As Microsoft Ignite kicks off today, we are excited to announce the expanded availability of hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solutions based on the latest Dell PowerEdge servers.
Organizations of all sizes must innovate or risk falling behind the competition. And that’s why it’s our mission to deliver innovative, industry-leading HCI solutions that accelerate IT modernization and enable digital transformation. In that spirit of innovation, we are excited to announce that the full Dell Technologies HCI portfolio, including Dell VxRail, Dell PowerFlex and Dell Azure Stack HCI have been updated with the latest generation Dell PowerEdge servers.
Next-Generation PowerEdge Servers for HCI
At the core of our newest HCI platforms is the latest generation PowerEdge server with 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors.
The increase in performance and bandwidth is remarkable – up to 36% more cores than 2nd Gen Xeon processors and 20% more memory bandwidth for our platforms with Intel Optane Memory and significant cost savings versus traditional DRAM. Higher core density and better memory performance translate into HCI platforms that can address more resource intensive workloads like databases, analytics, and AI/ML apps effortlessly. Packing a higher punch in a smaller form factor also makes these new platforms great for edge deployments where high compute performance is needed in space-constrained locations.
Next-Generation PowerEdge servers are now the standard across the Dell Technologies Portfolio so whether you’re considering modernizing legacy infrastructure on HCI or deploying new workloads on HCI, you’re able to take advantage of these new platforms.
Advancing Autonomous Infrastructure
Autonomous infrastructure is maturing, the ability for infrastructure to provide proactive health notifications and predictive analytics before they impact performance has real implications for application reliability and end-user experience. CloudIQ, on VxRail and PowerFlex for example, led to up to 10x faster time to resolution.¹
Automated lifecycle management is a key component of autonomous infrastructure operations and with this newest generation HCI platforms, we are excited to highlight advancements in our lifecycle management capabilities built directly in the HCI software behind VxRail (VxRail HCI Systems Software), PowerFlex (PowerFlex Manager) and Azure Stack HCI (OpenMange Integration with Windows Admin Center). For example, in the newest release of VxRail HCI Systems Software, we’re enhancing our LCM capabilities further up the stack to align with larger VMware ecosystem updates like NXT and Tanzu all in a single upgrade cycle.
Simplifying and automating lifecycle management has a measurable impact on IT teams’ productivity. IDC found that customers saved time on routine maintenance delivering 114% more new apps per year due, in part, to the automated lifecycle management built into the VxRail HCI System Software.²
Our joint success is founded in a commitment to innovation and making hybrid cloud simple and consumable for customers.” – Talal Alqinawi, senior director, Microsoft
Addressing Security Threats Before They Impact Your Business
The foundation of our new HCI platforms are PowerEdge servers and at the foundation of every PowerEdge server is a cyber-resilient architecture designed for secure interactions and the capability to predict potential threats. Recent Forrester analysis shows that 63% of companies have experienced a data compromise due to an exploited vulnerability in hardware- or silicon-level security³ and firmware is an emerging “attack vector” for newer, more sophisticated cyberattacks.
The next-generation HCI platforms mitigate firmware threats with UEFI Secure Boot Optimization to ensure granular control of the firmware validation.
Automation extends beyond analytics and lifecycle management to the security realm as well. With VxRail for example, the HCI System Software conducts regular security and compliance checks and automated reporting to simplify the compliance audit process.
Join Dell Technologies Today at Microsoft Ignite and for a Preview into the latest Azure Stack OS
If you’ve been following Microsoft news, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the updated Azure Stack HCI operating system. In addition to the new nodes we’re bringing to market across the HCI portfolio, we’re also announcing that Dell Technologies will provide support for the latest Azure Stack HCI OS in the coming months. We’re excited to help our customers leverage these new features including advanced security features like Secured-core server and Infrastructure Lock using the OpenManage integration for WAC to prevent any unintended changes to HCI cluster settings.
“Dell was our launch-day partner when we introduced Azure Stack HCI back in December 2020 and we’ve sustained that momentum to the roll-out of the first major Azure Stack HCI Operating System update,” Talal Alqinawi, Microsoft senior director, described.
There’s a lot to be excited about at Microsoft Ignite and we hope you’ll join us, and our partners from Intel and NVIDIA, to learn more about the new HCI nodes and dive deep into the Dell Integrated System for Azure Stack HCI.
Starting today, you’ll be able to connect with HCI experts at the Dell Technologies Innovation Center at Ignite.
We also hope you’ll join us for two sessions covering HCI at the event.
-
- Ask the Experts on Wednesday, November 3, 11:30-12:00 CDT for a live discussion with Q&A on how to supercharge your Azure Stack hybrid cloud.
- Ask the Experts on Wednesday, November 3, 12:30-1:00 CDT for an interactive discussion on building an integrated hybrid DBaas platform for modern applications.
This virtual event and the sessions are open to anyone who would like to attend. Please stop by and learn why companies like Argus Machine chose Dell Technologies for their Azure Stack HCI deployment.
“As a manufacturer of industrial products precision is key. We take that attention to detail and precision mindset to selecting the IT solutions that run our business,” according to Andrew Mah, Network Administrator with Argus Machine. “That’s why we chose Azure Stack HCI from Dell Technologies. We were able to work with their engineers to design a solution that precisely mapped to our IT requirements today but also what we will need from our IT years into the future.”
We hope to see you there!
¹ Based on a Dell Technologies survey of CloudIQ users conducted May through June 2021. Actual results may vary. Ad# CLM-000884
² IDC Business Value White Paper, sponsored by Dell Technologies and Intel, “The Business Value of Dell EMC VxRail and VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell VxRail”, December 2020. Actual results will vary.
³ Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper Commissioned by Dell, BIOS Security – The Next Frontier for Endpoint Protection, June 2019
