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2012 Issue

Dell Power Solutions special edition

Dell.com/EfficientIT

Discover the power to do moreStrategy matters. Five transformational imperatives are changing the economics of success in the Virtual Era—empowering you to invest more in innovation by eliminating costly inefficiencies.

Proof positive: How Efficient IT is funding innovation for Team Lotus, AccuWeather, University of California, Irvine, and other Dell customers

Revolution or evolution: Nothing nebulous about cloud computing benefits

Embracing mobility: CIO strategies for leading in the age of consumerization

Data deluge: How Dell customers are driving data management practices to new levels of efficiency

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Doug Eney

Vice President, I/S Engineering

Carnival Cruise Lines

“ Efficient IT means less room for data centers and more room for fun.”

See how we helped Carnival Cruise Lines reduce their server footprint by 60% and increase performance by 38% with Dell open virtualization and storage solutions. Learn more at Dell.com/Effi cientIT.

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CIO strategies for consumerization: The future of enterprise mobilityBy Paul D’Arcy

IT consumerization of enterprise mobility is changing

the relationship between employers and employees.

Learn the five trends shaping the future of enterprise

mobility, and get nine recommendations for tackling

the challenges of IT consumerization.

18 Consumerization

As the line between business and IT strategy vanishes,

five transformational imperatives are changing the

economics of success in the Virtual Era—empowering a

highly agile workforce to collaborate on innovations that

were unimaginable a few short years ago.

By Jeff S. Johnson

4 Cover story

Discover the power to do more

2012 IssueDell.com/EfficientIT

Dell Power Solutions special edition

Up in the air? Nothing nebulous about cloud computing benefitsBy Holly Vatter, Barton George, and Janet Bartleson

Data center virtualization and consolidation

often clear the path toward private, public, and

hybrid cloud computing environments. Whether

enterprises take a revolutionary or evolutionary

approach, understanding IT infrastructure

options is the first step.

10 Cloud

Reprinted from the 2012 Dell Efficient IT special edition of Dell Power Solutions. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

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2 2012 Issue | Dell.com/EfficientIT

Index to featured Dell customers

Customer perspectives

22 Managing data intelligently to drive efficiency in the virtual era

In nearly every industry, dynamic data management solutions are helping

deliver the right data at the right time—and the right cost.

29 Expanding business opportunities through the cloud

Cloud computing helps organizations of all sizes enhance their competitive

edge while realizing powerful cost-benefits.

33 Carnival Cruise Lines: Serious fun

Virtualized servers and storage make the most of a small shipboard footprint,

while reclaiming 7,000 hours a year for the IT team.

34 Team Lotus: On track for the checkered flag

A winning IT infrastructure is helping Team Lotus become the fastest new

competitor on the Formula 1™ racing circuit.

36 University of California, Irvine: Accelerating scientific research

with an energy-saving HPC cluster

Advanced technology in the GreenPlanet HPC cluster lets scientists conduct

150 percent more research in 50 percent of the space.

Editorial staffEditor-in-chief and publisher Tom KolnowskiManaging editor Debra McDonaldSpecial edition editor Dawn DavidsonFeatures editor Kathryn WhiteGuest editors Sara Chapman, Christine Fults, Bill Goins, and Sara SuminskiSenior editors James Hurd, Catherine Luo, and Terrence O’DonnellArt director and cover designer David ChanDesigner and illustrator Cynthia WebbBusiness operations Cissy WalkerStaff writers Jeanne Feldkamp and Greg Thomas

Contributing writers Janet Bartleson, Paul D’Arcy, Barton George, Jeff S. Johnson, and Holly VatterContributing photographers Tony Bolding, Lee Kirgan, Bryan Kuntz, and Adran Matte

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About DellDell Inc., headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, near Austin, listens to its customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell is a leading global systems and services company and No. 34 on the Fortune 500 list. For more information, visit our Web site at dell.com.

Dell cannot be responsible for errors in typography or photography. Dell, the Dell logo, Dell Compellent, Storage Center, Dell Latitude, EqualLogic, Fluid Data, PowerEdge, and PowerVault are trademarks of Dell Inc. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this publication to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

Dell Power Solutions is published quarterly by Dell Inc., Dell Power Solutions, One Dell Way, Mail Stop RR3-68, Round Rock, TX 78682, U.S.A. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without permission from the editor-in-chief. Dell does not provide any warranty as to the accuracy of any information provided through Dell Power Solutions. Opinions expressed in this magazine may not be those of Dell. The information in this publication is subject to change without notice. Any reliance by the end user on the information contained herein is at the end user’s risk. Dell will not be liable for information in any way, including but not limited to its accuracy or completeness. Dell does not accept responsibility for the advertising content of the magazine or for any claims, actions, or losses arising therefrom. Goods, services, and/or advertisements within this publication other than those of Dell are not endorsed by or in any way connected with Dell Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Printed in the U.S.A.

DPS-201104-EIT

AccuWeather ....................C4, 7

Ai Claims Solutions ..............24

Bing Maps ..............................C3

Boulevard Brewing Company ........................... 31

Carnival Cruise Lines ........................ C2, 7, 33

Copenhagen Airports ..........30

HDR EOC................................26

Henrico County Public Schools ...............................28

Iper ...........................................24

Niagara College ......................8

Salesforce.com ...................3, 9

Team Lotus .............................34

Tyro Payments .......................30

Uniserve ..................................32

University of California, Irvine ....................................36

University of Kentucky ......... 31

Utrecht University ................. 27

Whorton Insurance Services ...25


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Cover story


Cover story

As the line between business and IT strategy

vanishes, five transformational imperatives

are changing the economics of success in

the Virtual Era—empowering a highly agile

workforce to collaborate on innovations that

were unimaginable a few short years ago.

By Jeff S. Johnson

Discover the power to do more


Dell.com/EfficientIT | 2012 Issue 5

The role of IT has undergone a massive transformation in the last

decade, and that transformation is accelerating to keep pace

with changing workplace requirements in the Virtual Era. As

technology evolves and organizations adapt, executives expect

the supporting IT infrastructure to anticipate growth, increase agility,

and—through innovation—deliver exceptional efficiencies. To achieve

this goal, organizations must increase efficiency throughout the entire IT

infrastructure, from the desktop to the data center. For many enterprises,

the dilemma is how to get there from here, when IT is often held back by

scant resources to manage complex, outdated hardware, software, skills,

and processes.

Although it has traditionally been framed as a technology discussion,

today’s conversation about IT efficiency also must encompass staffing,

budget allocation, maintenance, and management processes. The greatest

efficiency gains can be achieved by taking a comprehensive approach that

encompasses the people and processes working through the technology

to meet specific organizational needs. (See Figure 1.)

Whether the goal is to heighten business innovation, improve the

quality of health care, or help students succeed, IT is at the core of this

organizational transformation. More than ever before, today’s IT decision

makers are playing a pivotal role in helping their organization achieve its

mission. By aligning IT services seamlessly with organizational priorities,

CIOs can help improve business outcomes and accelerate growth. To that

end, decision makers are redirecting IT investments to focus on strategic

goals, from the data center all the way to secure access for remote

computing devices located anywhere in the world. To learn how Dell

increased IT efficiencies to advance innovation driving its own strategic

agenda, see the sidebar, “Reinventing IT from the inside out.”

In virtually every industry, there is an unprecedented opportunity

for IT organizations to streamline their operations and sharpen their

competitive edge by embracing the potential of mobile devices, virtualized

and cloud infrastructures, and powerful data management tools. These

transformational technologies are the cornerstone of the Dell™ Efficient

IT strategy because they create the nexus where true efficiencies can

be achieved. For more information, see the sidebar, “Transforming IT

infrastructure for innovation.”

Figure 1. An Efficient IT strategy enables organizations to unleash workforce productivity, drive innovation, and quickly reach strategic objectives

Empowerend users

Run ITmore e�ciently

Eectively partner with the organization

Unleash productivity Drive innovation Achieve strategic objectives

MobilityEnable productivityanytime, anywhere

ConsumerizationSupport any device

CloudA practical path to cloud

and IT as a service

VirtualizationCentralize and scale

Data managementAddress the data deluge

Reinventing IT from the inside outDell has a lot of firsthand experience in

transforming IT to create opportunities

through improved efficiency. Many

organizations dedicate only 20 to

30 percent—or less—of their IT budgets

to innovation. By increasing efficiency

in its own global IT infrastructure, Dell

successfully managed to change the

economics of IT, so it can now allocate

52 percent of its IT budget to innovation—

roughly just 1.4 percent of revenue.

This efficiency was gained in many

ways. For example, Dell virtualized more

than 11,000 servers and eliminated 6,000

physical servers. And these virtual servers

are running at a ratio of 30 virtual machines

to one physical server. Applications were

rationalized and reduced by 72 percent to

only 2,200 applications worldwide, helping

reduce licensing and maintenance costs.

These efforts now save Dell more than

US$300 million each year.

Dell has extended these learnings, and

an unflinching commitment to IT efficiency,

to its development and acquisition strategy.

The company has committed US$1 billion

toward building multiple cloud-computing–

based data centers and developing next-

generation services.

At the same time, Dell is broadening

the scope of its open, capable, and

affordable approaches for data center

virtualization, data management, and

desktop virtualization through recent

acquisitions including SecureWorks,

EqualLogic, Boomi, and Force10 Networks,

as well as products such as the Dell Virtual

Integrated System (VIS) portfolio. For more

information about the Dell transformation,

visit dell.com/casestudies.


http://dell.com/casestudies

Cover story


Cover story

Exploring Efficient IT

The Efficient IT strategy is based on the notion that standards-based

technology helps organizations of any size reduce the cost and

complexity of the data center while also creating a seamless path to the

cloud. This approach enables IT to put the right amount of computing

power at the fingertips of every worker, no matter where they are or

when they need it.

An Efficient IT strategy encompasses five core elements that reach

from the data center to the desktop: virtualization, to help reduce

complexity and enhance workload agility; intelligent data management,

to cost-effectively control the data deluge; mobility, to provide workers

with anytime, anywhere access from any device; consumerization, to

enhance individual productivity while protecting organizational assets;

and cloud computing, to help increase agility and lower costs.

Each core element in its own way contributes to self-funding by

helping to reduce costs and management overhead. All work together to

enhance IT agility and operational efficiency, freeing workers to focus on

unbridled innovation and growth.

Unlocking opportunity through innovation

Michael Dell shares his unique perspective on the changing face of IT and its future impact on global economic growth, competition, and the very nature of how we live, work, and play.

dell.to/vvb4qg

Figure 2. The cornerstone of Efficient IT in any size organization is a strategy to standardize, simplify, and automate the infrastructure

Standardize

• Achieve uniformity• Reduce number of moving parts• Slash costs

Simplify

• Eliminate• Unify• Consolidate• Virtualize• Reduce touch points• Shrink risk

Automate

• Boost productivity• Reduce manual interaction• Manage growth• Leverage cloud efficiency

Transforming IT infrastructure for innovation

The Virtual Era is changing not only

how much organizations spend on

technology, but also where they direct

their investments. With 80 percent

of fixed IT costs typically devoted to

routine maintenance, organizations are

left with few resources to implement

technological advances and support

initiatives that drive business and

operational objectives. Even a small

improvement in IT efficiency can have a

transformative impact on organizational

outcomes and budget allocations. In

addition, simplifying and automating

IT maintenance tasks can dramatically

enhance the agility of IT resources in a

budget-constrained environment.

