Improved performance and reliability for critical workloads with updated Dell PowerEdge Servers

Customers rely on Dell as a strategic business partner to help improve business performance and deliver efficiency across the enterprise. High-performance x86 servers running business critical applications are the cornerstone of efficiency. On April 5th we announced the refresh of three 4-socket PowerEdge servers with the new Intel Xeon E7 series processors for improved performance, security and reliability for workloads such as ERP, CRM, database and analytics.

Both IT leaders who select hardware as well as business unit leaders who are making workload decisions have chosen to operate their businesses on x86-based servers rather than RISC/UNIX systems to consolidate hardware, lower capital and operating cost, lower TCO and improve performance.

  • Need more computing power but have space constraints? The updated PowerEdge servers provide customers with up to an 18:1 server consolidation ratio over four socket dual core processor based systems1.
  • Dell PowerEdge servers reduce capital, operating and opportunity costs compared to RISC/UNIX systems. Intel estimates that servers with Xeon E7 processors allow customers to lower operation costs 93 percent resulting in a one year return on investment2.
  • With the new Intel Xeon E7 processors, Intel tests show that customers can execute business critical processes faster than ever with up to 2.8x scaling transaction improvement on 4-socket E7-4800 over 2-socket Intel Xeon processor 5600 series.3

To make that happen seamlessly, many customers have benefited from Dell’s team of experienced services professionals to guide them through complex migrations and upgrades for important business applications. Examples include our help in migrating, upgrading or deploying Dell™ | Oracle® database solutions. Our deep expertise in designing, deploying and managing Oracle database solutions enables you to:

  • Assess your needs
  • Design your solution
  • Implement a full Oracle solution complete with services, software, servers, networking and storage

We provide the guidance and best practices to free your IT staff from time-consuming, day-to-day systems management so they can focus on helping your business innovate.

Dell’s PowerEdge portfolio based on Intel’s latest “Westmere-EX” Xeon E7 7500 series processors includes;

  • PowerEdge R910: An ideal platform for RISC/UNIX migrations, large database deployments and server virtualization implementations, this 4U rack server comes with four processors, up to 64 DIMM slots for memory, redundant power supplies and a failsafe embedded hypervisor. The Dell PowerEdge R910 configured with a ten core Intel® Xeon® CPU E7-4780 Westmere-EX processor can provide up to 38 percent improvement in Oracle application server and database performance over previous generation eight core Intel® Xeon® X7560 “Nehalem-EX” processor 4.
  • PowerEdge M910: A high-performance four-socket blade server, the PowerEdge M910 is best suited for customers looking to maximize the advantages of server virtualization and consolidation or for use as a medium or large database platform. This full-height blade can scale up to 512GB of RAM across 32 DIMM slots.
  • PowerEdge R810: The PowerEdge R810 is best suited for customers looking to consolidate server hardware through virtualization and deploy email messaging and database applications. The 2U offering is available in high-density two- or four-socket varieties. Through advances in memory management, up to 32 memory DIMM slots can be accessed by just two low cost processors, enabling it to manage four socket workloads.

Additional Information:

1 Based on comparison between 4S MP Intel® Xeon® processor 7041 (dual-core with Intel® HyperThreading Technology, 4M cache, 3.00GHz, 800MHz FSB, formerly code named Paxville) and 4S Intel® Xeon® processor E7-4870 (30M cache, 2.40GHz, 6.4GT/s Intel® QPI, code named Westmere-EX) based servers.

2 Calculation includes analysis based on performance, power, cooling, electricity rates, operating system annual license costs and estimated server costs. This assumes 42U racks, $0.10 per kWh, cooling costs are 2x the server power consumption costs, operating system license cost of $900/year per server, per server cost of $36,000 based on estimated list prices, and estimated server utilization rates. All dollar figures are approximate.

3 Scalability: Up to 3x scaling transaction improvement claim based on internal OLTP benchmark comparing next generation Intel® Xeon® processor E7-4870 (30M cache, 2.40GHz, 6.40GT/s Intel® QPI, codenamed Westmere-EX) scoring 2.7M transactions (leading database vendor) to X5680 (12M cache, 3.33GHz, 6.40GT/s Intel QPI, formerly codenamed Westmere-EP) scoring 903K transactions. Source: Intel SSG TR#1120.

4 Based on comparison of published results of Dell and Oracle ( Cisco UCS B440 M1 blade server) testing performed in March 2011 running an industry-standard SPEC Java Enterprise benchmark. SPEC® is a registered trademark of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.

About the Author: Susie Grandi