News

Dell Introduces Virtualization Consulting Services

• By Rutrell Yasin
• 06/22/2009

Dell has expanded its virtualization technology portfolio to assist organizations striving to make datacenters and IT operations work more efficiently.

The company has introduced virtualization and datacenter consulting services, business-ready virtualization configurations, new Dell PowerEdge servers and the EqualLogic PS4000 storage array.

Dell officials announced new "flexible and modular" virtualization consulting services. The Dell ProConsult offerings use electronic discovery, Web-based surveys, best practices, comparative data and reference architectures for shorter, more effective engagements, they said.

Dell is offering a variety of consulting options aimed at reducing the cost to plan, manage and run datacenters, including Platform Optimization and Virtualization, Data Center Planning and Management, Disaster Recovery, Data Management and Facilities Efficiency.

Two business-ready virtualization configurations simplify the design, procurement and deployment of virtual enterprise infrastructures, officials said. Data Center Virtualization Configuration is a platform with pre-configured architectures that combines Dell PowerEdge M-series blades and EqualLogic PS6000 iSCSI storage technology, with Cisco Catalyst networking switches, VMware vSphere 4 and PlateSpin Migrate from Novell to achieve an intelligent, automated datacenter.

Small and Medium Business Virtualization Configuration combines the PowerEdge R710, Dell PowerVault MD3000i, PowerVault DL2000 powered by Symantec for backup and PowerConnect networking technology together with Microsoft’s virtualization suite.

The company now offers support for VMware vSphere 4, which lets users transform their datacenters into internal private clouds, and Citrix Essentials for XenServer 5.0. Dell will support Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V to help users deploy the latest virtualization software solutions.

Dell boosted Disaster Recovery capabilities providing Dell EqualLogic Auto-Snapshot Manager 2.0 for VMware vSphere 4. It simplifies data protection and recovery through automation and integration with VMware vSphere 4.

Disaster Recovery delivers "Always On IT" for reduced application downtime and data protection managed from a single console to simplify and make disaster recovery more affordable. Dell EqualLogic arrays integrate with the VMware platform through support for the VMware vStorage APIs, enabling disaster recovery support for VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager and enhanced performance with the EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module for VMware vSphere 4, officials said.

Dell officials seek to eliminate the complexity from managing virtual infrastructure by providing tailored management solutions that best fit individual business needs including Dell Virtualization Management toolkit, Virtual infrastructure capabilities, Virtual Server Remote Monitoring and Reporting.

Additionally, Dell introduced the EqualLogic PS4000 storage array and PowerVault NX3000 network attached storage (NAS) device to help small-to-medium businesses, agencies and remote offices meet the growing demand for storage.

High-Performance Computing
Dell officials think future high-performance computing clusters will be powered by standards-based cluster technology. For HPC and technical computing environments within the public and private sectors, Dell is adding the PowerEdge R410, a compact and quiet rack server that provides the right balance of features and performance, to its HPC server line-up, officials said.

The new PowerEdge T410 and R410 servers are available now starting at $999. The PowerEdge T710 server will be available in the coming weeks. The new EqualLogic PS 4000 is available now starting at $10,000.