Dell Drives Private Cloud Formation
Private clouds are not always clearly defined. To me, they are internal to your datacenter and highly virtualized. But just because your servers are highly virtualized, they aren't necessarily a cloud. It is the level of virtualization. When the infrastructure is truly elastic and self-healing, then I reckon it's a cloud. So it starts with good, old servers and our trusty hypervisors. The rest is software magic, such as management and orchestration.
Dell, which already has a massive partnership with VMware and is doing more and more (though less than VMware) with Hyper-V, has a new line of virt- and private cloud-ready boxes. The vStart 200 is so named because it can support up to 200 VMs. On top of the servers themselves, Dell is more than happy to equip you with networking, cables, storage and whatever else you need to support your rack. Dell also has management software that integrates with Microsoft System Center, which Redmond is pitching as a key private cloud enabler.
Dell isn't the only player in the private cloud town; other large OEMs such as HP and IBM have similar bundles.
Posted by Doug Barney on 01/31/2012 at 12:47 PM