Dell Validated System for Virtualization

At VMworld 2016, Dell, Inc. ushered in the next phase of the multi-billion dollar converged systems market with the introduction of Validated System for Virtualization, an industry’s most flexible converged system to-date.⁽¹⁾

The company also announced client virtualization solutions with enhanced performance for demanding power users and VMware has selected Dell Financial Services as its preferred financing partner.

“For more than a decade, Dell and VMware have closely collaborated to help customers achieve greater efficiencies from their datacenters and simplify IT operations,” said Jim Ganthier, VP and GM, engineered systems, HPC and cloud, Dell. “With today’s announcements, we continue to demonstrate how our innovations can enable customers of all sizes to accelerate their journey to hyperconvergence, convergence, and the cloud.“

Next generation converged systems for virtualized environments
A growing number of organizations are attracted to the benefits of converged systems, which combine compute, storage and networking components for simply deployed and managed systems. However, the majority have not yet realized their goals because they demand a higher degree of flexibility and simplicity that moves beyond rigid hardware-defined converged offerings. Company’s service-defined infrastructure approach addresses these challenges and the need for improved infrastructure agility and simplified systems management.

In support of this approach, Dell unveiled:

The Validated System for Virtualization, allowing customers of all sizes to accelerate their journey towards converged infrastructure. Enabled through robust automation and extensive testing and validation, it is the most flexible converged system in the industry. (1) The system incorporates a range of form-factors, technology choices and deployment options, right-sized to fit each customers’ needs. A validated system can be configured, quoted and ordered in minutes, while automated lifecycle management tools allow customers to easily deploy, scale, and update the system.
A customizable, modular, self-service hybrid VMware cloud, as a proof of concept for customers moving beyond virtualization to cloud. The Validated System for Virtualization, with the addition of the VMware vRealize Suite, allows efficient delivery of services and enables an organization to gain greater control of IT resources. The combination of VMware vRealize and company’s automated provisioning across physical and virtual environments makes it easier for customers to plan and operate their own cloud.

Client virtualization solutions for end-user computing
The company is expanding its client virtualization solutions for VMware to provide customers with the manageability, flexibility and performance they require in their VDI environments.

These include:

The firm’s solutions for VMware Virtual SAN Ready Nodes, a hyperconverged solution for desktop and application virtualization that delivers simple, elastic and efficient infrastructure optimized for virtual desktos. Deployment options range from a reference architecture to a configured Virtual SAN appliance that’s been certified by VMware. Configuration options include discrete GPU graphics for uncompromising density and productivity as well as storage options including hybrid storage (HDD and SDD) or an all-flash SSD configuration for those who require higher performance. The solutions come with a choice of virtualization software broker options: VMware Horizon 7 or Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode. Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode is the first management plane to manage virtual desktops from the cloud, and the company is the first major vendor to ship this solution today, including a comprehensive reference architecture.

Support for VMware Blast Extreme remote display protocol, which will be incorporated on Dell Windows Embedded thin clients running VMware Horizon 7 with Horizon Client 4.0. This enables Horizon end users to access their virtual desktops via a Web browser or a full-featured VMware Horizon client for an even richer graphical experience, providing greater flexibility and management options in their virtual workspace environments.
The next-generation of firm’s Precision Appliance for Wyse, which offers a new configuration based on the Dell PowerEdge R730 server and the NVIDIA Tesla M60 GRID 2.0 graphics card for demanding power users from a variety of organizations including the oil and gas industry or engineering and construction firms. This solution offers customers higher user density with up to 32 users per appliance.

The company is introducing two security solutions to provide organizations with a superior layer of threat protection to an already secure computing environment, Data Protection | Threat Defense for Windows Embedded (WES) thin clients and Data Protection | Endpoint Security Suite Enterprise for persistent VMs. These solutions provide organizations with advanced threat protection powered by Cylance that spans from the endpoint (including thin clients, traditional PCs and even Mac OS systems) to the data center, ensuring that all facets of an organization’s Windows-based VDI environment are protected.

“Organizations are looking to Dell to provide them with true end-to-end client virtualization solutions that are easy to plan, deploy and run – and take the guess work out of VDI,” said Steve Lalla, VP and GM, commercial client software and solutions, Dell. “The Dell VDI Solutions for VMware Virtual SAN Ready Nodes with Horizon and support for Blast Extreme remote protocol on Windows thin clients gives our customers solutions that are tailored for their environment, as well as high performance and manageability.“

Dell Financial Services named the Preferred Financing Partner for VMware
The company announced that his Dell Financial Services (DFS) has been selected as VMware’s preferred financing partner, offering flexible payment plans for VMware solutions. This new partnership offers VMware customers and channel partners access to all of DFS’ traditional financing options, in addition to a variety of flexible solutions to help them finance their virtualized environments.

Tom Herrmann, VP, global strategic alliances, VMware, said: “One of our top priorities at VMware is our collaboration with our diverse and robust partner ecosystem to provide powerful software-defined solutions for our customers. Through our longstanding, strategic relationship with Dell, we are able to offer tightly integrated solutions designed to solve our joint customers’ most significant IT needs.“

Darren Fedorowicz, executive director, channel and solutions financing, DFS, said: “At DFS, we believe that access to payment options is a critical enabler for customers who want to adopt technology to further their business. Virtualization is a growing trend and we look forward to enabling more customers and channel partners to adopt VMware solutions by gaining access to financing through the partnership with DFS.“

Availability:

Validated System for Virtualization will be released in September 2016 under directed availability with planned availability in Q4 of 2016.
Solutions for VMware Virtual SAN Ready Nodes for Horizon and Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode is available in the United States and select countries around the world.
Support for VMware Blast Extreme remote protocol is available on the Wyse 5020 and 7020 thin clients, and will roll out to other WES-based thin clients this fall.
Precision Appliance for Wyse and Data Protection | Threat Defense for WES thin clients are available in the United States and select countries around the world.
Data Protection | Endpoint Security Suite Enterprise for persistent VMs will be available in select countries in September 2016.
Dell Financial Services solutions for VMware are available in the United States with other regions to follow in the coming months.