Dell has unveiled a new range of PowerEdge servers that will be powered by Intel’s next-gen Xeon E5 processor range, as well as an expansion of is EquaLogic storage line and a private cloud platform called vStart.
At an event held at London’s Twickenham stadium, Dell announced the 12th generation of its blade, rack and tower PowerEdge servers that it said will be aimed at a variety of different business needs.
Precise specifications about the servers themselves are still sketchy at the moment – Dell is holding off until the worldwide launch of Intel’s Xeon E5 range, which is widely expected to be in early March.
However at the event Dell showed off the R820, R720 and C6220 servers that will be aimed at Big Data applications. Tony Parkinson, VP, CSMB, Global Enterprise Services & Solutions, said the C6220 represents four servers in a single form-factor and is aimed at cloud hosters.
The Dell PowerEdge C6220 server
Also on the new server block are the R620, R720 and M620 servers, which are aimed at virtualised environments. Another new server, the PowerEdge T620, is aimed at the SMB market. It is called "library quiet" by Dell because of its near-silent running. Dell says this is important as small businesses often have to share office space with their server infrastructure.
All the new servers will support 10GbE networking thanks to Dell’s August 2011 acquisition of Force10 Networks.
Beyond the server hardware, Dell talked up the capabilities of its embedded management tools. The company says its new software can make the monitoring, updating and deploying of servers much easier. This includes a new Lifecycle Controller, which offers an "agent-free" environment.
In the storage space, Dell announced updates to its EquaLogic range. The company claims the PS6110 Series offers up to 72 terabytes in a single array and 1.2 petabytes in a single group.
The PS4110 Series is for smaller deployments and is said to be Dell’s first 10GbE EqualLogic entry-point array. It supports up to 36 terabytes in a single array and 72 terabytes in a single group, Dell said.
Dell also unveiled details of a private cloud offering. Called vStart, it is said to offer pre-configured and pre-built PowerEdge server, storage, networking and management components to offer a ‘cloud-in-a-box’ platform for building private clouds. VStart will be available during the second quarter, Dell said.
Dell PowerEdge R820 server
Finally, Dell started on the journey to catch up with some of its rivals in the business intelligence (BI) space. It has announced the Dell Quickstart Data Warehouse Appliance, which it says is aimed at the midmarket and will help companies to organise and analyse data. It will use Boomi, acquired by Dell in 2010 for integration purposes.
At the event, Brad Anderson, president of Dell’s enterprise systems group, said the announcements show that the company has moved beyond its traditional stronghold of PCs.
"Dell is no longer a PC company," he said. "We are an end to end IT solutions company, from the cloud to the data centre to the desktop and out to the mobile user. Customers are now saying they want pre-configured and pre-built systems because they want to know how long it will take to deploy and what it will cost."