Further, simplified operations enable

IT organizations to manage fewer touch

points, fewer steps, and fewer information

silos—helping control costs while freeing

administrators to support innovation

(see Figure 2). Through more effective

management of people, processes, and

technology, organizations can become

highly agile and cost-efficient, and much

more responsive to strategic needs.

Open and scalable Dell approaches

are designed to enhance productivity and

control while eliminating waste. These

approaches avoid the need for proprietary

architecture that leads to vendor lock-in

and allow IT leaders to capitalize on

existing infrastructure through efficiency-

boosting innovations in virtualization and

storage consolidation.


http://dell.to/vvb4qg


1. Leverage the benefits of virtualization from

the data center to desktop

To boost efficiency, administrators strive to reduce the number

of silos and touch points in the IT infrastructure. Virtualization

contributes significantly to this effort by helping to simplify

management, consolidate hardware and software, and increase

utilization and performance. Adopting a “virtualization-first”

strategy from the data center to the desktop enables organizations

to significantly reduce complexity and enhance agility. But

unlocking the value of virtualization can be complicated. It is

difficult to bridge existing processes across the organization.

Applications have become complicated and sometimes tricky to

connect. And many organizations are locked into an inflexible,

heterogeneous infrastructure.

Dell takes a big-picture approach designed to extend the benefits

of virtualization by addressing not just technology, but also the

people and processes engaged in it. This approach streamlines

the management of both physical and virtual resources and unifies

them as a shared resource without adding cost or complexity.

By unifying these resources in a shared pool, organizations can

accelerate deployment and improve operating performance.

60% + 38%Carnival Cruise Lines reduced its server footprint by 60 percent and increased performance by 38 percent with Dell open virtualization solutions.

Virtualization


80%AccuWeather reduced storage administration time by 80 percent using a Dell EqualLogic™ PS Series Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage area network (SAN). Plus, the company is saving five figures a year by eliminating calls to external storage experts.

Intelligent data management

AccuWeather

2. Intelligently manage the data deluge

Data storage is often a complex aspect of IT transformation

because it is growing so fast, is so mission critical, and usually

exists in a loosely organized and haphazard structure. For these

reasons, efficiency must be built into every point throughout the

entire storage network—what data is stored, how it is stored,

where it is stored, when it is moved, and on what kind of storage

device. Simply adding another storage device is no longer viable.

The Virtual Era requires that storage be virtualized too.

The Dell Fluid Data™ strategy enables IT organizations to

efficiently orchestrate the flow of information in a way that

enhances its value as a competitive asset. To help achieve that

objective, Dell storage platforms provide intelligent, automated

storage management designed to optimize resource utilization

and deliver the right data, in the right place, at the right time,

for the right cost.

Dell also helps organizations protect critical information assets

from the client to the cloud. Outstanding data protection solutions

are available through advanced backup and restore, disaster

recovery, and archiving capabilities that are tightly integrated with

leading-edge application and virtual environments.


Cover story


Cover story

3. Enable an increasingly mobile workforce with

access anytime, anywhere on any device

As the workforce becomes increasingly mobile, the workplace requires

anytime, anywhere access to key data and applications. End users

need one digital identity that follows them everywhere. In addition, the

proliferation of personal and corporate device types—smartphones,

tablets, Bluetooth® technology, radio frequency identification (RFID)

tags, and others—can strain IT resources as workers come to expect

their employers to support these devices.

To address these issues, Dell provides simple and affordable

ways to help organizations deliver data, applications, and services

reliably and consistently through a wide array of mobile devices—

from smartphones to tablets to mobile PCs and high-performance

workstations—all designed to enable secure connections for

remote workers. A centralized approach to endpoint management

and mobility from Dell Services enables multiplatform security and

monitoring visibility through a single console, which can unify

heterogeneous systems and devices. Further, Dell provides virtual

desktop approaches to help reduce security risks, simplify management,

and improve productivity from the end-user device to the data center.

24/7In a desktop virtualization deployment, Niagara College students can use their own technology and access the software learning resources they need anytime, from anywhere.

Consumerization

Niagara College

US$6 millionDell deployed Dell PowerEdge™ servers to run unified communications applications and avoid the replacement of aging voice mail systems. The company also saved more than US$6 million in hardware acquisition and maintenance costs.

Mobility

Dell

4. Embrace the consumerization of IT while

protecting the organization

With a technology-savvy workforce demanding support for personal

computing devices, the time is now for organizations to facilitate

the move toward the consumerization of IT. With expanded

demands for access using personal devices come stepped-up

requirements to protect, monitor, back up, and provide remote

application access. This obligation calls for IT organizations to

protect the security of the network while enabling seamless access

for remote workers. It also means controlling IT management and

support costs across diverse device types. The goal, of course, is to

insulate the organization from new threats while unleashing end-

user productivity with a comprehensive array of device types and

operating systems, applications, and software.

Dell provides approaches designed to balance end-user

expectations with an organization’s ability to meet them technically,

securely, and financially. These approaches allow the IT team to

centrally and efficiently support diverse types of devices together

with operating systems, applications, and software around the

globe—and to integrate them securely and virtually on any device.



5. Consider a practical transition to the cloud to increase

workforce agility while lowering costs

Cloud computing enables organizations to leverage highly scalable,

dynamic, virtualized resources to provide IT services on demand.

Because the cloud model is designed to use computing resources

more efficiently than traditional computing infrastructures, it can play

a significant role in helping IT departments streamline management,

reduce costs, and speed organizational response—actually changing

the economics of IT to a highly dynamic and cost-effective model.

However, the path to the cloud depends on organizational

needs and infrastructure. Dell helps address these considerations

with approaches designed to leverage the IT resources already

at work in the data center. Accelerating the deployment and

operating performance of virtual resources paves the way to

increasingly advanced cloud computing environments. Dell

standards-based, interoperable cloud technologies enable

seamless portability of workloads between public and private

clouds. Plus, Dell offers a comprehensive portfolio of cloud

computing approaches that help administrators tailor the IT

infrastructure to meet specific requirements.

Optimizing business and organizational outcomes

The Dell approach to Efficient IT helps eliminate wasteful

expenditures and duplicate processes to increase IT agility. This

approach extends the life of existing technology by enhancing

flexibility and minimizing management overhead. It is also

designed to provide an open and future-ready platform, enabling

organizations to maximize transformative technologies such

as virtualization and cloud computing with minimal disruption

to operations. An on-demand, pay-as-you-go model scales

easily to heighten flexibility and advance agility in response to

emerging opportunities as they arise.

An Efficient IT strategy also enables organizations to

change the fundamental cost structure of the IT model to

focus more technology resources on strategic pursuits

than ever before. With dynamic information flow and

intelligent, automated, policy-based management, operations

can become surprisingly agile—particularly compared to

what people have come to expect from traditional data

center environments.

By adopting a practical approach that leverages

IT resources already in place, organizations can cost-

effectively evolve their existing infrastructure to achieve

successful outcomes in the Virtual Era with open, capable,

and affordable technology. As they transform IT to address

workplace realities of the Virtual Era, organizations can

create an information fabric that is flexible and responsive.

This result, in turn, enhances productivity across an

increasingly social, mobile workforce collaborating to

advance innovation and growth.

2xBy migrating its databases to Dell cloud hardware, salesforce.com achieved cost-effective scalability with twice the performance and 10 times less cost than the previous systems.

Cloud

Salesforce.com

Author

Jeff S. Johnson is a senior enterprise strategist in the

Public and Large Enterprise business unit at Dell, focusing

on efficient data center solutions and technology.

Learn more

Dell Efficient IT:

Dell.com/EfficientIT


http://Dell.com/EfficientIT

Cloud


Up in the air? Nothing nebulous about cloud computing benefitsBy Holly Vatter, Barton George, and Janet Bartleson

Cloud


Cloud


Despite all the attention-grabbing

headlines, cloud computing is still

a confusing concept for many

enterprise decision makers. Is it a

transformative force that will revolutionize IT

service delivery—or just more hype?

Much of the confusion over cloud computing

stems from the inherent versatility of the cloud

model. Clouds can be private, public, or a

hybrid of the two. Whichever approach an IT

organization takes, cloud computing is designed

to heighten responsiveness with outstanding

efficiency. In addition, cloud computing enables

exceptional flexibility to provide the computing

power and capacity business users need to

dynamically support products and services.

Cloud models also give IT departments the

opportunity to implement alternative deployment

strategies that help optimize costs to align with

business goals. For example, a hosted software

service can be paid for by the transaction, with no

capital investment required, or a disaster recovery

site can be maintained by a service provider,

thereby avoiding the need for a separate facility.

Still, cloud computing environments may not

suit every organization or every project. Different

types of clouds are appropriate for different usage

scenarios. Understanding IT infrastructure options is

the critical first step of any journey into the cloud.

Cloud delivery models

There are three different deployment models for

cloud computing: private, public, and hybrid. Each

has its own advantages, drawbacks, and potential

use cases.

Private cloud computing

Private cloud computing platforms are designed

for the exclusive use of a single organization.

These platforms can be operated and hosted either

by the enterprise IT department or by an external

provider. Although they enable greater control

over security and data availability than public and

hybrid cloud models, private clouds may require IT

organizations to make significant up-front capital

investments. In addition, the physical infrastructure

does not offer limitless scalability.

Driven by cost, many federal agencies are

moving some functions to private clouds run by

external providers. For example, Web sites for

the Recovery Accountability and Transparency

Board (recovery.gov), the U.S. Department of

the Treasury (treasury.gov), and the Federal

Communications Commission (fcc.gov) are

hosted by cloud computing platforms, in part

because the government data centers hosting

these sites were underutilized. Moving to cloud

computing platforms promises to be more cost-

effective than maintaining data centers dedicated

Data center virtualization and consolidation often clear the

path toward private, public, and hybrid cloud computing

environments. Whether enterprises take a revolutionary

or evolutionary approach, understanding IT infrastructure

options is the first step.

Clearing the clouds

Join Barton George as he talks about open, capable, and affordable ways to drive business value through cloud computing.

bit.ly/pA7c4W

Follow Dell Cloud Computing on Twitter at @dellintheclouds


http://recovery.gov

http://treasury.gov

http://fcc.gov

http://bit.ly/pA7c4W

http://twitter.com/dellintheclouds


Cloud

to each agency’s exclusive use. At the same time, maintaining these

services on private clouds within the shared data center helps protect

sensitive data.

