agile, efficient and high-quality it service delivery
TRANSCRIPT
10 2013 Issue 03 | Dell.com/powersolutions
A recent survey of IT perceptions
found that while 57 percent of
IT professionals consider their
organizations to be distributed, agile
and flexible, just 29 percent of non-IT professionals
share this view.1 These findings reflect a chasm
between business users and IT and illustrate that
business users are often less than satisfied with
the speed and efficiency of IT services rollouts.
Equally important, IT professionals often are
unable to deploy services and infrastructure as
quickly and efficiently as they would like and seek
opportunities for improvement.
Internal IT organizations are also under
intense pressure as line-of-business users
evaluate and procure services from external cloud
providers. These providers can appear attractive
with cost-effective, accelerated IT service
delivery that enables IT organizations to become
increasingly nimble and efficient. However, these
one-off cloud-based projects frequently create
isolated silos, compound security and integration
challenges, and can inflate cost in the long run.
Dell is tackling these issues with an IT
service–centric model that offers organizations
accelerated delivery of IT services, maximum
efficiency across the IT services lifecycle and
strengthened IT service quality. Dell accomplishes
these initiatives with end-to-end solutions based
on open architectures, intuitive setup, automated
management and unified support.
Understanding converged infrastructure
Data centers have traditionally been built using
heterogeneous components from different
vendors. As a result, infrastructure typically
requires lengthy procurement periods, tailored
integration, and custom validation, testing
and management. This costly and unwieldy
approach is mainly unnecessary because many
IT services have similar underlying components.
Adopting converged infrastructure enables
organizations to dramatically improve this IT
paradigm. Converged infrastructure combines
servers, storage, networking and systems
management into an integrated platform that
provides multipurpose virtual resource pools.
These pools can be dedicated to a complex
multi-tier application or serve as a general platform
for multiple applications. As a result, organizations
can focus on rolling out the IT service rather than
spending significant time procuring and cobbling
together the underlying infrastructure.
Additionally, the infrastructure is designed
and sized appropriately from the start, so that
organizations do not over-procure infrastructure.
Regardless of size, organizations thrive when IT services align
with business needs. Dell™ Active Infrastructure converged
solutions offer an array of innovative architectures that help
deliver application workloads rapidly, efficiently and accurately.
By Brent Collins and Rishi Manocha
Agile, efficient and high-quality IT service delivery
1 Based on data from “Research – 2012 IT Perception Survey: How IT’s Perceived by Business,” by Eric Lundquist, InformationWeek Report ID: R5511012, October 2012, qrs.ly/zl3gwq2.
Converged infrastructure and data managementSpecialsection
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2013 Issue 3. Copyright © 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Dell.com/powersolutions | 2013 Issue 03 11
The system is designed to enhance
performance and be more reliable than
custom infrastructure — while also helping
reduce total cost of ownership.
Pre-integrated systems can also
make rolling out infrastructure faster and
easier than using traditional methods,
enabling IT organizations to get systems
up and running in weeks instead of
months. With converged infrastructure,
organizations have a single source of
design, procurement, deployment and
integration, helping to reduce up-front
costs and minimize time and effort. It
also helps simplify and streamline support
with comprehensive management of the
entire infrastructure stack rather than for
individual components. The ultimate goal
is a modular, heterogeneous data center
unified by a single overall management
experience and an IT environment
optimized to meet agility, efficiency and
service quality demands.
Transitioning to innovative
data center environments
Dell Active Infrastructure empowers IT
organizations to build optimized environments
through a portfolio of converged infrastructure
offerings. The following three key areas
compose the Dell Active Infrastructure
family: Dell Active Solutions, Dell Active
System Manager and Dell Active Systems
(see figure).
Validated business-critical applications
Dell Active Solutions start with the desired
IT service and offer detailed guidance on
building out the underlying infrastructure
in support of that service, which enables
reliable, consistent high performance for
enterprise applications. This approach
helps reduce time spent on the design
and validation of IT services and ensure
predictable IT service performance. Each
Dell Active System ManagerSolution
referencearchitectures
Dell ActiveSolutions IT
servicesecosystem
Workloadtemplates
Infrastructuretemplates
NorthboundAPIs
Resourceadapters
Platform reference architectures
Dell Active Systems
Virtualization
Pre-integratedsystems
Compatibilitymatrix
Virtual networkarchitecture
Dell storage
Components that make up the Dell Active Infrastructure family
Converged infrastructure takes off The Indianapolis Airport Authority (IAA)
owns and operates Indiana’s largest
airport system, which serves more
than 7 million travelers each year
and is home to the world’s second-
largest FedEx Express operation. The
IT department at IAA is tasked with
providing highly available IT services
while helping ensure the flexibility to
accommodate the changing needs of
the airport’s business environment.
