When I looked at my ringing mobile phone the Caller-ID said “Dell, Inc.” and I assumed it was a co-worker reminding me about an important meeting I had forgotten. Instead the voice at the other end of the call excitedly whispered in a consciously hushed tone, “I’ve got something you need to see. The world needs to know about it.” Who was this? He sounded vaguely familiar and I asked what he was speaking about to which he responded, “I saw the videos you’ve posted where Ric McKinney was talking about some showcase projects. I have something you need to see. Bring your camera.”
The cryptic nature of the call made my mind run wild! What was this about? Gravity defying racks? A petabyte of storage in a 1U chassis? Servers that used residual heat to make coffee? What was I going to see?
I urgently made my way across the Dell campus in Round Rock to visit this mystery man in his lab, a magical place filled with strange technology unlike anything I had ever seen. When he showed up at his desk, about 10 minutes late (of which I’ll forgive him given the nature of the stuff he showed me), I was eager to see what he had to offer. To my immense pleasure, this engineer, Zac Cravens, pointed out an opened up PowerEdge R310 and I started filming.
Zac, the Dell OEM Solutions Mechanical Lead for non-Standard Systems, walked me through a very elegant carrier for the R310 which replaced the available optical drive in the system with a SSD. The solution was so well thought out, it was obvious how to use it and it could be re-used for dozens of other customers who may need a similar solution without a lengthy and costly re-engineering process.
Thanks Zac!
When he had finished his demo of this custom OEM-Ready R310 solution I thought I had struck pay-dirt; then he got a twinkle in his eyes, looked around to see if anyone was nearby, and when he was sure no one else was listening said, “I have more – an even more technically exciting project I want to show you.”
Stay tuned for what followed by subscribing to our blog. You’re going to love what he showed me next.
If you are interested in learning what Dell OEM Solutions can do for your OEM appliance or compute platform, please visit our website and fill out an engagement form to have a representative contact you.