Selected software vendors are also using private clouds to

accelerate service deployment while maintaining strict control

of their data. Delivering services rapidly can create a significant

competitive advantage. And because private clouds are designed to

make computing resources available to these services on demand

without IT administrator intervention, they also streamline IT efforts

while keeping sensitive data within the confines of their own

dedicated hardware.

Public cloud computing

Public cloud computing platforms are based on shared infrastructure

that is not dedicated to a single organization or user. They require

no up-front capital investment or associated risk, and they enable

agile, highly efficient use of computing resources—as well as virtually

unlimited scalability. However, the shared nature of the resources raises

security and regulatory concerns, and organizations must trust their

cloud providers implicitly because they work through the provider to

resolve any problems.

A public cloud–based IT infrastructure can be installed almost

overnight without capital investments. As a result, this approach

can be extremely valuable to business startups and organizational

initiatives that need to be launched with minimal ramp-up time.

And the public cloud approach allows enterprises to focus on core

competencies without the risk or distraction of building their own

data centers.

The travel industry was an early pioneer in the use of public clouds.

The Semi-Automated Business Research Environment (SABRE) airline

booking system, used by travel agents since the early 1960s, was

arguably the first widely used cloud-based application. Now, the vast

majority of air travel and hotel reservations are booked directly by

consumers through an array of sites.

Hybrid cloud computing

Hybrid cloud computing platforms allow for data and application

portability between private and public platforms. In this model, an

application requiring additional processing capacity and unable to

find it on the private cloud platform could access the public cloud

platform for resources. For example, this approach—known as

cloudbursting—relies on external public cloud platforms to handle

capacity spikes.

In general, the hybrid cloud model provides the advantages of

both private and public cloud platforms. However, all three approaches

to cloud computing create IT challenges for workload management

across multiple cloud-based infrastructures.

Accelerating the transition Virtualizing data center infrastructure is a key first

step when taking an evolutionary approach toward

implementing cloud computing in the enterprise.

However, for IT departments without in-house expertise

on the interdependencies among servers, storage, and

networking—as well as how each component should

be configured to support cloud-based applications—the

complexity of virtualization projects may threaten to

negate efficiency and cost-saving benefits.

Dell™ vStart infrastructure is designed to simplify

and streamline the path to cloud computing by

offering standardized building blocks that combine

servers, storage, networking, racks, cabling,

management software, and deployment services in

a single package. Because it is delivered pre-racked,

pre-cabled, pre-validated, and pre-configured, vStart

seamlessly plugs into existing management consoles

using extensions designed to leverage best practices.

vStart enables IT generalists to perform

tasks that are critical to laying the foundation for

cloud computing—including streamlining server

management tools and tasks, using deep device-

level detail for monitoring and alerts, deploying

hypervisors to bare-metal servers, and remotely

updating BIOS and firmware. In this manner, vStart

helps organizations accelerate deployment of cloud

infrastructure, reduce configuration errors, and

focus resources on managing workloads rather than

configuring hardware.

The Dell Virtual Integrated System (VIS) portfolio

can further help IT departments address common

data center challenges that may otherwise hamper

virtualization and cloud computing initiatives. By helping

reduce costs related to management, maintenance, and

licensing, VIS enhances agility in responding to changing

technologies and business needs. Open architecture

gives IT departments the option to leverage both

existing investments and future technologies without

being locked in to a single vendor. VIS also facilitates

real-time provisioning, which helps eliminate the need

to overprovision or overpurchase resources when

attempting to preempt unexpected growth.



Cloud

A hybrid cloud approach is gaining

popularity among institutions of higher

education. Universities typically face a

sudden burst of activity at the start of

each term that demands enormous server

capacity. But in the months between

enrollments, that capacity may not

be needed. The ability to use a public

cloud means the university can meet its

seasonal needs without investing in IT

hardware and infrastructure that it does

not need to use year-round.

Cloud computing, traditional IT—or

something in between?

Many enterprises are facing the decision

over which cloud model to use—or

whether cloud computing makes sense

at all to meet their specific business

and organizational requirements. Some

legacy applications, for example, may

not be able to take advantage of cloud

computing scalability because of the way

they are architected. Other applications,

especially mission-critical applications

that would pose significant risk to the

business if they fail to work properly

on the cloud platform, may not warrant

the time and expense of implementing

a dedicated infrastructure for a private

cloud environment.

In these cases, organizations may

find their requirements continue to be

well served by traditional IT platforms.

Still others may explore ways to take

advantage of advanced compute models

that capitalize on cost efficiencies

from data center virtualization and

consolidation as they consider the move

toward cloud computing platforms (see

Figure 1).

A practical path to cloud computing

By working closely with IT leaders

throughout the process of envisioning,

testing, and deploying a cloud computing

strategy, Dell can engage in a strategic

partnership designed to help enterprises

gain a competitive advantage in the

following three-step process:1

1. Investigate: In this phase, IT leaders

educate themselves and key executives

about cloud computing and explore

the ways it can be used to heighten

business outcomes.

2. Experiment: IT staff test the use of the

cloud computing platform in limited ways

to deepen their understanding of how it

may improve business processes.

3. Adopt: Finally, IT leaders widen the use

of cloud computing capabilities to meet

a specific business need, create new

opportunities, or enhance efficiency.

Alternatively, organizations can build

the entire IT infrastructure in the cloud.

Regardless of the approach an IT

department decides upon, the path

includes standardized building blocks,

integrated management tools, and

automated service delivery. (To learn about

how Dell PowerEdge™ C Series servers

advance cloud computing infrastructures,

see the sidebar, “Build your own cloud.”)

Revolutionary versus

evolutionary approaches

As cloud computing technologies mature

and IT infrastructure management

becomes increasingly automated, the

line separating virtualized data centers

from private clouds begins to blur. IT

leaders can take two different approaches

to setting up cloud infrastructures:

revolutionary and evolutionary.

1 For more information about making the transition to cloud computing, see “Reaching for the clouds: A three-step journey,” by Egan Christensen, in Dell Power Solutions, 2011 Issue 3, content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/d/business~solutions~power~en/documents~ps3q11-20110406-vatter.pdf.aspx.

Figure 1. Moving from traditional one-server-per-one-application IT infrastructures toward resource-efficient private and public clouds

Today

3–5 yearsfrom now

Traditional Virtualized Private cloud Public cloud

IT is expected to manage a portfolio of compute models

> Continued on page 16


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Cloud


PowerEdge C6145 PowerEdge C6105 PowerEdge C6100 PowerEdge C5220 PowerEdge C5125 PowerEdge C2100 PowerEdge C1100

Key features and

capabilities

Designed for demanding tasks that require lightning-fast results, this rack server features two four-socket AMD Opteron™ 6100 processor–based server nodes for up to 96 cores, 1 TB of memory, and 40 Gbps I/O per card—packing exceptional speed and efficiency in a 2U form factor.

A building block with excellent work-per-watt performance for cost-effective data centers, this rack server is designed to utilize low-power AMD Opteron 4100 processors, 92-percent-efficient hot-plug power supplies, and a shared infrastructure—enabling IT departments to maximize performance while minimizing TCO and power, weight, and space requirements.

Well suited for scale-out environments that require high-density, flexible, and efficient computing, this rack server supports four server nodes, each with dual four- and six-core Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series or Intel Xeon processor 5600 series, in a 2U chassis—providing outstanding compute performance in an ultra-dense package.

Geared for data centers that want to maximize the use of floor space, up to 12 single-socket microservers can be packed into a 3U PowerEdge C5000 chassis. Each is powered by two- or four-core Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 family—enabling two-socket performance on each cost-effective one-socket server.

Rightsized for lightweight applications, 12 of these microservers can be configured in a 3U PowerEdge C5000 chassis. Each incorporates up to four cores of low-power AMD Phenom™ II or Athlon™ II processors, and each is designed to run on less than 457 watts per chassis—helping increase server density, power efficiency, and serviceability.

Geared for scale-out data centers where memory and storage density are critical, this rack server features dual four- and six-core Intel Xeon processor 5500 series or Intel Xeon processor 5600 series, up to 192 GB memory, and up to 26 TB storage in a 2U form factor—helping IT departments manage high volumes of data.

Well suited for applications that cache massive quantities of data in memory, this rack server offers dual Intel Xeon processor 5500 series or Intel Xeon processor 5600 series and up to 192 GB memory—delivering exceptional performance with a large memory footprint in a 1U form factor.

Cloud


Cloud


In scale-out IT environments for cloud

computing platforms, every inch of data

center space and every watt counts. That

calls for a different mindset—and distinctly

different requirements from general-purpose

servers in traditional data centers. At the same

time, cloud computing enables attractive

economies of scale. For example, because

high availability in cloud environments is

typically achieved in the software layer,

organizations may eliminate many system

features and components that are often found

in traditional data center servers.

Dell PowerEdge C Series servers are

purpose-built for scale-out cloud computing

environments. Features that are superfluous

in a cloud scenario—including extensive

systems management consoles, many

redundant hardware components, and

broad enterprise storage options—are absent

from PowerEdge C Series servers. Instead,

PowerEdge C Series systems are designed

to make intelligent and efficient use of

streamlined system resources, allowing IT

departments to deploy cost-effective models

equipped with only the capabilities needed

for a specific cloud environment.

Maximum hardware density is a critical

consideration when building a cloud

infrastructure. As a result, cloud computing

environments demand high-performance

systems with a dense, energy-efficient design.

Engineered to help decrease total cost of

ownership (TCO), several PowerEdge C Series

servers incorporate a shared infrastructure that

leverages chassis, power, and cooling across

compute resources to heighten density,

energy efficiency, and serviceability.

In addition, PowerEdge C Series servers

leverage Dell’s global supply chain as well as

extensive field experience gained by the Dell

Data Center Solutions (DCS) team. The result is

a comprehensive range of purpose-built cloud

server models suitable for targeted hyperscale

environments (see below).

Build your own cloudCloud computing has inspired a fresh wave of business and technology innovation, in sometimes

surprising ways. Dell PowerEdge™ C Series servers and chassis are efficient building blocks

for high-performance, scale-out infrastructures to suit a world of opportunities.

PowerEdge C6145 PowerEdge C6105 PowerEdge C6100 PowerEdge C5220 PowerEdge C5125 PowerEdge C2100 PowerEdge C1100

Key features and

capabilities

Designed for demanding tasks that require lightning-fast results, this rack server features two four-socket AMD Opteron™ 6100 processor–based server nodes for up to 96 cores, 1 TB of memory, and 40 Gbps I/O per card—packing exceptional speed and efficiency in a 2U form factor.

A building block with excellent work-per-watt performance for cost-effective data centers, this rack server is designed to utilize low-power AMD Opteron 4100 processors, 92-percent-efficient hot-plug power supplies, and a shared infrastructure—enabling IT departments to maximize performance while minimizing TCO and power, weight, and space requirements.

Well suited for scale-out environments that require high-density, flexible, and efficient computing, this rack server supports four server nodes, each with dual four- and six-core Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series or Intel Xeon processor 5600 series, in a 2U chassis—providing outstanding compute performance in an ultra-dense package.