IAA experienced sizable turnover and
staff reduction in its IT team during the past
few years, which has resulted in increased
strain on the team to deliver and manage
the IT services that the airport needs.
Because Dell has worked closely with IAA
over the years, the organization turned to
Dell to address the following needs:
• Streamline data center operations
to enhance response to immediate
business demands and facilitate
future growth
• Shrink the physical and virtual
infrastructure footprint
• Automate processes to minimize
administrative overhead for its small
IT team
To address these needs, IAA evaluated
and invested in Dell Active Infrastructure.
Within a few weeks of installation, IAA
experienced the following benefits:
• Fast, efficient IT service deployments,
including a reduction in server
deployment time from three days on
average to less than one hour
• A 20 percent reduction in
administrative staff expenses
• A small data center footprint,
consolidating five rows of equipment
into just three racks and achieving a
10 percent reduction in power and
cooling costs
By helping to improve data center
efficiency and streamline operations,
IAA can now focus on strategic new
opportunities to increase revenue.
These opportunities include rolling
out a paid shared-services model
for other merchants and businesses
at the airport, and attracting more
regional airlines to the airport by
providing a rapid onboard and
off-board process.
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2013 Issue 3. Copyright © 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
12 2013 Issue 03 | Dell.com/powersolutions
Dell Active Solutions offering is available across a range of
scalable design points to support an organization’s specific
end-user load and requirements.
Validated architectures are available for a range of
enterprise productivity, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
and private cloud applications. Enterprise productivity
applications include Microsoft® Lync® Server, Microsoft Unified
Communications and Collaboration, Microsoft Exchange
Server, Microsoft® SharePoint® and Microsoft® SQL Server®
software. Validated virtual desktop workloads include
applications from Citrix, VMware and Microsoft. For private
clouds, Dell Active Solutions provide reference architectures
for the Microsoft Fast Track program. Dell is also working with
various software vendors to validate additional applications.
Unified and automated management
Deploying and managing data center infrastructure traditionally
entails the use of independent and often fragmented tools
across different data center domains. This approach can be
inefficient and difficult to scale. Unified management is key to an
effective converged infrastructure solution, collapsing disparate
management domains for templates, application programming
interfaces (APIs) and adapters into a single tool to help simplify
infrastructure configuration, deployment and management.
Dell Active System Manager offers a unified management
experience for the Dell Active Systems family by driving
automation and accuracy in delivering IT services, and enabling
end-to-end infrastructure management through a single
robust console. By leveraging key functionality such as template-
based provisioning and workflow orchestration (see figure),
IT managers can automate workload-specific infrastructure
configuration steps and streamline the end-to-end workload
lifecycle. Dell Active System Manager thereby enables IT to rapidly
help deliver and manage IT services with exceptional reliability.
In this way, Dell Active System Manager allows IT organizations
to meet business demands while realizing significant capital and
operational benefits. For example, Dell Active System Manager
helped the IT department in an airline industry organization
reduce deployment time thanks to capabilities such as template-
based provisioning and workflow orchestration. (See the sidebar,
“Converged infrastructure takes off.”)
These capabilities enable IT administrators to utilize
templates to deploy a complex virtualization cluster with
approximately 99 percent fewer steps than manual processes.2
By minimizing manual steps and human touch points, Dell
Active System Manager frees IT staff to focus on strategic
projects that advance business goals rather than carrying out
time-consuming, routine tasks. In addition, the automation
Accelerated deploymentDell Active Systems combine servers, storage, networking, management and support in modular, scalable integrated systems for rapid deployment of private clouds or platforms running business-critical applications. Dell Active Systems are designed to meet the needs of any size organization, ranging from large enterprises to medium and small organizations.
Dell Active System 1000
This large-enterprise, highly scalable, blade
server–based system offers advanced
Fibre Channel storage for mission-critical
applications. The platform is well suited for
extensive private cloud deployments, I/O-
intensive database applications and virtual
desktop infrastructure (VDI).
