Dell EMC has refreshed its hyper-converged infrastructure lineup with its latest PowerEdge servers as well as more configurations.
The company said its hyper-converged infrastructure portfolio will get the 14th generation PowerEdge servers. Dell EMC is also better optimizing its hyper-converged systems for software defined workloads via VMware.
Hyper-converged systems are among the fastest growing areas in the data center. Dell EMC offers its VxRail, which are geared toward VMware customers, and XC Series systems that are integrated with Nutanix. The general idea behind converged systems is that they are easier to deploy and incorporate compute, networking, and storage under a simple support model.
Dell EMC’s PowerEdge servers have the latest Xeon processors from Intel and have 150 custom requirements for software defined storage. The systems also get better support for solid-state drives, improved cooling, and a common management platform. For Dell EMC, this is the second generation of PowerEdge servers integrated into the hyper converged lineup. VxRail was initially formed as a partnership with Cisco, EMC, and VMware. Then Dell acquired EMC and integrated its servers to the hyperconverged portfolio along with other products.
The hyper converged lineup includes an updated VxRail appliances with faster response times (2x), more configurations for SSDs, network connectivity, GPUs, and processors and support for Isilon SD Edge and software defined storage.
The Dell EMC XC Series Appliances will see up to 50% more cores per appliance as well as 50% more GPU power.
Chad Dunn, vice president of product marketing at Dell EMC, said hyper converged systems hit an inflection point and are now being used for more workloads. At first, these systems were focused on VDI deployments and limited use cases. Today, database applications are being moved to hyper converged as are healthcare applications such as Epic. Hyper converged systems are also being used for oil and gas visualizations where it’s tough to move data easily from an offshore rig.
Dunn added that hyper converged systems are starting to see more use cases for artificial intelligence due to the GPU integration with Nvidia. “We’re seeing more in healthcare imaging,” said Dunn.
VxRail appliances will be available Dec. 12. XC Series XC640, XC740xd, and XC740 with updated PowerEdge servers are available Nov. 30.