Geared for data centers that want to maximize the use of floor space, up to 12 single-socket microservers can be packed into a 3U PowerEdge C5000 chassis. Each is powered by two- or four-core Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 family—enabling two-socket performance on each cost-effective one-socket server.

Rightsized for lightweight applications, 12 of these microservers can be configured in a 3U PowerEdge C5000 chassis. Each incorporates up to four cores of low-power AMD Phenom™ II or Athlon™ II processors, and each is designed to run on less than 457 watts per chassis—helping increase server density, power efficiency, and serviceability.

Geared for scale-out data centers where memory and storage density are critical, this rack server features dual four- and six-core Intel Xeon processor 5500 series or Intel Xeon processor 5600 series, up to 192 GB memory, and up to 26 TB storage in a 2U form factor—helping IT departments manage high volumes of data.

Well suited for applications that cache massive quantities of data in memory, this rack server offers dual Intel Xeon processor 5500 series or Intel Xeon processor 5600 series and up to 192 GB memory—delivering exceptional performance with a large memory footprint in a 1U form factor.

Building blocks for cloud computing

Get an up-close view of Dell’s cloud computing systems as solutions architect Rafael Zamora overviews Dell PowerEdge C6100, PowerEdge C2100, and PowerEdge C1100 servers.

bit.ly/nUP3vA


http://bit.ly/nUP3vA


Cloud

Revolutionary approach

In a revolutionary approach, IT departments have

the luxury of beginning with a greenfield opportunity

and as a result do not need to accommodate

traditional enterprise applications. Instead, they are

able to build highly efficient cloud-native applications

from the beginning. For example, nontraditional

Web 2.0 applications that are designed to be cloud

native—including software-as-a-service (SaaS)

and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings—can

be architected from the ground up for enhanced

scalability and use across a multitude of servers. As

a result, they are able to run more efficiently and

deliver a more responsive end-user experience than

applications designed to run in traditional data centers.

Using the revolutionary model to build cloud

computing platforms typically incurs higher up-front

design and deployment costs than using the

evolutionary model to develop cloud computing

platforms from existing infrastructures. However,

the revolutionary approach can deliver a highly

flexible computing platform with the capacity to help

immediately reduce administrative burden, reduce

storage and networking costs, and enhance power

efficiency. Additionally, when applications and cloud

infrastructure are designed together, they can both be

optimized to help simplify integration with other cloud

components that may be introduced in the future.

Evolutionary approach

In an evolutionary approach, organizations start with

existing traditional enterprise applications and build on

the infrastructure they already have. They then migrate

incrementally toward cloud computing. Virtualization is

a critical first step because it facilitates resource pooling

and increased utilization. Organizations then may

achieve additional benefits as advanced tools are layered

in to help simplify management of the infrastructure and

speed the deployment of IT services on demand. (For

information on how to apply a building-block approach

to virtualization for cloud environments, see the sidebar,

“Accelerating the transition.”)

However, taking an evolutionary versus a

revolutionary approach is not an either-or question.

Organizations can use both approaches in different

situations, depending on the applications they use

and the benefits they want to achieve. Today, the

5 best practices for taking an evolutionary approach into the cloudIT organizations that adopt an evolutionary approach for developing

a cloud computing environment can benefit from the following best

practices when incrementally building out their existing infrastructures:

1. Assess the organization’s starting point. The journey to the cloud

involves three phases: information gathering, experimentation, and

adoption. Learn as much as possible about how cloud computing can

benefit the organization during the first phase.

2. Find the right path. Building a private cloud means something

different for each organization. IT leaders may develop a private,

public, or hybrid cloud—or use a mix of these models—depending on

their industry, size, and type of organization.

3. Ensure a strategic cloud computing plan is in place that spans the

desktop to the data center. Consider the impact on all areas of the

business, establish clear goals, and define plans and timelines for an

overall strategy.

4. Experiment first with noncritical workloads. Migrate test and

development projects to a public cloud. Then track results to help

convince executives to buy into a cloud computing strategy and free

up compute capacity in the data center. Or move areas of storage to

a public cloud for quick results.

5. Find a trusted partner who can help cut through the hype. An overall

cloud strategy and plan for implementation demands a thorough

understanding of the entire data center ecosystem. Dell offers an

approach to cloud computing that is designed to meet organization-

specific requirements.

> Continued from page 13



Cloud

evolutionary approach is the predominant

approach—but as additional cloud-native

applications are developed, the balance is

expected to tip in favor of the revolutionary

approach. (For more information on how to

go about building a cloud infrastructure, see

the sidebar, “5 best practices for taking an

evolutionary approach into the cloud.”)

First steps toward a cloud infrastructure

Dell Services helps organizations

determine where to start with a cloud

computing strategy—which applications

to take into the cloud first, when to

take a revolutionary or an evolutionary

approach, and which technologies to

use to build the infrastructure.

A Dell Services cloud engagement

includes three fundamental steps. Dell

Services begins by examining the business,

its IT infrastructure, and IT goals. It then

assesses how an organization may

benefit from implementation of cloud

technologies. And then Dell Services helps

the organization develop and deploy a

detailed, best-practices–based plan for

cloud computing.

For companies taking a revolutionary

approach, Dell Services helps assess

requirements, design and implement the

cloud infrastructure, and perform ongoing

data center management. Organizations

taking an evolutionary approach can work

with Dell Services to help reduce costs

through standardization, consolidation, and

automation; help optimize performance,

power efficiency, and data center

density; and help reduce IT infrastructure

maintenance costs.2

Many paths into the cloud

As IT departments increasingly take on a

service provider role across enterprises,

they are shifting from cost centers

to business units with heightened

accountability to internal customers. When

IT leaders reach an inflection point and

begin thinking about delivering workloads

rather than managing hardware, the time is

appropriate to consider making the move

to a cloud computing platform. Whether

the organization travels a revolutionary or

an evolutionary path—or a combination

of both—Dell can offer guidance, best

practices, and deployment assistance

every step of the way. And in many cases,

the potential rewards are great—enabling

organizations to reduce IT infrastructure

maintenance costs, in some cases to less

than 50 percent of IT spending.

2 To learn more about Dell cloud computing technologies in action, see “Expanding business opportunities through the cloud,” in Dell Power Solutions, 2011 Issue 3, content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/d/business~solutions~power~en/documents~ps3q11 -20110408-roundup.pdf.aspx.

Authors

Holly Vatter does portfolio strategy and

planning for Dell Cloud Services. She has

more than 23 years experience in product,

corporate, international, and field marketing.

Barton George is the director of marketing

for the Dell Web and Tech vertical. Prior

to that, he was the Dell Cloud Computing

Group evangelist.

Janet Bartleson is a director in Dell Data

Center Solutions, a group that custom

designs servers and provides custom services

for some of the world’s largest cloud

computing providers.

Learn more

Cloud computing:

dell.com/cloud

Virtualization:

dell.com/virtualization

Revolutionary approach to cloud building:

intel.ly/pUinz5

When IT leaders reach an inflection point and begin thinking about delivering workloads rather than managing hardware, the time is appropriate to consider making the move to a cloud computing platform.


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http://dell.com/cloud

http://dell.com/virtualization

http://intel.ly/pUinz5


Consumerization

Reprinted from the 2012 Dell Efficient IT special edition of Dell Power Solutions. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from the 2012 Dell Efficient IT special edition of Dell Power Solutions. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

It has been a generation since the first workers

to grow up with personal computers at home

entered the workforce. Twenty years ago, this

new generation of workers helped fuel the

massive expansion of business computer use and

the productivity gains that ensued.

The year 2011 marks a similar milestone as the

first incoming knowledge workers raised with the

Internet begin graduating from college and entering

the workforce. When these workers learned to

read, the World Wide Web and e-mail were in a

period of mass expansion and commercialization.

They were in elementary school when the dot-com

boom peaked and in college as social media and

smartphone usage exploded.

Already, the expectations of a new generation

of workers are resetting the CIO agenda. As social

media becomes a foundational component of work

life and corporate collaboration, as new mobile

devices and application platforms proliferate, and as

increasing numbers of employees work from home,

traditional corporate policies on personal computer

usage, data security, and application usage are

quickly becoming antiquated.

The result is the rapid consumerization of IT.

Consumerization is the migration of consumer

technology—including electronic devices,

platforms, and applications—into enterprise

computing environments. In some instances,

home technology has become as capable and

cost-effective as its enterprise equivalents. Today,

the issue is most pronounced in the realm of

enterprise mobility, given the increased use of

consumer smartphones, media tablets, and

Internet applications in the workplace—all of

which have been intentionally excluded by IT

policies in many organizations.

With the cloud providing applications and

computing power to anyone with a credit

card, employees are increasingly bypassing

IT altogether to get the tools and technology

that they desire without the hassle of outdated

IT processes. Unfortunately, employee self-

provisioning of third-party cloud services includes

complex enterprise applications that may store

sensitive corporate data in the cloud.

In IT consumerization, corporations may be

seeing the law of unintended consequences

at work: Corporate IT policies that ban the

use of employee-owned devices in the name

of security inadvertently create new, large

security holes as users skirt IT restrictions.

In other words, locking down the employee

computing environment forces users to find

their own alternatives, undermining the very

policies that IT is trying to enforce. Often, some

of the first offenders are C-level executives who

require network access for their own personal

smartphones, laptops, or tablets.

This difficult situation is echoed by the

technology analyst firm Gartner, which advises

that “When building client computing strategies,

most organizations realize that they cannot stop

the influx of personal devices and are looking to

IT consumerization of enterprise mobility is changing the

relationship between employers and employees. Learn the

five trends shaping the future of enterprise mobility, and

get nine recommendations for tackling the challenges of

IT consumerization.

By Paul D’Arcy

CIO strategies for consumerization: The future of enterprise mobility


Consumerization


the post-consumerization era, seeking

ways to stop managing the devices

used by workers.”1

5 trends shaping the future

of enterprise mobility

The year 2011 will see a perfect storm

of consumerization as five trends

intersect to create an important

workplace inflection point.

1. The rise of social media as

a business application

Underestimating the impact of social

media on not just the workplace but on

society in general is difficult. For example,

by the beginning of 2011, the average

Facebook user spent 1,400 minutes, or

23.3 hours, on the site each month.2

2. The blurring of work and

home environments

For CIOs, the blurring of work and

home environments complicates the

development of employee technology

policy. Flexible work arrangements that

encourage employees to work from

home—or any location—make it difficult

to control employee technology usage.

3. The emergence of new

mobile devices

Every decade, the world sees a new

paradigm for end-user computing. So

far, there have been distinct eras for

mainframe computing, minicomputers,

personal computing, the desktop

Internet, and most recently, devices for

mobile Internet access.

4. The need for tech-savvy workers

because of shifting models

Dramatic increase in the use of

social media and mobile devices is

changing the technology relationship

between employers and employees.