Dell Active System 800
A blade server–based, highly scalable,
enterprise-class system for business-critical
applications, this model is appropriate
for private cloud and large Microsoft
Exchange Server, Microsoft Lync Server,
Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft
SQL Server deployments.
Dell Active System 200
This rack server–based model offers an
intermediate, scalable system for general
application needs. The platform is designed
for small-scale private clouds and complex,
high-I/O applications such as Exchange,
Lync Server, SharePoint, SQL Server and VDI.
Dell Active System 50
A small, self-contained rack server–based
system, this unit is sized for small and remote
or branch offices in enterprises beginning to
adopt virtualization, or organizations running
small-scale IT projects that require dynamic
data center–caliber infrastructure.
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2013 Issue 3. Copyright © 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Converged infrastructure and data managementSpecialsection
Dell.com/powersolutions | 2013 Issue 03 13
provided by Dell Active System Manager
enables high accuracy and consistency and
helps ensure high-quality IT services.
Pre-integrated, modular systems
Pre-integrated Dell Active Systems provide
integrated data center platforms that can be
deployed modularly on a just-in-time basis.
Each system capitalizes on Dell’s extensive
enterprise experience and takes advantage
of joint engineering with leading-edge
virtualization providers. Reference architectures
for these systems are also provided for
situations requiring additional customization.
This approach enables organizations
to significantly accelerate the rollout of
IT services. For example, organizations
using Dell Active Systems pre-integrated
solutions have experienced up to six times
faster implementation of advanced virtual
infrastructure than if they had deployed
comparable infrastructure using traditional
deployment methods. In addition, Dell
Active Systems allow organizations to
increase data center density by making
room for approximately twice the compute
nodes per rack compared with competitive
offerings. The purpose-built Dell design
helps deliver enhanced performance per
watt as well.
The Dell Active Systems portfolio spans
multiple system options. (See the sidebar,
“Accelerated deployment.”) Each is centrally
managed by Dell Active System Manager
and offers VMware® ESX®– or Microsoft®
Hyper-V®–based virtualization options.
Dell Active Systems offerings also provide
system deployment and proactive Dell
ProSupport Plus services; Dell ProSupport
provides 24x7x365 phone support and
on-site response options. Expert consulting
services are also available to customize
solutions for specific needs.
Envisioning strategic new possibilities
Organizations that embark on the path
toward converged, automated infrastructure
can create broad opportunities for growth
by deploying systems in their data centers
that are designed to be highly agile, efficient
and reliable. The Dell Active Infrastructure
family of converged infrastructure offerings
provides a cost-effective array of end-to-
end pre-integrated systems and reference
architectures that are open, intuitive
and automated. They allow for the rapid
deployment of private clouds, VDI and
enterprise applications.
Dell Active Infrastructure helps deliver
IT services rapidly. Dell Active Solutions
offer a wide range of solution reference
architectures geared for efficient operation.
Dell Active System Manager empowers IT
administrators to automate IT service delivery
and management from a single console, and
Dell Active Systems provide a broad range of
scalable configurations tailored for specific
needs in organizations of all sizes.
Most importantly, the Dell Active
Infrastructure family helps IT organizations
focus on providing enhanced value to the
business with converged IT environments
that are designed to deliver the agility,
efficiency and reliability enterprises need
to thrive.
Learn more
Dell converged infrastructure:
Dell.com/convergence
Authors
Brent Collins is data center strategist for the global
Enterprise Solutions Group at Dell and focuses on
converged infrastructure solutions.
Rishi Manocha is a product marketer in the
Enterprise Solutions Group at Dell with over
10 years of experience in data center technologies.
Unified management of Dell Active Systems from a single console
2 Based on May 2013 testing at the Dell Solutions Performance Analysis lab that included the number of steps an administrator typically performs to configure Dell blade servers, I/O modules, top-of-rack switches and storage with appropriate settings. It also includes installing VMware ESXi™ virtualization, creating the cluster and configuring the virtual infrastructure. The comparison is against the same hardware architecture, but using Dell tools included with each solution component to perform comparable processes manually. In both cases, initial configuration steps typically completed during the initial rack deployment — for example, out-of-band management configuration, network connectivity and installation of management tools — were performed before the testing. Note that Dell Active System Manager requires 8 manual steps compared with 575 manual steps that would typically be required for administrators using existing Dell tools included with individual Dell server, storage and networking solutions.
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2013 Issue 3. Copyright © 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.