Dell EMC Commitment to Microsoft Customers With Converged Infrastructure Advancements

Dell EMC, part of Dell Technologies, announces broadened support of Microsoft data center environments with substantial updates across the XC Series, Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack and Ready Bundle for SQL Server.

XC Series

Addressing IT transformation opportunities and use cases from hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) to hybrid cloud and data analysis, these updated solutions demonstrate Dell EMC’s commitment to innovate and spur successes for customers operating in Microsoft environments.

“Dell EMC values the strong collaboration we have had with Microsoft for more than 30 years, which has resulted in world-class, innovative solutions delivered to customers worldwide,” said Armughan Ahmad, SVP and GM, hybrid cloud and Ready solutions, Dell EMC. “The innovations we’re announcing today are evidence of how our work with Microsoft has truly changed how our customers conduct their day-to-day activities, enabling them to gain greater value from their IT infrastructures and, more importantly, develop and deliver services to help achieve their ultimate business goals.“

XC Series Advances Integrations with Data Protection and Windows 2016
The XC Series offers HCI appliances for customers running a variety of virtualized workloads with their choice of hypervisors including Hyper-V. As XC Series HCI environments are becoming increasingly popular for Microsoft workloads, including SQL, Exchange and SharePoint, new advancements to the XC Series include:

• XC Series Data Protection Management Console, which is launched from within the XC Series management interface and integrates and simplifies data protection operation and automation across XC Series deployments. This offers complete data protection capabilities with Avamar VE running on XC Series clusters and backup to Data Domain and cloud tiering to Virtustream and Microsoft Azure. IT admins gain the ability to quickly and easily monitor and manage backups for multiple XC Series clusters while utilizing  company’s technologies in one turnkey solution.

• Optimization for Windows 2016 Hyper-V plus Azure, available at no additional cost to customers, including support for Windows Hyper-V 2016 with insights into XC Series clusters. The XC Series Azure Log Analytics Solution provides integration of XC Series into customer’s OMS-based data center automation tools, enabling insights such as trend analysis and behavioral anomaly detection.

Approved to deliver Microsoft Azure throug cloud solution provider (CSP)
direct and indirect model worldwide
The firm also announces it has been approved by Microsoft Corp. to deliver Azure through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) ‘Direct and Indirect’ Microsoft partner model worldwide. Based on the company’s Azure and hybrid cloud platform global expertise, this enables the company to have the advantage of offering comprehensive, end-to-end Azure Stack hybrid cloud solutions, including Azure services and solutions, to both customers and channel partners globally.

The company’s Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack, introduced in May 2017, is a new, turnkey, hybrid cloud platform, delivering infrastructure and platform as a service and shipping now to early customers. It offers a fast and simple path for implementing and sustaining a trusted hybrid cloud platform based on Microsoft Azure Stack, delivering a consistent experience across the Azure on-premises cloud and on-premises through Azure Stack.

Ready solutions add improved compute performance and storage options
Providing customers with more powerful compute performance capabilities, the company has added support for PowerEdge 14th generation servers to the Ready Bundle for SQL Server and the firm’s Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes. Additionally, the Ready Bundle for SQL Server also adds Unity storage, offering customers performance and affordable flash optimized architecture that supports scores of VMs while delivering abundant IO/s at low latency for running demanding SQL Server workloads.

XC Series updates have planned global availability in 4Q17.

Ready Bundle for SQL and Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes updates have planned global availability in 4Q17.

Gavriella Schuster, corporate VP, WW partner group, Microsoft Corp., said: “Customers are adopting cloud-based solutions to drive digital transformation like never before, and we’re thrilled to expand the capabilities for cloud partners under the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program. By joining the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program, our partners, such as Dell EMC, will deepen customer relationships and expand business opportunities in the cloud.“

Morgan Jones, senior server administrator, Arizona State University, said: “With our several XC Series clusters across three physical data centers, we’ve been able to save considerable administrative time and resources, while easily scaling, by simply dropping in new nodes as needs arise. Our appliances are hosting core Microsoft workloads, such as SQL databases, so the new support for Windows Hyper-V 2016 with one-click and rolling cluster upgrades is huge for us. This adds even more simplicity for a solution that already delivers on this promise.“

Yukihisa Kato, director, executive officer and GM, engineering administrative division, Mitsui Knowledge Industry Co., Ltd. (MKI), said: “Azure Stack’s hybrid cloud model is a key transformation enabler for our own business and for customers, and Dell EMC continues to be a proven leader in providing highly reliable hybrid cloud platforms. The combination of Azure Stack with Dell EMC brings together innovative technology and market experience that we are leveraging to help drive our customers’ business transformations.“

Ketil Neteland, advisor, Candidator AB, said: “Dell EMC is the trusted partner of Candidator for Microsoft Azure Stack in Norway and Sweden. Together we bring innovation to our customers maximizing the potential with Azure Stack. Dell EMC’s long history and extensive portfolio delivers the foundation for our business, and we see Azure Stack as strategic in the future to help our joint customers undertake their IT and digital transformations. Candidator is known for delivering innovative technology to their customers, and, with Azure Stack, will continue our promise to customers to be their partner and help them focus on their core business.“

Resources:
Blog: Hyper-converged Infrastructure helps you taste the sweet life
Blog: Dell EMC expands its hybrid cloud portfolio with Azure CSP