These same trends also affect the

relationship between businesses and

their customers and public institutions

and their constituents.

5. The changing employee

expectations of corporate IT

With a new generation of knowledge

workers, end-user technology is

increasingly becoming a talent

recruitment and retention issue.

Organizations that invest in end-

user technology and implement

innovative technology policies will see

advantages as they look to recruit the

next generation of knowledge workers.

Consumerization: A business

decision as trends collide

For the CIO, consumerization

represents the confluence of a

difficult set of IT challenges—security,

technology policy, data protection,

and end-user technology—and

business strategy—new business

models, talent strategy, corporate

brand, and identity. For this reason,

CIOs should take the consumerization

of IT into consideration during

business strategy development.

As organizations embrace

consumerization, a number of changes

need to occur (see Figure 1). These

changes, however, can be difficult

to execute. For most CIOs, many

questions come to mind: How do

organizations maintain security and

protect data as they loosen IT standards?

How can organizations support

heterogeneous employee devices?

Does consumerization apply to all

employees or only to certain employee

segments? What will organizations pay

for that they do not pay for today? What

CIO strategies for consumerization

Get a deeper understanding of the role consumerization plays in the changing relationship between employees and employers by downloading the Dell CIO Insight series white paper from which this article was excerpted.

bit.ly/iqA7wJ

1 “Predicts 2011: Network capacity and consumers impact mobile and wireless technologies,” by Ken Dulaney, Phillip Redman, Carolina Milanesi, Van L. Baker, Monica Basso, and Leslie Fiering, Gartner, Inc., November 18, 2010.

2 Facebook, Press room statistics, retrieved January 18, 2011, facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics.

http://bit.ly/iqA7wJ

http://facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics


Consumerization


happens to employee IT platforms? Which

applications need to be modernized to work

with a broader set of employee devices?

9 recommendations on consumerization

and enterprise mobility

Nine key recommendations can provide

a road map for CIOs contending with the

challenges of consumerization in the new

era of enterprise mobility.

1. Articulate an end-user workplace and

technology philosophy, and use that as a

basis for setting consumerization strategy.

Technology philosophy, like business

strategy, is specific to the culture and

purpose of every organization. When

evaluating technology changes, CIOs

should consider seven questions that can

help them ascertain how far and how fast

their organizations can move to embrace

the new era of consumerization:

1. What are the demographics of the user

population, and what type of work do the

user segments perform?

2. Where are employees doing their work?

3. Does the organization take pride in

offering innovative benefits and policies

to attract and retain employees?

4. How strongly is the organization moving

toward flexible working arrangements?

5. Are executives advocating for expanded

device usage or trying to prevent it?

6. What regulations and security concerns

limit options?

7. How important are the Internet and social

media to driving customer engagement?

2. Recognize that IT security and data

protection policies that restrict the use

of personal devices and social media

applications may actually increase security

and data-loss risk; begin evolving

security policies to protect data in a

heterogeneous device environment.

As increasing numbers of applications

move to the cloud and devices move off

the network and out of the direct control

of IT, the framework for end-point security

can also benefit from cloud-based delivery.

Increasingly, this framework means using

managed security service providers to

offer cloud-based, end-point protection for

distributed devices. According to Gartner,

“An increasingly common scenario will be

high-value employees accessing critical

business and customer information stored

in the cloud from employee-owned PCs or

smartphones. Gartner believes that delivering

security as a cloud-based service will be a

key component of how many enterprises

will enable this scenario, while achieving a

balance of security and manageability.”3

3. Liberalize rules that prohibit business

use of employee-owned technology;

start by encouraging the business use of

employee-owned smartphones.

Why start with smartphones? There are

three key reasons to consider.

• No area of personal technology is

growing as fast. According to Ericsson,

mobile broadband subscriptions

have skyrocketed, growing from

200 million mobile Internet subscribers

in 2008, surpassing 500 million

mobile broadband subscribers in

2010, and potentially reaching 1 billion

subscribers in 2011. The company

believes that by 2015, there will

be more than 3.8 billion mobile

broadband subscriptions globally.4

• Smartphones are important tools

for managing contacts, e-mail, and

calendars, as well as accessing social

media, cloud data, and when allowed,

the corporate directory.

• Smartphones are expensive, and

most organizations do not pay for

smartphone voice and data plans

for the broad employee population.

Because employees are making these

investments and bringing their own

devices to work, expanded use can

benefit end-user productivity.

3 “Securing and managing private and public cloud computing,” by John Pescatore, Gartner, Inc., September 2, 2010.

4 “Mobile broadband subscriptions to hit one billion mark in 2011,” Ericsson press release, January 11, 2011, ericsson.com/thecompany/press/releases/2011/01/1478480.

Limited connectivity

E-mail or instant messaging (IM) communications

IT chooses the personal computer

Primary device is fixed

IT has control

One device, one task

Management and security inside the firewall

Always on, anywhere

Freedom to participate

Devices that reflect “me”

Primary device is mobile

End users have agility and freedom

One device, many tasks

Boundaryless security and manageability

Moving from… …to

Figure 1. Changes necessary for IT consumerization

http://ericsson.com/thecompany/press/releases/2011/01/1478480


Consumerization


4. Launch enterprise applications that

replicate the best aspects of consumer

communication and social media within

the worker community.

The Web offers an ideal vehicle through

which end users can crowd-source

ideas, collaboratively sorting information.

IT organizations can use the power of

the Web to harness the trends behind

consumerization while increasing employee

engagement and productivity.

5. Pilot media tablets with field workers

and executives to see if they can replace

other devices; look at allowing other

populations to bring personally owned

tablets to work.

The media tablet market is poised

to grow dramatically: expected to go

from 19 million units in 2010 to

208 million units in 2014.5 As a broad

selection of new devices hits the

market, tablet use is expected to

skyrocket based on convenience, high

levels of customer satisfaction, and

relatively low device prices.

6. Develop a clear point of view on

enterprise versus employee cost sharing;

develop a business case for incremental

investment by linking end-user technology

strategy with human-resource planning,

facilities planning, and business strategy.

For most organizations, the hidden

costs come from management and security

changes that can be required to support

users and protect the enterprise in a

heterogeneous-device environment.

7. Consider desktop virtualization and

other leading-edge technologies to

reduce security and data-loss risks as the

demand for consumerization grows.

Desktop virtualization is expected

to become a primary model for

organizations to securely drive

consumerization. By storing data

and applications on the server in

controlled, standardized images, desktop

virtualization combines the benefits of

corporate images, centralized storage,

centralized management, and policy

enforcement with the freedom to use

a wide variety of organization- and

employee-provided devices.

8. Understand the software-licensing

implications of consumerization.

As organization-issued smartphones

and tablets are increasingly used to

access e-mail, virtual desktops, and

server-based applications, organizations

need to look at software-licensing

agreements and practices to ensure

compliance. The introduction of

employee-owned devices further

complicates licensing because large

vendors like Microsoft make distinctions

between these categories of end users in

their licensing agreements.

9. Avoid end-user stipends.

In the end, pilots have shown poor

end-user satisfaction with the stipend

experience, negating the primary benefit

that these programs were designed to

achieve. An alternative to stipends is

to provide employees with a broader

selection of IT-supported personal

computers and work requirements.

When combined with policies that enable

employees to bring employee-owned

devices to work, this alternative enables

organizations to reap the broad benefits of

end-user consumerization.

IT consumerization:

A foundation for change

In the words of Gary Hamel, a prominent

management professor and author,

“while no company would put up with

a 1940s-era phone system, or forgo

the efficiency-enhancing benefits of

modern IT, that’s exactly what companies

are doing when they fail to exploit the

Web’s potential to transform the way the

work of management is accomplished.

Most managers still see the Internet as a

productivity tool, or as a way of delivering

24/7 customer service. Some understand

its power to upend old business models.

But few have faced up to the fact that

sooner or later, the Web is going to turn

our smoke-stack management model

on its head.”6

For organizations with knowledge

workers, IT consumerization and the

rethinking of employee technology is

the foundation for the next wave of

business, management, and employee

change. Organizations that adapt

quickly and actively to change the

relationship between IT and end users

can be better able to attract talent,

execute new business models, and

evolve management capabilities to

improve competitiveness.

Author

Paul D’Arcy is executive director, Large Enterprise

Marketing at Dell.

Learn more

Dell virtual desktops:

dell.com/virtualdesktops

Dell SecureWorks information security services:

dell.com/secureworks

Dell mobile computing:

dell.com/mobility

Dell mobile computing solution components:

dell.com/smartphones-tablets

5 “Predicts 2011: Network capacity and consumers impact mobile and wireless technologies,” by Ken Dulaney, Phillip Redman, Carolina Milanesi, Van L. Baker, Monica Basso, and Leslie Fiering, Gartner, Inc., November 18, 2010.

6 The Future of Management, by Gary Hamel (Harvard Business School Press, 2007).

http://dell.com/virtualdesktops

http://dell.com/secureworks

http://dell.com/mobility

http://dell.com/smartphones-tablets


Customer perspective


The IT industry is often defined by eras of significant

innovation, such as the PC, mobile computing, and the

Internet. Today the industry is at another inflection point

driven by increased mobility demands and the explosion

of digital data. To benefit from the opportunities and overcome the

challenges presented by this virtual era, organizations are adopting an

advanced model of computing that is open, efficient, and agile. In short,

the virtual era demands efficient IT approaches that help simplify the way

technology is deployed, integrated, and maintained in today’s data centers.

Managing data intelligently to drive efficiency in the virtual era

In nearly every industry, from insurance

to engineering to higher education,

organizations are using Dell™ Fluid Data™

storage solutions to help ensure that the

right data is available to the right people at

the right times—and at the right cost.




Efficient storage infrastructure and intelligent data

management are crucial for success in a data-driven world.

However, organizations are finding it increasingly difficult

to manage, maintain, and protect their data. Many storage

approaches that have been deployed widely over the past two

decades are insufficient to handle emerging storage and data

management challenges. IT approaches that treat data as a static

entity are missing an essential truth: data is not something to be

stored; it is something to be actively and intelligently managed.

Dell Fluid Data solutions are designed to help organizations

optimize data movement and management, both within and across

storage platforms. The Fluid Data solutions portfolio encompasses a

broad range of systems, software, and services that advance overall

data center agility and efficiency for heightened business response

and can enhance storage infrastructures in the following ways:

• Automate data management

• Optimize the storage footprint

• Scale seamlessly to meet fluctuating demands

• Protect data simply and cost-effectively

• Integrate efficiently into the IT environment

A fresh approach to storage based on Fluid Data architecture

helps organizations build an open, capable, and affordable

storage infrastructure that is designed to leverage their existing IT

investments—offering a clear path toward intelligent, cost-effective

data management. As a result, Fluid Data helps to reduce the

ongoing cost of maintenance in the data center while also helping

to control data volume, reduce storage and infrastructure costs,

and securely increase data availability.

