Enabling business at the edge is a key theme at Dell Technologies World this year. For organizations that need to extract value from their data at the edge, Dell Technologies offers unrivaled choice in edge solutions built on industry leading technologies, services, and consumption models while seamlessly integrating with your public and private clouds.
Exponential growth at the Edge
Just as with “cloud” in the early days, many people have different definitions for “the edge.” From the perspective of Dell Technologies, the edge exists wherever the digital world and physical world intersect, and data is securely collected, generated and analyzed to create new value. Really, our focus is on helping customers realize that business value, which will become increasingly critical as more business moves out to the edge. IDC predicts there will be an 800%¹ increase in the number of applications at the edge, creating vast amounts of data, and our own Dell Technologies sponsored study shows that 55% of all of that data will need to also be analyzed at the edge.²
This drives a need for greater compute, denser storage and perhaps most importantly, operational simplicity, that hyperconverged infrastructure – and in particular VxRail – is uniquely positioned to address.
Game changer: VxRail extends automation to the Edge – at scale
The rapid evolution of business at the edge will demand the agility, operational simplicity and flexibility that VxRail provides for customers to optimize business value. VxRail – the only jointly integrated HCI system with VMware – delivers a curated, turnkey experience, including our HCI System Software that enables automated, full stack lifecycle management. The benefits are clear in a newly published IDC Business Value snapshot which found VxRail customers have 72% lower operational costs due to less IT staff time, lost productivity, and unplanned downtime.³
The rapid evolution of business at the edge will demand the agility, operational simplicity and flexibility that VxRail provides for customers to optimize business value.
We have now extended this automation to the edge and at scale. Whether customers are deploying standard VxRail clusters across the edge or have implemented VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail and are extending the cloud operating model to remote clusters, here are two new ways to extend the value of utilizing VxRail at the edge:
- Our unique VxRail HCI System Software with new SaaS active multi-cluster management ensures clusters in remote locations are in a continuous validated state. It automatically determines which components need to be upgraded and then can automatically execute full stack upgrades on each individual cluster, further automating the LCM process. Imagine the operational efficiencies when there are tens or hundreds of sites.
- For customers that have adopted a cloud operating model running our Dell Technologies Cloud Platform, VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail, the recently introduced remote edge cluster support provides consistent cloud operating model across the hybrid cloud, including remote edge locations.
Configurations optimized for the edge
VxRail continuously expands and optimizes its platform and ecosystem offerings to address a broad range of use cases, vertical markets and modern applications across the core, edge and cloud. Highly configurable to meet any workload, VxRail provides customers the flexibility to choose the best platform to meet performance, storage, graphics, IO and cost requirements. The following platforms are ideal for edge locations:
- VxRail E Series is a low-profile, cost-effective platform for core to edge deployments. It comes with a choice of Intel Xeon Scalable or AMD EPYC processors and optional NVIDIA GPUs. The E Series is ideal for remote or branch office locations where space is at a premium.
- VxRail D Series is a ruggedized, short-depth platform for workloads at the edge, in extreme environments and space-constrained areas. The D Series models are MIL-STD certified and designed to be temperature resilient, shock resistant and portable.
Simple, flexible consumption options
As always, Dell Technologies aims to simplify the purchasing experience with a breadth of consumption models and financing options. With the introduction of instance-based configurations for DTCP (VCF on VxRail), we’ve simplified the way customers size and order on-premises and edge cloud resources. Customers can now subscribe to instances designed for their workloads in a few clicks through Dell Technologies Cloud Console—and get it deployed in as few as 14 days. This enables customers to focus on innovation instead of infrastructure procurement.
Learn more and have fun at Dell Technologies World experience
Speaking of “edge,” our VxRail sessions at Dell Technologies World this week will have you sitting on the edge of your seat—don’t miss them, or our new VxRail edge video. And we’ve just launched a new game for mobile: Data Center Sim. This game tasks you with managing a data center—you’ll need to balance your budget, staffing, and capacity in order to address the needs of the business and edge out the competition (see what I did there?). It’s a lot of fun– and a great way to experience the real-life benefits of VxRail. You can download it by searching “Data Center Sim” in your app store of choice.
In summary, while we have a number of customers utilizing VxRail at the edge today – from large retail and home improvement chains to global logistics organizations and financial institutions – our continuous innovation in driving operational efficiency at scale and our broad range of platform configuration and consumption options enable customers to optimize edge clusters for their workload requirements while addressing space and power constraints… so more and more customers can rely on VxRail to drive the future of HCI at the edge.
¹Source: IDC — 2019
²2020 Edge Study Commissioned by Dell Technologies
³ IDC Business Value Snapshot sponsored by Dell Technologies and Intel: The Business Value of Dell EMC VxRail and VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail, October 2020. Actual results may vary.
