Michael Dell (Dell Technologies)
Dell Technologies has unveiled a new portfolio of infrastructure solutions designed to simplify hybrid cloud deployments, delivered through an ecosystem of VMware providers and hyper-scalers.
Under the banner of Dell Technologies Cloud, the new data centre-as-a-service offering will house VMware Cloud on Dell EMC as the centrepiece, spanning hardware, software, services and consumption options.
To drive adoption, the technology giant is turning to the VMware Cloud Provider Program, housing a network of 4,200 partners, including service providers across infrastructure-as-a-service, cloud, application, Internet and platform segments.
“Through VMware, we have over 4,000 partners and within the Dell Technologies Cloud, customers will be able to seamlessly move workloads across all of those partners and their on-premises environment,” said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies.
“When we formed Dell Technologies, we believed that bringing together the leader in servers, storage, virtualisation and data protection would be great for customers.
“We’ve created an essential infrastructure company and the market has responded. We’re growing, we’re gaining share and we’re investing in our business, paying down debt and innovating across our family of businesses.”
Outlined on the opening day of Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas - housing more than 15,000 attendees, including 4,000 channel partners - the offering aims to provide “a single vendor experience” for purchasing, deployment, services and financing.
The offering will also be backed up by managed services across security, data protection and lifecycle management.
“For many organisations, the increasingly diverse cloud landscape is resulting in an enormous amount of IT complexity, and no one is more qualified or capable to help customers solve this challenge than Dell Technologies,” added Jeff Clarke, vice chairman of products and operations at Dell Technologies.
Clarke said businesses deploying Dell Technologies Cloud can “increase agility” through VMware tools capable of “provisioning, governing, automating and orchestrating” applications across multiple cloud deployment options.
Alongside joint infrastructure engineering, organisations can also “buy, rent or consume” IT as-a-service through Dell Financial Services.
“Cloud is not a destination; it’s an operating model,” Clarke added. “With Dell Technologies Cloud and joint engineering between Dell EMC and VMware, we are offering a unified hybrid cloud experience.
“This provides consistent infrastructure and operations at every location the cloud resides - from on-premises data centres to public clouds and the emerging edge - allowing our customers to have greater control of their multi-cloud journey.”
According to IDC, more than 70 per cent of customers are using multiple cloud environments, with the largest data centre challenge centred around developing a viable multi-cloud strategy.
“Organisations around the globe are increasingly using multiple cloud approaches as part of their environments - from private clouds in data centres, and increasingly at the edge, to multiple public clouds,” said Michelle Bailey, group vice president of IDC.
”While the goal is to simplify IT, operating in many cloud environments ends up consuming time and adding complexity.
“By enabling consistent operations and infrastructure with a hybrid cloud across on-premises and public cloud with VMware and Dell EMC, the combined Dell Technologies Cloud approach can help alleviate much of the burden on organisations by delivering a seamless experience.”
VMware takes centre stage
Delivered as-a-service, VMware Cloud on Dell EMC comprises of compute, storage and networking software powered by vSphere, vSAN and NSX running on VxRail hyper-converged infrastructure.
The service will be fully managed by VMware, with the solution currently in beta, with expected US availability in the second half of 2019 and no word on global dates at this stage.
“Whether they’re running infrastructure on-premises or in the cloud, organisations value a cloud operating model,” said Mark Lohmeyer, senior vice president of Cloud Platform Business Unit at VMware.
“VMware Cloud on Dell EMC will deliver that cloud experience to organisations that need to maintain data and applications on-premises - completely transforming how they acquire, deploy and manage infrastructure.
“The service will provide consistent infrastructure and operations across cloud, data centre and edge, freeing organisations to drive innovation and deliver business value while VMware operates the entire infrastructure end-to-end.”
Lohmeyer said the offering will also enable organisations to consume infrastructure in data centre and edge environments on-demand like a public cloud service via a hybrid cloud control plane.
Specifically, the control plane will provide administrators with visibility and management of all on-premises systems including monitoring the health of racks, tracking the steps VMware engineers take to resolve service issues, and automatic patching and upgrading of systems end-to-end.
Meanwhile, the subscription-based service will offer cloud-like flexible consumption and payment options.
“With the introduction of VMware Cloud on Dell EMC, VMware is entering the fast emerging industry for on-premises infrastructure delivered as-a-service,” added Richard Villars, research vice president at IDC.
“It’s enabling CIOs and their IT teams to more effectively take advantage of new technologies and deployment models that allow for the optimal placement workloads while enabling easy access to the latest infrastructure and a consistent operational approach across all environments.”
James Henderson travelled to Dell Technologies World as a guest of Dell Technologies.