The success stories highlighted here demonstrate how

different organizations are using Dell Fluid Data solutions

to help ensure that their data is available when and where

they need it. Fluid Data solutions encompass a broad range

of innovative technology, systems, software, and services

that help organizations consolidate and virtualize storage,

optimize applications, protect critical data, recover quickly

after service interruptions, and govern data throughout its

life cycle in accordance with compliance requirements. The

results these organizations have achieved show that regardless

of how they use their data, Fluid Data solutions enable IT

departments to manage data efficiently and flexibly, helping

deliver key information to stakeholders anywhere, anytime,

and on any device.

83%Using the Dell PowerVault™ DL Backup to Disk Appliance – Powered by Symantec™, Whorton Insurance Services realized an 83 percent reduction in staff time for data protection.

Whorton Insurance Services

2xThe Dell DX Object Storage Platform enabled Utrecht University research to access data twice as quickly.

Utrecht University

Using a Fluid Data–based storage solution, HDR EOC experienced 100 percent successful data recovery.

100%HDR EOC

50%Using Dell Compellent™ Storage Center™, the Italian retailer cut its capacity requirements in half compared to the previous storage environment.

Iper

80%Dell EqualLogic™ PS Series Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage area network (SAN) arrays helped Ai Claims Solutions improve Microsoft® SQL Server® performance by 80 percent.

Ai Claims Solutions



Ai Claims Solutions: Optimizing

application performance

In the UK, insurance industry changes can

happen in the blink of an eye. Regular

legislative changes, shifts in the economy,

and rapidly evolving public expectations

mean that insurance firms must be flexible

in their approach to providing services.

Because insurance is a high-transaction,

low-margin business, improvements to

the IT infrastructure can have a significant

impact on profit margins.

At Ai Claims Solutions, a provider of a

range of non-fault accident services, rapid

growth was putting significant pressure on

its IT infrastructure supporting transaction

systems. “The company has been growing

at a rate of around 25 percent a year for a

number of years, and the IT infrastructure was

straining to support new applications that we

Iper: Shrinking the IT footprint

through intelligent data

management

Fast-growing Italian retail chain Iper

depends on real-time access to more than

400 GB of bar code tracking information

to run its day-to-day business. However,

with inactive historical data clogging stacks

of expensive, inaccessible disk storage,

the company needed a way to make the

appropriate information easier to access.

Iper made Dell Compellent storage the

basis of a fully virtualized infrastructure,

including redundant mirrored storage

area network (SAN) arrays for enhanced

disaster recovery. Leveraging intelligent,

policy-based automated tiering across

multiple storage tiers, Iper now uses the

Dell Compellent Storage Center SAN

to help maximize performance across

its application workloads while helping

minimize storage capacity and cost.

As a result, Iper cut its storage footprint

significantly. When the company moved

an Oracle® database from its previous

traditional enterprise storage environment

to the Dell Compellent SAN, it halved

the number of drives. For another

application, Dell Compellent storage

matched the capacity and performance of

a competitor’s 60-drive storage platform

with just 20 drives.

“With Dell Compellent you get less

hardware and more brainware,” says

Giovanni Oteri, ICT manager at Iper

Montebello S.p.A., a subsidiary of Gruppo

Finiper S.p.A. “All other storage technology

now seems obsolete in comparison.”

were developing,” says Andrew Robinson,

head of IT operations and data at Ai Claims

Solutions. “Our technology was five years

old and we were spending a lot of money

on warranty and lease extensions. To stay

competitive, we needed to make a change.”

Dell consultants helped Ai Claims Solutions

virtualize its infrastructure using the Microsoft

Hyper-V™ hypervisor, Dell PowerEdge™

servers, and Dell EqualLogic PS5000X

SANs—all of which combined to provide an

extremely efficient, scalable, and powerful

solution. This simplified architecture allowed

Ai Claims Solutions to reduce its infrastructure

management team by 40 percent, deliver a

reduced total cost of ownership (TCO), and

optimize database performance.

“We anticipated running out of SQL Server

capacity in the coming months due to rapid

business growth. The Dell EqualLogic SANs

have doubled our capacity, but we’ve

also seen an 80 percent improvement in

SQL performance. This was unexpected

but has given us much more flexibility,”

says Robinson.

Through virtualization and the extra

capacity afforded by the Dell infrastructure,

Ai Claims Solutions has been able to

accelerate its research and development

programs. Implementation time has also

been noticeably reduced. Robinson says,

“It used to take a week to deploy new

environments on our servers, but now it

takes half a day. Plus, with much more

capacity, we’ve been able to scale up

significantly the number of development

streams in progress at any one time. We’ve

gone from 40 to 485 databases. We’re

more productive and can release new

applications and improvements faster.”



Whorton Insurance Services:

Helping simplify data protection

Managing data protection at Whorton Insurance Services used to

consume most of its operations manager’s nights and weekends. To

ease the burden and avoid adding IT staff resources, Whorton first

virtualized eight physical servers onto two Dell PowerEdge servers

running VMware® virtualization software and began backing up to

disk, but problems persisted. Verifying backups was a challenge, and

through-host backups of virtual machines sometimes stretched into

the morning, which slowed network performance.

Then Whorton decided to try the Dell PowerVault DL Backup

to Disk Appliance – Powered by Symantec Backup Exec. Backups

are now automated, and virtual machines and Microsoft application

data are continuously protected with granular recovery technology.

Off-host virtual machine backups are now performed with little or

no impact to network performance.

“The Dell PowerVault DL2000 and Symantec Backup Exec

solved our backup problems without the management complexity

and hassles of a virtual tape library,” says Chris Whorton, operations

manager for Whorton Insurance Services. “Backup Exec Agents for

Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server allow us to back up

our e-mail and databases with granular recovery technology. We

now have continuous protection—and it took me only 30 minutes

to set up out of the box.”

Without any tape-based backups to perform, Whorton now

spends 83 percent less time managing data protection, and the

company was able to avoid hiring part-time help at a cost of

approximately US$20,000 per year. Backup success rates are up to

99 percent—as compared to 50 percent using the old system.

“Between tape media and tape-related hardware costs, and

what we would have had to spend on additional IT staff, the

Dell PowerVault DL2000 paid for itself in 10 months,” Whorton

concludes. “It’s enabled me to continue to wear multiple hats—and

get some rest. Sleep is good!”



HDR EOC: Bringing reliable disaster

recovery to distributed data

Engineering and environmental firm HDR EOC

(formerly e2M) manages large volumes of project

data in 12 geographically dispersed offices. Each

office was backing up all its data locally and

storing backups on site—a time-intensive process

that resulted in a mere 60 percent recovery

success rate.

With assistance from Dell, the firm designed

a centralized backup architecture built on Dell

PowerEdge rack-mounted and blade servers, two

Dell EqualLogic PS Series iSCSI SAN arrays, and a Dell

PowerVault ML6000 Tape Library. Dell then provided

data protection from Symantec for deduplication and

centralized backup. As a result, HDR EOC achieved

100 percent successful data recovery.

HDR EOC has also reduced backup windows

by 83 percent, from 48 or more hours down to just

eight hours. And thanks to deduplication, HDR EOC

is seeing a 40 percent reduction in the volume

of backup data crossing the network, which allows

the company to save on network bandwidth

and backup software licensing and reclaim

approximately 572 hours of staff time each year

for more valuable tasks.

Moreover, storing data in multiple locations

provides disaster protection, and IT can find

desired files quickly. “We’ve been able to recover

every file users have asked us for since we

implemented the Dell and Symantec solution,”

says Lloyd Cramer, system administrator at

HDR EOC.

“Data recovery used to be one of our greatest

concerns,” says Gustin Hare, corporate IT director

for HDR EOC. “Now we focus our energy on

supporting our business users, while the backups

take care of themselves.”

26 2012 Issue | Dell.com/EfficientIT Reprinted from the 2012 Dell Efficient IT special edition of Dell Power Solutions. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Utrecht University: Keeping

data safe and compliant

At Utrecht University, the Biomolecular Mass

Spectrometry and Proteomics Group is

exploring new methods of protein research,

which produces vast amounts of data that

needs to be processed, safeguarded, and

easily retrieved. As a result, the department

outgrew its storage solution and was not

able to scale its platform to accommodate

the estimated 1,000 TB of new data that is

expected to be created during the next five

years. In addition, system administrators

found that backing up the department’s

existing 13 TB of data each day was time-

consuming and unreliable. The group

sought an advanced approach to storage

that would prevent bottlenecks and cut out

the painstaking backups.

As a long-standing Dell customer,

the department turned to Dell for insight

into available systems. The Dell DX

Object Storage Platform—an object-

based, clustered storage platform—was

well suited for the storage needs of the

group based on its simplicity, scalability,

integrated storage protection, and superior

information management. Instead of slow

tape backups, the IT team now relies on

mirroring and automatic replication. The

group’s system administrator now has

Learn more

Dell storage solutions:

dellstorage.com

system. Without download delays, the team’s

time can now be dedicated to analyzing

protein behavior that can change the way

medicine manages disease.

Heightening data center agility

In any industry, burgeoning volumes of

data are inducing organizations of all

sizes to consider fresh approaches to

storage and data management. These

approaches encompass critical areas

such as consolidation and virtualization,

application integration and optimization,

data protection, disaster recovery, and data

retention and governance.

Dell Fluid Data solutions enable

automated data management and

optimization of unified block, file,

and object storage resources through

Dell Compellent, Dell EqualLogic, Dell

PowerVault, and Dell DX Object Storage

Platform systems. These innovative

approaches to storage and data

management are designed to deliver

a dynamic and flexible foundation for

efficient, agile IT through intelligent

automation and simple integration—

supported by storage expertise and

worldwide service capabilities from Dell.

up to five additional hours each week

to help researchers with their IT needs.

The department also takes advantage of

the platform’s automated, policy-based

data management, adding metadata on

retention and deletion to help ensure

compliance with international standards.

“When our research is published, we

must retain and make available all the

relevant data—both raw and processed—for

five years. Using metadata as part of Dell’s

DX Object Storage Platform means we can

now specify for how long the information

must be kept and how many copies of a

file are needed. The solution does the rest,”

says Bas van Breukelen, assistant professor

of bioinformatics at Utrecht University. “This,

together with mirroring, gives us complete

peace of mind that we are complying with

international regulations and protected

against the loss of valuable data.”

The benefits of the DX Object Storage

Platform extend beyond the data center

as well. Now that researchers can attach

metadata—such as the name of the

researcher conducting the experiment—to

a file, they can retrieve relevant information

quickly and easily. Also crucial was the

capability enabling researchers to download

files twice as quickly because the platform

has higher throughput than the previous

Dell.com/EfficientIT | 2012 Issue 27Reprinted from the 2012 Dell Efficient IT special edition of Dell Power Solutions. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

http://dellstorage.com

Eric JonesExecutive DirectorHenrico Public Schools

“Dell educational solutions help us better prepare our students for success. Lesson learned.”

See how we helped Henrico County Public Schools improve academic performance using Dell professional learning services and educational solutions. Learn more at Dell.com/Effi cientIT.



