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Earlier this summer we announced key advancements to VxRail Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) hardware and software, including major updates to help customers simplify their infrastructure, scale when and where they need to, and address more workloads while adopting next generation technologies. We recently discussed the technical know-how behind those new and exciting innovations at a special Dell Technologies Tech Field Day event.

Tech Field Day offers an opportunity for companies like Dell to share, learn, and interact with a small group of independent technical influencers in a series of focused technical sessions. Channel your elementary school-aged self, and imagine a day dedicated to a tug-of-workloads, hybrid cloud water balloon toss, and a flexible storage balancing act. If that sounds like your idea of a good time, you’ll find these sessions beneficial. They were originally livestreamed, uncensored conversations that highlighted how VxRail drives value for our customers across four key areas:

1. Optimizing operations and automating as much as possible to allow customers to focus resources on strategic IT initiatives rather than on maintaining the infrastructure
2. Embracing hybrid cloud to rapidly deploy on-demand services and scale without limits
3. Optimizing workloads and modern apps to drive business innovation
4. And finally, by unlocking business value at the edge

These themes were carried throughout the full-day event and we covered a lot of ground on the unique capabilities and differentiators for our products – like how we’ve added even more flexibility to our HCI portfolio with VxRail dynamic nodes, the ways we’re helping customers accelerate adoption of Kubernetes with Tanzu on VxRail, and how we’re partnering with NVIDIA to deliver superior performance for AI workloads. We also heard New Belgium Brewing discuss how they cut their data center costs by about 80% with VxRail, demonstrating significant savings while boosting IT agility and efficiency.

Each session highlighted not only the passion our technologists, customers, and partners have for VxRail, but also excitement from our audience of technical influencers who had many “aha moments” throughout. The influencers were thrilled to have an opportunity to dive into our latest advancements and ask all their burning questions to our technologists directly.

Ready, set, go! Watch Tech Field Day on-demand

I invite you to check out the individual sessions on our Dell Technologies Youtube Channel where we went ahead and curated a dedicated playlist. It features:

• Modern Infrastructure for the data era - Dell EMC Storage and HCI Portfolio Overview
• Intro to The VxRail Advantage
• The VxRail Advantage - VxRail LCM and vLCM better together
• The VxRail Advantage - Configuration & Deployment
• The VxRail Advantage - Management Overview
• Brewing World-class Beer with VxRail
• VxRail dynamic nodes - flexibility for the future
• What does "seamless technology integration" mean for VxRail?
• NVIDIA-Certified Dell EMC VxRail for GPU-Intensive Workloads
• VMware Cloud Foundation with Tanzu on VxRail – simple path to modern apps and the hybrid cloud
• Get the most out of your Kubernetes with Tanzu on Dell EMC VxRail

Additional Resources

Our growing list of VxRail technical videos.

Author: Kathleen Cintorino, Twitter (@k_lasorsa), LinkedIn

You wouldn’t buy a new car without researching and test driving it first, would you?  The same holds true for your data center – test driving, researching, checking peer reviews, and carefully weighing your IT infrastructure options are key to making an informed decision for your business.

Keith Townsend, a technical analyst also known as the CTO Advisor, and his team recently did just that with Dell EMC VxRail. Through a study commissioned by Dell Technologies, the CTO Advisor team stepped into the driver’s seat to investigate the differentiated value of VxRail as part of a broader strategy to modernize their CTO Advisor Hybrid Infrastructure.

The CTO Advisor team completed two weeks of rigorous testing with two main objectives in mind. First, they examined whether VxRail HCI System Software, a suite of integrated software elements that sits between VxRail infrastructure components such as vSAN and VMware Cloud Foundation, adds unique, differentiated value for businesses like the CTO Advisor. Second, they looked specifically at integration between VxRail, VMware Cloud Foundation, and Intel – does it offer unique differentiation versus competitors?

Spoiler alert: the answers to both of their questions were yes and yes! But you don’t have to take my word for it -- you can join Keith and the CTO Advisor team for the ride. Available now, their seven-part video series documents their VxRail journey from start-to-finish and includes technical conversations with our technologists. Their videos showed how VxRail:

• Simplifies day two operations with VxRail Manager
• Delivers multi-cluster management for a single-pane-of-glass view of your entire infrastructure
• Enables custom automation with RESTful APIs
• Enables automation across the entire stack with ecosystem connectors
• Reduces risk with the electronic compatibility matrix
• Delivers deep integration with VMware Cloud Foundation for a turnkey hybrid cloud experience

Watch at the links below, and be sure to view the report and project page!