Enterprise IT major Dell has enhanced its systems management software for the Dell PowerEdge FX2 modular infrastructure to help customers maximize IT productivity and business continuity.
The update is designed to simplify and automate critical hardware management tasks. Improved ease of provisioning for virtualized workloads, plug-ins for Nagios users, and infrastructure visibility and flexibility to run open source applications are some of the benefits of the updated version, said Dell.
Dell said its PowerEdge FX2 achieved triple-digit percentage growth year-over-year in unit and revenue over the previous four quarters.
IDC estimates that Dell PowerEdge blade servers experienced 34 percent revenue growth and grew 17 percent faster than the industry in the first quarter of 2016.
Ashley Gorakhpurwalla, vice president and general manager, Dell Server Solutions, said: “With strong systems management capabilities, the PowerEdge FX2 can help customers meet their goals by supporting traditional applications and new workloads driven by social, mobile, analytics and cloud computing in a modular infrastructure.”
New features of Dell PowerEdge FX2
Dell OpenManage Essentials 2.2 enables fast provisioning of I/O aggregators with template-based processes that uniformly replicate the assignment of vLANs during the blade port mapping process, which ensures simplicity and accuracy in network set-up.
On top of this, the new geographic view feature enables easy location access to PowerEdge FX2 systems onsite or across the globe with manageability across 5500 devices. Seamless integration with SupportAssist3 provides proactive, predictive support and automated case creation to resolve hardware issues up to 90 percent faster with ProSupport Plus.
The new OpenManage plug-in for Nagios XI 1.0 extracts PowerEdge FX2 infrastructure information from the Dell Chassis Management Controller and server embedded intelligence, iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller, delivering a unified set of alerts and health monitoring details to Nagios XI administrators.
CIOs can continue using their Nagios XI console to monitor Dell hardware without additional tools or training while achieving a higher return on their investment.
New Active System Manager (ASM) 8.2 capabilities enable easy on-boarding and deployment of IT services across multiple chassis, server, storage and networking devices. The port view provides a visual mapping of physical and virtual infrastructures and any connectivity issues to allow for quick troubleshooting to help IT teams maintain business continuity.
Dell clients
Accelerated Technology Laboratories, in North Carolina, deployed Dell PowerEdge FX architecture to consolidate its data center footprint for savings in rack space, power and cooling.
“The Dell FX2 architecture supports our whole business in a 2U space, and it is critical that it is extremely reliable for our employees and our customers,” said Mark Burke, chief information officer at Accelerated Technology Laboratories.
ATS Automation, in Canada, used the scalable Dell FX2 architecture to achieve full disaster recovery and enhance scalability for future growth.
ATS deployed six Dell PowerEdge FX2 chassis with 23 Dell PowerEdge FC630 servers, which has enabled the company to shrink its data center footprint while isolating and troubleshooting issues quickly and efficiently.
Brian Bayne, technology services manager at ATS Automation, said: “The density of the Dell FX architecture saved us space as well as money spent on power and cooling. In the future, we know that our Dell PowerEdge FX2 architecture will be easy to expand to support our ever-growing workforce.”
Clayton Public Schools, in New Jersey, upgraded its IT infrastructure to a Dell PowerEdge FX2 server enclosure with Dell PowerEdge FC630 servers. With access to a new IT infrastructure based on a modular 2U converged platform that provides quick performance, the district can stream HD video and digital learning tools.
Dan Marakowski, technology coordinator at Clayton Public Schools, said: “With the Dell FX2, we are seeing a 50 percent time savings on IT administration because of our consolidated environment and the increased performance and reliability we get with the Dell technologies.”
MEIZU, a smartphone manufacturer in China, deployed six Dell PowerEdge FX2 chassis and 24 Dell PowerEdge FM120x4 micro servers to replace a disparate environment where previously applications and data were run locally across multiple desktops. MEIZU enhanced customer service satisfaction while reducing the time needed for IT management at a cost-efficient rate.
Li Kechen, R&D and IT Director at MEIZU, said: “With the FX2 solution, MEIZU expects developers will gain faster and more reliable access to their testing environments while delivering significant savings that can be reinvested in other areas of the organization.”
Rising Sun Pictures, in Australia, deployed a compact, high-density and high-performance computing solution with 40 Dell PowerEdge FC630 servers across 10 Dell PowerEdge FX2 chassis with Dell ProSupport for Enterprise. These artists now have the tools they need to focus on visual effects innovation.
“The Dell PowerEdge FX2 solution was a great fit because the technology was flexible, which allowed us to protect our investment with the option of changing the server modules down the line as Dell brings new servers on stream,” said Mark Day, director of engineering at Rising Sun Pictures.
Baburajan K
editor@infotechlead.com