50110454-dell-ad4.indd 1 12/6/11 11:35 AM



With reliance on IT growing and IT budgets leveling off, it is

no surprise that many business and technology strategists

are setting their sights on the cloud. By providing cost-

effective, on-demand access to powerful IT resources,

cloud computing helps organizations boost flexibility, productivity,

and scalability while avoiding IT expenditures and complexity. And the

deployments can be as diverse as the specific requirements they serve. For

example, some enterprises are migrating workloads to large-scale public

clouds; others are building private clouds that capitalize on pooled, in-

house server, storage, and networking resources.

The success stories highlighted here show how organizations in a

wide range of industries have already drawn upon approaches such as

Dell Cloud Computing Solutions to advance business and technical goals

while controlling IT budgets. Whether they are operating airports, brewing

beer, or delivering integrated voice and data services, these companies

understand that a cloud computing–based strategy can be instrumental

in achieving impressive results—helping to reduce power consumption,

secure client systems, increase worker productivity, improve agility, and

reach new customers.

Expanding business opportunities through the cloud

Large enterprises and small businesses alike are

realizing powerful cost-benefits by implementing

cloud-based computing environments. Dell™ cloud

computing technologies enhance agility, broaden

opportunities, and streamline IT management.

Copenhagen Airports

Reduced carbon emissionsCopenhagen Airports reduced carbon emissions by approximately 200 tons per year after implementing a private cloud with virtualized Dell PowerEdge™ servers.

Tyro Payments

Tight PC SecurityTyro Payments uses the cloud-based Dell Distributed Device Management (DDM) software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to help keep PCs secure without adding IT complexity.

Boulevard Brewing Company

Increased productivity Boulevard Brewing Company reclaimed more than 3,790 productivity hours per year by managing spam and stopping viruses with cloud-based Dell Email Management Services (EMS).

University of Kentucky

Maximized IT efficiency The University of Kentucky Information Technology (UKIT) group anticipates a 17 percent total cost of ownership (TCO) reduction over five years for its private and hybrid cloud SAP environment.

Uniserve

Fresh business opportunitiesUniserve offered new products to existing customers and is reaching previously untapped verticals by adopting the turnkey Dell Cloud Solution for Web Applications approach.





Copenhagen Airports: Landing in the cloud

As the owner and operator of Kastrup and Roskilde airports

in Denmark, Copenhagen Airports is responsible for running and

maintaining all airport buildings and service facilities. Its IT group

sought new ways to streamline IT management and reduce power

consumption to support continued organizational growth while

meeting carbon emission targets set by the Danish government.

Achieving those goals required the overhaul of an aging, power-

hungry IT infrastructure that comprised 330 servers and several

disparate, proprietary storage systems.

Following consultation with Dell, the IT group pooled IT

resources by creating a private cloud with VMware® virtualization

software, Dell PowerEdge blade servers, and Dell EqualLogic™

PS Series storage. After virtualizing just half of its servers, the

organization cut IT power consumption costs by approximately

DKK 800,000 per year and reduced carbon emissions by

approximately 200 tons per year. Virtualizing servers also helped

the company avoid 75 percent of previously planned hardware

acquisition costs.

Meanwhile, the private cloud approach has helped streamline

management. “Thanks to our simplified Dell cloud infrastructure, we

save around 50 percent on management time,” says Michael Øst

Larsen, back office IT manager for Copenhagen Airports. “It’s a new

approach to running IT.”

In addition, the IT group is able to respond much more quickly

and flexibly to service requests; virtualization has helped cut the

time to launch new services from one month to just one hour. “This

means that the company can get going on projects faster, which

contributes to overall growth,” says Øst Larsen.

Tyro Payments: Tightening PC security

Tyro Payments, an independent Australian banking

organization, is focused on producing innovative, enterprise-

level payment processes for small and medium-sized retailers,

hospitality businesses, and health care providers. Protecting the

security of its client systems is critical for Tyro. Yet the near-

continuous work of distributing third-party security patches and

antivirus updates to employee PCs was challenging for the small IT

group. Administrators needed to streamline software deployments

to help ensure that updates would reach client systems before

problems arose.

After evaluating several options, the IT group at Tyro decided

to adopt the Dell Distributed Device Management (DDM) software-

as-a-service (SaaS) platform. The cloud-based solution enables

administrators to manage client systems in real time through an

online portal that is designed to be accessed by any PC connected

to the Internet. Administrators can fix software problems remotely,

avoiding time-consuming deskside visits and helping employees to

reduce downtime.

By deploying DDM, the Tyro team also can capitalize on

automated third-party patch management capabilities to roll out

antivirus software and security patches to the entire organization

in minutes. “Deploying the SaaS solution has increased the security

of our systems,” says Timothy Kersten, security specialist at Tyro

Payments. “The updates process has been simplified and is much

more effective. We now have peace of mind that we are protected

at all times.”




Boulevard Brewing Company:

Keeping communications flowing

A pioneer in the craft beer revolution, Boulevard Brewing Company

is today the largest specialty brewer in the Midwestern United

States. Like most U.S. breweries, Boulevard needs a way to ensure

smooth communication with distributors. However, a large volume

of e-mail spam was hampering employee productivity, introducing

security risks, and causing the IT group to spend thousands of

dollars on spam filtering software every year. Finally, a hardware

failure on the server used for the Microsoft® Exchange Server

messaging application forced the company to rethink messaging.

Boulevard adopted Dell Email Management Services (EMS), a

comprehensive suite of cloud-delivered messaging applications,

to manage spam and virus filtering and to handle e-mail archiving

and continuity. Now e-mail passes through Dell EMS Email Security

servers before it is delivered to the company’s network. Boulevard

also refreshed its hardware with a Dell PowerEdge server to host

Exchange 2010 and implemented Dell EqualLogic PS Series storage

area networks (SANs) for primary storage and data replication.

Using the cloud-based solution for spam and virus filtering has

helped Boulevard reclaim more than 3,790 productivity hours per

year, refocus IT staff on other tasks, eliminate expenses for spam

filtering software, and avoid significant e-mail outages. Using cloud-

based e-mail archiving, Boulevard also reclaimed 30 percent of disk

space and achieved a 100 percent return on investment.

“If you’re not using a perimeter-based spam and virus filtering

solution like Dell EMS Email Security, you’re essentially paying for

extra bandwidth to allow spam to travel across your network,” says

Tony Lux, purveyor of technology at Boulevard Brewing Company.

“For us, that’s a lot of data, and Dell EMS is stopping it before it even

hits our mail server.”

University of Kentucky: Journey to the cloud

University of Kentucky Information Technology (UKIT) is exploring

a new approach to IT to address multiple challenges and build an

infrastructure for the future. The campus data center, which houses

mission-critical applications used across the university and part of the

university health care system, is located in an aging building that leaves

applications too vulnerable to catastrophic outages. Meanwhile, the

data center’s large-scale SAP environment, which helps manage student

information, procurement, human resources, and financials, uses

proprietary systems that have become too costly and complex.

UKIT needs to make changes quickly. UKIT is under pressure

from the university to identify recurring cost savings and to return the

prime campus real estate used for the data center to academic use. A

dwindling budget resulting from the economic downturn means that

building a new data center is not a financially viable option.

UKIT is evolving to cloud computing as a way to help mitigate risks,

reduce costs, return data center space to the university, and redirect IT

staff to focus on strategic organizational goals. As a first step, UKIT worked

with Dell Services to design a private and hybrid cloud solution for the SAP

applications that includes Dell PowerEdge servers, Dell Compellent™

storage, and the Dell Virtual Integrated System (VIS) portfolio. Through a

multi-phased proof of concept, UKIT learned that the cloud approach could

help reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the SAP environment by

nearly 17 percent over five years. If the pilot is successful, UKIT ultimately

plans to migrate the SAP environment and other mission-critical applications

to a Dell public cloud to help further reduce risks and costs.

“Cloud computing helps us address several of our immediate

challenges by improving business continuity, reducing operating costs,

freeing up campus real estate, and simplifying management,” says Vince

Kellen, CIO, University of Kentucky Information Technology. “In the long

term, moving to a cloud environment will enable us to create a much more

dynamic, agile infrastructure that can support a full range of academic and

administrative functions, from scientific research to desktop computing.”





Uniserve: Evolving into the cloud

As one of Canada’s first Internet service providers, Uniserve

takes pride in being at the leading edge of technology. Founded in

1988 as a computer retail store and dial-up bulletin board system,

the company has grown into an industry leader in the integration

and delivery of voice and data services. Today Uniserve has 50,000

residential subscribers and more than 3,000 commercial customers

throughout Canada.

Offering cloud computing services was a natural step in the

company’s evolution. Commercial customers were increasingly

requesting hosted business applications such as Microsoft Office

SharePoint® Server collaboration and document management,

Microsoft Exchange Server messaging, and BlackBerry applications

to help increase flexibility and reduce costs. Uniserve decided to

build a data center to accommodate that demand.

Uniserve then sought a proven, secure platform that would

allow the company to launch its cloud computing offering quickly,

provide the flexibility to meet on-demand needs, ensure the

security that business customers require, and provide scalability

for future growth. The company selected the turnkey Dell Cloud

Solution for Web Applications, which combines Joyent Cloud

Control software with Dell PowerEdge C Series servers, Dell

Services, and Dell ProSupport in a pretested and preassembled

platform with comprehensive support.

“This cloud solution gives us credibility,” says Mike Schmidt,

president and CEO of Uniserve. “It’s established, it’s proven,

it’s reliable, it’s scalable. It has everything our customers

need to deliver Web applications.” With its cloud computing–

based strategy, Uniserve is offering new products to current

customers while growing opportunities in other areas and

vertical business segments.

Learn more

Dell Cloud Computing Solutions:

dell.to/r13hBs

Dell Distributed Device Management:

dell.to/n2PcTx

Dell Email Management Services:

dell.to/nSENDP

Dell Cloud Solution for Web Applications:

dell.to/owpYYp

Navigating cloud computing

Dell Services helps answer a variety of fundamental questions about cloud computing and provide navigation assistance for those organizations that are ready to explore.

dell.to/rcnD6K

http://dell.to/r13hBs

http://dell.to/n2PcTx

http://dell.to/nSENDP

http://dell.to/owpYYp

http://dell.to/rcnD6K

Serious fun


Customers of Carnival Cruise

Lines want to get away from

it all. Whether they choose to

dance into the wee hours, play

miniature golf with the kids, or just read a

great book by the pool, most are looking

for a vacation from the complexities of

everyday life.

These fun and carefree cruises rely on

a cutting-edge IT infrastructure—one that

poses unique challenges. Because each

ship is its own floating island, efficiency

and reliability are crucial. Looking to get the

most out of the available footprint, Carnival

engaged Dell to determine how it could use

virtualization to consolidate its servers.

