First for the “some history” part! Converged Infrastructure (CI) is not a new concept – it’s been with us for more than 10 years. Hey, one could even consider that we were the “inventors” of CI back in the days when we publicly announced it on November 03, 2009 (Press Release).

Figure 1. EMC Joe Tucci (center) unveils the Virtual Computing Environment coalition with VMware's Paul Maritz (left) and Cisco's John Chambers (right).

Nowadays the CI concept is well understood, but in 2009 it was kind of ground breaking since this approach had never been taken before.

“All datacenter requirements in just one system? How could that be possible?”

Those were the days of separated, disconnected, and siloed domains (compute, storage, networks) and CI was a new disruptive technology solution that would require a complete transformation in how IT would architect and consume datacenter infrastructure.

To have a clearer understanding of how Dell Technologies comprehends CI – then and now, we could define our CI end-to-end engineered turnkey system as:

VxBlock 1000, Industry-leading Converged Infrastructure, simplifies all aspects of IT by seamlessly integrating all the compute, network, storage and data protection and cloud management technologies you need into one engineered system. It is an all-in-one, “data center in a box.” You can offload the complexities and risks associated with managing enterprise-grade data center infrastructure so that your IT teams can confidently focus on higher-value activities. (from Top Reasons Why Organizations Choose VxBlock 1000 Converged Infrastructure).

For those new to VxBlock 1000, here are some of the most important values VxBlock has provided:

• High availability & data protection
  • No single point of failure
  • High availability in all components, fault tolerance as an option
  • Broad data protection suite
• High scalability & consistent performance
  • 100+ PB storage
  • 1000+ blade & rack servers
  • Scale-up & scale-out, symmetrically or asymmetrically
  • NVMe end-to-end
• Rich data services & highest efficiency
  • In-line, all-the-time services
  • Compression, de-dupe, replication, encryption, copy data management & machine learning
• Cloud operating model & converged management
  • Tight VMware vRealize Integration
  • Consistent tool set across hybrid cloud

And what has happened during this 10+ year period?

Many things. Many milestones. Many systems sold. Many successful customer stories and projects that have led VxBlock to a very effective and consistent $1 billion annual run rate business just four years into its existence. Check the diagram below to reflect on some of the key milestones VxBlock and Dell Technologies CI as a whole have delivered during this decade.

Figure 2. VxBlock 1000 one-decade journey

Today, with more than 4500 systems installed in over 100 countries, VxBlock 1000 keeps on leading the way, innovating the CI arena in four key areas that address the second part of this blog post, namely “What’s New”:

• Flexible technology choices
• Converged management and automation
• Life cycle management
• Future proof design and support

Flexible technology choices

VxBlock System 1000 gives you a choice of industry-leading technologies to meet the needs of all your different workloads, ranging from mission-critical, general purpose (virtualized or not), Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, End User Computing/Virtual Desktops… you name it!

Mix and match powerful Dell EMC storage and data protection options, Cisco UCS blade and rack servers, Cisco LAN and SAN networking, and VMware virtualization and cloud management. For more details on infrastructure see VxBlock 1000 data sheet and specs.

Since VxBlock 1000 is not just a reference architecture or a bill of materials, it eliminates the traditional risks associated with “Do It Yourself” approaches. It’s a fully integrated system that is engineered, manufactured, managed, supported, and sustained as one product, delivering a turnkey experience. Dell Technologies validates interoperability of components and provides a predictable system maintenance process that improves availability and productivity.

Converged management and automation

VxBlock 1000 leverages its deep VMware integration to simplify automation of everything from daily infrastructure provisioning tasks to delivery of IaaS and SaaS. At the foundation is VxBlock Central software that provides a single unified interface and access point for converged infrastructure operations.

Figure 3. VxBlock Central, a single pane of glass for management, automation, and LCM

VxBlock Central software dramatically simplifies daily administration by providing enhanced system-level awareness, automation and analytics, including launch points to:

• VMware vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) with workflows for automating daily operational tasks
• vRealize Operations (vROps) for deep VxBlock analytics and simplified capacity management

As customers place workloads on top of VxBlock 1000, VxBlock Central helps to provide and maintain these services by managing the infrastructure underneath. See here for more great info about VxBlock Central Workflow Automation and the 40+ workflows available in the Workflow Automation Library.

Life cycle management

Dell EMC CloudIQ for VxBlock features next-generation lifecycle management (LCM) that enables IT teams to more flexibly plan ahead and control converged hardware lifecycle, further reducing risk with proactive SaaS-based insights. You gain granular control over hardware inventory, milestones, support interoperability, and upgrade scenarios.

Future proof design and support

VxBlock 1000 is built with a perpetual design, meaning it will ensure that your system stays ready to support the introduction of next-generation technologies within any of the fundamental domains of the system, whether storage, compute, or network. You can address increased performance and scalability requirements while maximizing the return on your system investment.

