Building on the momentum of the Active System Manager 1.0 launch in early October last year, and a limited release of version 7.0 in March this year, I’m proud to announce the launch of Active System Manager 7.1. This new version provides unified management for the entire Active System portfolio, including the Active System 50, 200, 800, and 1000, and associated reference architectures.
Active System Manager 7.1 offers many new capabilities and enhancements which customers can leverage to accelerate delivery of IT services, drive higher efficiency, and ensure high IT service quality. The new 7.1 version offers:
- Deep virtual integration: Active System Manager now offers cluster-level support for both the VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V based virtual platforms, enabling customers to manage the entire VM lifecycle on both platforms.
- Rapid on-boarding: Active System Manager 7.1 offers rapid discovery, inventory and initial configuration of infrastructure assets contained within an Active System. This enables customers to be up and running very quickly once they receive an Active System from Dell.
- Stateless computing: Active System Manager expands the stateless computing capabilities available in earlier releases, enabling customers to rapidly and efficiently scale up or scale down resources dedicated to an IT service, and migrate workloads for planned and unplanned events.
- Expanded infrastructure compatibility: This new version offers support for a much broader range of infrastructure elements, both Dell and non-Dell. Active System Manager now adds support for Dell PowerEdge rack servers, Dell Force10 MXL, Dell Compellent storage, Brocade Fibre Channel switching, and Cisco Nexus networking.
- Workload templates: Leveraging Active System Manager’s template-based provisioning capabilities, customers can now take advantage of the validated out-of-box workload template for Microsoft SQL, or create their own custom template for desired workloads. The ability to capture infrastructure requirements via a template and predictably apply them has been shown to dramatically speed up IT service deployment; this release makes that process even simpler.
The innovations in this new version of Active System Manager are centered on enabling an IT service centric, automated approach for our customers’ data centers. To that end, Active System Manager offers the ability to:
- Accelerate IT service delivery by automating and centralizing key operational functions like workload and infrastructure deployment. For instance, Active System Manager 7.1 simplifies the process of deploying virtual infrastructure by enabling administrators to use only 1 tool to configure server, network, storage, and virtualization.
- Free up IT staff by streamlining data center management through the reduction of manual steps and human touch points. For example, Active System Manager 7.1 enables the deployment of a complex virtualization cluster with approximately 99% fewer steps than doing it manually.
- Use your infrastructure more efficiently by pooling available server, storage and network resources that can be scheduled for future use, or allocate on demand.
- Ensure accuracy and consistency in delivering IT services by standardizing the initial deployment process and maintaining flexibility to scale or migrate workloads as business needs change.
Active System Manager 7.1 is an integral part of the Active Infrastructure 1.1 release, which will be available across the globe in select countries across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. We invite you to explore how the innovations in this new release can dramatically transform your data center.