Carnival began implementing

VMware® vSphere™ virtualization on Dell

PowerEdge servers and EqualLogic storage,

and quickly saw the results. “Now that

we’ve gone virtual, we’re saving floor space,

saving power, and getting better airflow,

which keeps the servers cooler,” says John

Staker, senior information systems manager

on the new ship Carnival Dream.

The standardized infrastructure has

simplified management and increased

reliability, including saving Carnival’s

information systems managers up to

7,000 hours a year. “The storage arrays

have been rock-solid,” Staker says. “At

Carnival Cruise Lines, we do everything

possible to ensure that our guests enjoy

their vacation. By providing a highly

reliable server environment, our virtual

machines on Dell servers and EqualLogic

storage support that mission.” Carnival is

now planning to move its shoreside data

warehouse onto a similar platform that

uses hybrid EqualLogic arrays with both

solid-state drives and spinning disks.

“We have a true partnership with

Dell,” says Doug Eney, vice president

of information systems engineering at

Carnival. “Many vendors have walked in

here and said they’re our partner, but then

we’ve had a problem when the presales

period was over and the partnership went

out the window. Dell delivers cost-effective

and reliable solutions, and whenever

we’ve brought up issues with the Dell

team, they’ve determined the root cause

and worked with us on the solution. They

always show a commitment to actually

being our partner.”

Deploying virtualized Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers and EqualLogic™

storage helps Carnival Cruise Lines make the most of a small

shipboard footprint, maximize reliability, and reclaim 7,000 hours

per year for its information systems managers.

Cruising to efficiency

In this video, learn more about how the efficient Dell platform is helping Carnival deliver an unforgettable vacation experience to 3 million guests every year.

youtube.com/watch?v= iS8_AlcYdQA

Reprinted from the 2012 Dell Efficient IT special edition of Dell Power Solutions. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell.com/EfficientIT | 2012 Issue 33


http://youtube.com/watch?v=iS8_AlcYdQA

http://youtube.com/watch?v=iS8_AlcYdQA



Every business in the world hones

its systems for peak performance

and competitive advantage—but

few can say that the difference

between success and failure comes down

to millimeters or hundredths of a second, as

is the case with Formula 1 (F1) racing teams.

To get an F1 car to peak performance and

keep it there takes hundreds of people,

multiple infrastructures, and constant

monitoring—plus an IT environment that

can move seamlessly to a different country

each week.

This undertaking is a huge challenge

for teams competing in the F1 season,

but especially for the newly formed Team

Lotus. In a sport where time is precious,

Bill Peters, head of IT at Team Lotus, was

given a matter of months to build the IT

infrastructure needed to run a competitive

racing team. “We found out quite late on

that we’d been accepted into the 2010 F1

season,” says Peters. “We had less than

22 weeks to build everything from scratch.

I knew we needed a tier-one IT partner to

work with us at every stage.”

Designing enterprise-grade

IT environments

Building an enterprise infrastructure in a

few months is no simple task. “The Dell

Consulting team came in and listened to

Working with Dell to rapidly create and deploy a

high-performance computing cluster, design environment,

and network and trackside infrastructures helps speed

Team Lotus toward its ultimate goal—to become the

fastest new team in Formula 1™ (F1™) racing.

Team Lotus

On track for the checkered flag

Rocket on the road

Rapid IT deployment and trackside support anywhere in the world translate into superfast ground speed for Team Lotus. Watch this video to learn more.

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our requirements, quickly turning them

into a statement of work,” says Peters. Dell

consultants held a series of workshops

covering the design and implementation

of servers, storage, networks, and

infrastructure applications.

The team had requirements specific

to the F1 industry, and Dell’s experience

with other F1 teams was invaluable. Peters

explains: “We soon realized that Dell

understood our industry—everything from

the technology needed to design an F1 car,

to our requirement for trackside laptops

and storage that could withstand extreme

temperatures and vibrations.”

Team Lotus also needed a high-

performance computing (HPC)

environment for computational fluid

dynamics—a way of accurately simulating

wind tunnels in virtual space. The

team selected an Intel® Cluster Ready

HPC, which provides a preconfigured,

production-ready system including the

Linux® OS and Platform and independent

software vendor (ISV) applications. The

cluster consists of 186 Dell™ PowerEdge™

M610 blade servers with the Intel Xeon®

processor 5570 series housed in energy-

efficient PowerEdge M1000e modular

blade enclosures and connected to Dell

PowerVault™ MD3200 and MD1200 storage

arrays. “The cluster is critical to the success

of the team,” says Peters. “It works around

the clock simulating aerodynamics and

helps us design the cars. It gives us our

competitive edge.”

The team’s HPC environment helps

prepare the cars for each competition,

but on race day the team needs a

completely different infrastructure. The

trackside environment must deliver all the

functionality and performance expected of

an enterprise-grade IT infrastructure. Not

only must it be highly resilient, but—most

importantly—it must also be mobile because

the team travels around the world.

Once again, Dell consultants’ expertise

and experience within the F1 industry

helped ensure that Team Lotus deployed

the right infrastructure quickly. Dell

designed an environment comprising four

PowerEdge R710 servers connected to a

Dell EqualLogic™ PS6000S Internet SCSI

(iSCSI) storage area network (SAN) with

solid-state drives (SSDs). The servers are

virtualized with a VMware® vSphere™ 4

virtualization platform, and the team’s

data is protected with Symantec™

Backup Exec™ backup and recovery

software. As a result, the team’s overall

IT footprint is designed to be half that of

most competitors, which saves traveling

space that can be used for spare car parts

and other necessities.

The trackside network plays a key role

in the team’s success as well. “We pull huge

amounts of data out of the cars because

they’re racing every lap, so high performance

and stability is paramount,” says Peters. The

team uses Dell Latitude™ E6500 and E4300

laptops with Intel Core™2 Duo processors.

These systems are extremely powerful, but

they are also tough—built with magnesium-

alloy chassis and display backs that meet

rigorous standards for durability.

Pulling ahead of the pack

The F1 season currently consists of circuits

across 20 countries. To help ensure

maximum reliability and performance,

Team Lotus has a Dell ProSupport

Enterprise-Wide Contract. This support,

which has proved invaluable already,

offers the team a four-hour response in

any country. “Regardless of where we are

in the world, we see the same high-level

response within a few hours—even in the

middle of the night when we’re preparing

the car,” says Peters.

Peters is adamant that the world

championship is within grasp in the

next few years. “We want to win a

world championship, and we think it’s

achievable. We’ve got the right team

to do it, and, thanks to Dell, the IT

infrastructure too,” he says.

Where the rubber meets the roadTeam Lotus is focused

on speed—and rapid IT

deployment and support

services from Dell are

helping the F1 race

team achieve its goals.

4 hoursWhen Team Lotus is on the racing circuit, it receives trackside IT assistance within 4 hours, thanks to its Dell ProSupport Enterprise-Wide Contract.

22 weeksAfter Team Lotus was accepted into the 2010 F1 season, it had to build everything from scratch within 22 weeks—including a mobile HPC cluster, networking and trackside infrastructures, a design environment, and storage.

186 serversTeam Lotus selected a production-ready HPC cluster configuration consisting of 186 Dell PowerEdge M610 blade servers, pretested with the Linux OS and ISV applications.


Accelerating scientific research with an energy-saving HPC cluster

University of California, Irvine

Home to Nobel Prize–winning scientists and top-

ranking research programs, the University of California,

Irvine (UCI) prides itself on a distinguished history

of scientific research. Yet until a few years ago, UCI

lacked the compute power to support its researchers in such areas

as atmospheric chemistry, bioinformatics, biopharmaceutical

engineering, and other disciplines that focus on chemistry and

synthetic chemistry. It had to outsource data to high-performance

computing (HPC) labs throughout the United States, experiencing

weeks and even months of lag that slowed the pace of research.

Realizing a need for its own HPC cluster, UCI turned to Dell and

Intel. “They put us in a position where we could get their advanced

tools and their advanced products by opening their engineering and

design-build processes to us and ultimately allowing us to do work that

we couldn’t have done without their help,” says Ronald D. Hubbard,

senior director of development for the UCI School of Physical Sciences.

The resulting cluster, GreenPlanet, encompasses over 350 Dell

PowerEdge™ servers. A QLogic TrueScale InfiniBand interconnect

provides high-throughput, low-latency connectivity among the

nodes. Dell PowerVault™ MD1220 and PowerVault MD1000 direct

attach storage arrays deliver rack-dense, scalable storage.

“We’re seeing great energy and space savings per amount

of work done,” says Dr. Nathan R. M. Crawford, modeling facility

director of the UCI chemistry department. “In fact, with the

advancements that Dell has embedded in the PowerEdge C6100

servers running Intel Xeon processor 5600 series, we can get

150 percent of the work in 50 percent of the space.” The Dell and

Intel solution also saves 28 percent in energy consumption.

“We run very diverse software across more than 30 different

professors and their research groups, with many simulations that

take days or weeks to run,” says Crawford. “Through Dell’s and

Intel’s expertise, we’ve been able to integrate all these into the

cluster by using the Intel Cluster Ready Program and Dell Hardware

Customization services. This has helped us to monitor and manage

all these divergent activities on an open platform.”

Rommie Amaro, assistant professor of pharmaceutical science

and computer science, uses GreenPlanet to study infectious diseases.

“In my lab we are using different computational simulations to try to

understand how enzymes and biomolecules within these diseases

behave and how we can come up with new drugs to target these

specific enzymes,” she says. “We study systems with hundreds

of thousands of atoms and simulate their behavior. So, it’s very

important for us to have access to a large number of processors that

have very fast interconnect. That allows us to get results much more

quickly. And the great thing about GreenPlanet is it satisfies those

constraints for us.”

At the University of California, Irvine,

researchers race toward innovative cures for

diverse diseases. Introducing an HPC cluster

powered by Dell™ servers with Intel® Xeon®

processors enabled 150 percent more

research in 50 percent of the space.

Transforming science

The speed and power provided by high-performance computing opens the door to new scientific discoveries. Learn how the GreenPlanet cluster helps researchers at the University of California, Irvine, study diseases and their cures.

dell.to/sWDnvy

Reprinted from the 2012 Dell Efficient IT special edition of Dell Power Solutions. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.36 2012 Issue | Dell.com/EfficientIT


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See how we helped Bing Maps from Microsoft increase computing density fi vefold, while decreasing power consumption 80% using Dell modular data centers that can be delivered and deployed in just a few weeks. Learn more at Dell.com/Effi cientIT.


Brad Clark

Group Program Manager

Bing®

Maps from Microsoft®


“We needed to process geographic data for the entire earth—while minimizing

our environmental impact upon it.”



See how we help AccuWeather manage the incredible

data growth associated with providing weather

forecasts to hundreds of millions of mobile devices with

Dell storage solutions, featuring Fluid DataTM technology.

Learn more at Dell.com/Effi cientIT.

“ This deluge of data isn’t stopping. But with Dell’s storage solutions, our system was able to absorb it.”


Steven Smith

CIO

AccuWeather, Inc.




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