Dell Technologies delivers fully integrated 24/7 support with a single call. There’s never any finger-pointing between vendors. You can always rely on our fully cross-trained team for a fast resolution to any problem. Our portfolio of services (including deployment services, migration services, and residency services) accelerates speed of deployment and integration into your IT environment. It also minimizes downtime by ensuring your software and hardware remains up to date throughout the product lifecycle.

Wrapping up

One decade ago, Dell Technologies defined the foundations for CI and created a platform that has evolved to what today is VxBlock 1000. This system (compute, network, storage and management layer) is created (engineered and manufactured), maintained (single management and support), and sustained (in ongoing certified code upgrades) by Dell EMC during its entire journey. Customers simply take the keys of the car and drive.

Ignacio Borrero - LinkedIn, Twitter: @virtualpeli

Originally published on August 21, 2019

Enterprises driving towards digital transformation need IT infrastructure designed to support those initiatives. Along with modernizing applications and the underlying infrastructure, it is equally important to focus on transforming the workspaces of end-users. End-user experience is an essential aspect of digital transformation initiatives that depend on the performance and responsiveness of digital workspaces.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is the heart of digital workspace implementations. Enterprises planning for workspace transformation rely on VDI to provide a seamless desktop experience to their employee workspaces. VDI provides the agility, security, and centralized management that are critical to successful workspace transformation initiatives.

In this blog, we will discuss how the latest Dell EMC VxBlock System 1000 converged infrastructure and VDI together form a better strategy for your digital transformation initiatives.

VxBlock 1000 converged infrastructure is a combination of best-in-breed technologies from Dell EMC, Cisco, and VMware. You get a turnkey product that is engineered, manufactured, managed, supported, and most importantly sustained as one system.

Figure 1: VxBlock System 1000

VxBlock 1000 from Dell EMC offers you a design that ensures your IT infrastructure can support next-generation technologies and meet performance, agility, scalability, and simplicity requirements for digital transformation. With the flexibility to choose from Dell EMC’s powerful portfolio of storage and data protection products, and from Cisco’s compute and networking products, you can consolidate and run a variety of workloads, including mission-critical ones such as SAP, Microsoft SQL, Oracle, Epic, and VDI on a single platform. From a life-cycle management (LCM) perspective, the integration of VxBlock Central software with VMware’s vRealize Orchestrator and vRealize Operations software delivers cloud operations faster and more efficiently. VxBlock 1000 simplifies LCM by performing upgrades and patches 6 times faster than traditional 3-tier system management. For more information regarding the benefits of VxBlock 1000, see the Dell EMC VxBlock website.

The migration of applications to the public cloud is sometimes regarded as a step forward towards reaching the goal of digital transformation. However, most enterprises quickly find that the public cloud is not a one-size-fits-all solution for hosting their applications. Some applications are better suited to hosting on-premises for a variety of reasons, including security, operational control, and data governance. So, the ‘hybrid cloud’ is emerging as the model that best fits the needs of many enterprises embracing digital transformation. VxBlock System 1000 can be the foundation for your hybrid cloud infrastructure to speed up your efforts towards digital transformation. You can read more about VxBlock 1000 and digital transformation in this Dell EMC blog. And, for the majority of the applications running on-premises, enterprises can use VDI infrastructure running on VxBlock 1000 to present these applications on end-users’ digital workspaces, while reaping all the benefits of a VDI solution.

Enterprises with VxBlock 1000 can run VDI workloads in combination with high-value workloads like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft SQL, and Epic on a common platform. In an enterprise-scale VDI environment, VxBlock 1000 can both scale up and scale out seamlessly to support additional users. The VxBlock 1000 architecture supports the granular scalability of each component independently, whether it is the compute, networking, or storage, thus providing flexibility and agility for your VDI environment. If you are a large enterprise running a VDI workload, you are likely to get a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) when using VxBlock 1000, compared to a DIY design approach or public cloud offering.

Dell EMC now offers an integrated, validated, and tested solution for a VMware Horizon 7 VDI running on VxBlock Systems 1000. In our testing, we have found that such an environment provides excellent performance and an exceptional user experience, both of which are paramount for your workspace transformation initiatives. For design options, a validated architecture, and best practices, see the Design and Validation Guides available under "Designs for VMware Horizon on VxBlock System 1000" on our VDI Info Hub for Ready Solutions website.

Come find out more about the benefits of a Dell EMC VDI solution based on VxBlock 1000 at VMworld US 2019, where we will be discussing the solution in the Dell EMC Infrastructure Solutions Group booth and in our executive suite (click to register for the event). We look forward to seeing you there.

In the next blog, we will discuss in detail why the Dell EMC VxBlock 1000 is an ideal choice for running Enterprise-Scale and Multi-Workload VDI Environments. Stay tuned, and we’d love to get your feedback in the comments section!

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