Co-Author: Yvonne Bourquin

Hardware and software upgrades can lead to a better hybrid cloud experience

You can see the change happening all around you. The enterprise has rapidly adopted a hybrid cloud model, and with good reason, as 90% of modern server environment operators report increased value/effectiveness from hybrid cloud initiatives versus just 62% of those running legacy server shops.

Are you relying on older hardware and software to run your future? It can be tempting to remain comfortable with “good enough results” from old IT infrastructure, but you might be limiting performance, flexibility and successful business outcomes, instead of venturing into the next evolution of IT and your business.

Let’s consider some of the benefits of upgrading your servers and software:

Your hybrid cloud should start with a solid partnership. Dell Technologies and VMware are industry-leaders in x86 servers¹, enterprise virtualization and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) and software². Dell Technologies and VMware have been partnering for over 20 years to deliver innovation and resilient IT that solve real customer challenges.

With an eye on today’s challenges and a focus on tomorrow’s needs, PowerEdge and VMware enable customers to prime their business for growth through seamless evolution, leading flexibility and hybrid cloud capabilities. VMware vSAN™ is the industry’s leading hyper-converged (HCI) software empowering HCI customers to securely run traditional and modern apps in the hybrid cloud with consistent operations from edge to core to cloud. A simple and flexible way to build your hybrid cloud with VMware vSphere® and vSAN is with Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes which allow you to build your hybrid cloud as unique as your workloads.

Why upgrade to a Dell EMC vSAN Ready Node? Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are flexible, pre‑configured, and jointly certified PowerEdge servers that are like HCI building blocks for vSAN. They can reduce deployment risks, improve storage efficiency, and quickly and easily scale as needed.

Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes offer several key benefits for customers, including the following:

• Flexibility to design your hybrid cloud with a broad variety of PowerEdge servers and configurations: Every workload is unique. Our vSAN Ready Nodes are flexible and customizable, yet simple to deploy and manage, empowering you to make your hardware and software as unique as your workload. The Dell EMC vSAN Ready Node portfolio is one of the broadest in the industry with over 180 vSAN Ready Node configurations, powered by the latest Intel and AMD processors. Dell EMC enables customers to choose the best form factor in support of their desired IT and business outcomes. Our offering ranges from 1U/2U rack servers to modular solutions including PowerEdge MX, based on our kinetic infrastructure which was built for the software-defined data center (SDDC).

• Identity Modules: Nine (9) Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes feature Identity Modules that uniquely identify the PowerEdge server as a vSAN Ready Node upon boot-up which helps to streamline deployment and updates.

• Empowering IT with automation and consistency across hardware and software lifecycle management with OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter® (OMIVV) and vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM). OMIVV is the Dell EMC PowerEdge server administration tool that manages directly within your VMware vCenter environment. OMIVV provides:
• Physical and virtual views in one place
• Firmware updates managed from within vCenter
• Expedited server deployment

vLCM is the next generation solution for vSphere 7 and vSAN 7 lifecycle operations for software and firmware. Dell EMC vSAN Ready Node customers can engage in lifecycle management based on a desired state model defined by them, helping to manage at their own pace.

Using vLCM and OMIVV, complete hypervisor and firmware updates on an eight-node PowerEdge cluster in under 4 minutes vs. 3.5 hours manually.

• Robust Services: Dell EMC ProDeploy Plus is the market’s most complete deployment offering, enabling up to 66% faster deployment of PowerEdge servers. Dell EMC ProSupport offers a single contact — one call — for both hardware and software with over 1,800 VMware‑certified Dell EMC support professionals.
• Future-proof: Since no one knows what the future holds, infrastructure that can scale-up, scale-out, or even be repurposed later as a general server, is important. Let your infrastructure foster future growth, not limit it.

Why Upgrade Software? The main reason to upgrade software is the availability to deploy the exciting new features mentioned here. vSAN 7 key elements include enhanced security, time savings, and easier manageability with features like vLCM.

By updating your hardware and software with Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes and vSAN 7, you can unlock your best hybrid cloud with a flexible infrastructure resulting in better performance, faster deployment, simplified manageability and ultimately, better business outcomes.

¹IDC declared Dell Technologies the #1 server vendor, 2020Q1, June 9, 2020 – Units & Vendor Revenue.

²IDC WW Quarterly Converged Systems Tracker, 2020Q1, June 18, 2020 – Vendor Revenue.