B.A. from Kenan-Flagler School of Business in North Carolina, and her M.S. and B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Rochester in upstate NY. Dell Technologies helps organizations and individuals build their digital future and transform how they work, live and play. The company provides customers with the industry’s broadest and most innovative technology and services portfolio for the data era. Our industry-leading converged infrastructure, servers, storage and data protection technologies enables organizations to modernize, automate, and transform their data center.