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Dell EMC, as well as the separate Dell and EMC companies in years gone by, have been hugely important customer/partners with Microsoft since the 1980s. Nearing the end of 2017 and moving into the new year, it looks like that key relationship is going to get even more strategic for everybody.
The news Sept. 27 from the Microsoft Insight conference is about cooperation in that Dell EMC is expanding its support of Microsoft data center environments with major updates across its server lines: the XC Series, Dell EMC Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack and Dell EMC Ready Bundle for Microsoft SQL Server.
Naturally, the messaging is that this all “addresses key IT transformation opportunities and use cases” from hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) to hybrid cloud and data analysis.
IT transformation itself isn’t news; that’s what been keeping the tech business in business for more than three generations. This, however, is about server upgrades that add much more functionality—especially in data management controls and security—using Microsoft-based IT than has ever been available previously.
The continued rise in marketshare of the free Hyper-V hypervisor certainly has played a big role in this for Microsoft.
Here’s a rundown of what Dell EMC announced at this week’s conference in Orlando, Fla.:
- Dell EMC XC Series Data Protection Management Console, which is launched from within the XC Series management interface and integrates data protection operation and automation across XC Series deployments. This offers data-protection capabilities with Dell EMC Avamar VE running on XC Series clusters and backup to Dell EMC Data Domain and cloud tiering to Virtustream and Microsoft Azure. IT admins gain the ability to monitor and manage backups for multiple XC Series clusters while utilizing best-of-breed Dell EMC technologies in a turnkey data package.
- Optimization for Microsoft 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.
- Dell EMC also has been approved by Microsoft to deliver Azure through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Direct and Indirect Microsoft partner model worldwide. Based on Dell EMC’s Azure and hybrid cloud platform global expertise, this enables the company to have the advantage of offering end-to-end Azure Stack hybrid cloud solutions, including Azure services and solutions, to both customers and channel partners globally.
- Dell EMC Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack, introduced last May, is a turnkey, hybrid cloud platform, offering infrastructure and platform as a service; it is shipping now to early customers. It offers a fast path for implementing and sustaining a trusted hybrid cloud platform based on Microsoft Azure Stack, bringing a consistent experience across the Azure on-premises cloud and on-premises through Azure Stack.
- Dell EMC has added support for Dell EMC PowerEdge 14th-generation servers to the Dell EMC Ready Bundle for Microsoft SQL Server and the Dell EMC Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes. Additionally, the Dell Ready Bundle for Microsoft SQL Server also adds Dell EMC Unity storage, offering customers high-performance, flash-optimized architecture that supports scores of VMs while delivering abundant input/output operations per second (IOPS) at low latency for running Microsoft SQL Server workloads.
Availability
Dell EMC XC Series updates have planned global availability in Q4 2017. Dell EMC Ready Bundle for Microsoft SQL and Dell EMC Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes updates have planned global availability in Q4 2017, the company said.