2012 Issue 02

Your guide to maximizing IT efficiency dell.com/powersolutions

Fast forward

US$

18.9

5

Ca

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19.9

5

Five best practices help CIOs create a user-centric computing strategy that embraces the brisk rate of technological—and cultural—change

Explore cloud-based delivery: Enhancing productivity with desktop as a service Capitalize on converging trends: Accelerating desktop virtualization gains Employ a smart strategy: Securing remote access for consumer devices with SonicWALL Plus: Special section on data management, including data’s journey to the cloud

Give everyone in your company secure access to the data and applications they need, on the device of their choice. Learn more about Dell mobility solutions powered by Intel® at Dell.com/Effi cientIT.

Anywhere,

anytime,

on any device.

Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Do more with Dell mobility solutions

2012 Issue 02

Requisition

Provision

Manage

Retire

Businessgroups

Authorizedusers

Authentication and role-based authorization

A B C

End users

A

ABC

ResourcereservationsService

blueprints

Cost profile Cost profile

Approved

A A

Shared infrastructure

Public

Physical

Virtual

A

A

A B

B

C

B

B C

8 Spate of Dell acquisitions solidifies solutions-driven strategy

Physical environment Consolidation Virtualization Cloud computing

Application

OS

Hardware

OS OSOS

Virtualization

Hardware

Application Application Application VM VMVM

VM VMVM

VM VMVM

VM VMVM

VM VMVM

VM VMVM

VM VMVM

VM VMVM

Maximize e�ciency Increase agilityOptimize resiliency

50 IT innovation is the catalyst for hybrid cloud environments

68 Mazda paves the way to business innovation with tiered storage

76 Capitalize on Ethernet advances to avoid performance/security trade-offs

80 Racked, stacked, and wired infrastructure for easy private clouds

Fast forwardBy Jeanne Feldkamp, Christian Childs, Jennifer Erickson, and David Schweighofer

Five best practices help CIOs create a user-centric

computing strategy that embraces the brisk rate of

technological and cultural change in an agile, secure

framework—with the right personal touch to inspire

productivity gains and business innovation.

Cover story10

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 1

18 Enhancing productivity

with desktop as a service

By Reed Martin

Global workforces are driving the demand

for anywhere, anytime, any-device

computing. Dell now offers two feature-

rich, cloud-based delivery models to

enhance productivity, streamline resource

management, and advance innovative

support capabilities.

22 Accelerating desktop

virtualization gains

By Rafael Colorado and Reed Martin

Converging trends toward consumerization,

thin-client deployment, enhanced security

requirements, and wide adoption of cloud-

based services are driving increased interest

in desktop virtualization.

Recent

citings

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

2 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

42 Streamlining PC life-cycle management

By Jack Todd and Natasha Bohorquez

Rigorous management of the PC life cycle is essential

for diverse, distributed workforces. Dell offers a

comprehensive mix of configuration, installation,

ongoing support, and IT asset disposition services for

efficiently managing end-user systems.

46 Jones Walker: Setting a precedent for virtualization

To keep up with rapid growth, streamline desktop

management, and strengthen disaster recovery, Jones

Walker turned to server and desktop virtualization—

a cost-effective approach enabling the law firm to

respond quickly and flexibly to client needs.

48 Zuken: Expediting client deployments

and IT efficiency gains

Managing client devices and software licenses was

consuming valuable time for the IT team at Zuken.

Deploying Dell KACE Systems Management

Appliances enhanced employee productivity and

freed the IT staff to focus on strategic initiatives.

27 Assessing a desktop virtualization strategy

By Reed Martin

Before transitioning to a virtual desktop environment, IT

decision makers often consider its many challenges and

benefits. The Dell Desktop Virtualization Solutions Group

offers a decision tree for matching an organization’s

needs to a delivery model.

34 Automated, appliance-based deployment

helps simplify endpoint migration

By John Karabaic

To migrate large numbers of endpoints, organizations

are exploring an automated, integrated approach

to systems provisioning. Dell KACE™ deployment

appliances, along with key best practices, facilitate

an efficient, cost-effective migration.

38 Simple, flexible endpoint security

through data encryption

By Jeremy Bolen and Sarah Williams

With employee mobility and IT consumerization on

the rise, organizations require robust data protection.

Dell™ Data Protection | Encryption offers comprehensive

endpoint security that helps simplify management while

maintaining a rich user experience.

Lead with end-user computing

Features

By Patrick Sweeney

Organizations adopting bring-your-

own-device (BYOD) policies to harness

the power and utility of personal mobile

devices in the workplace can employ

SonicWALL solutions to help ensure secure

access for consumer devices.

Securing remote access for consumer mobile devices

30 End-user computing

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 3

DepartmentsEditor’s comments

6 Ultrabook, ultrafast

By Tom Kolnowski

8 Recent citings

Raft of Dell acquisitions expands business goals,

solution offerings

Special section: Data management

55 Advancing the value of private clouds

with virtualized, consolidated storage

By Stanley L. Stevens, Justin Braun, Marty J. Glaser, and Nicholas Sweere

60 Boosting database availability through

intelligent virtualized storage

By Maggie Smith, Mike Matthews, and Nicholas Sweere

64 Integrating object-based storage using

a global namespace

By Renny Shen and Muffadal Quettawala

68 Mazda North American Operations:

Accelerating performance through virtualized,

tiered storage

By Lisa Onstot and Tad Walsh

By launching the latest members of the

12th-generation Dell PowerEdge™ server

family, Dell extends the benefits of advanced

innovations to organizations of all sizes—

from small and medium businesses to

large enterprises.

Extending the benefits of server innovation

70 Intelligent server infrastructure

By Timothy Sherbak

IT innovation is guiding many organizations on a strategic

trek toward hybrid environments that integrate both

private and public cloud-based services. This evolution

is prompting careful evaluation and planning for storage

and data management.

Data’s journey to the cloud

50 Data management

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

4 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Dell Power Solutions—your guide to maximizing IT efficiency—

offers the latest in expert advice, solutions, and technology for the

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and expert tips you won’t find anywhere else.

Point of view

74 Remote- and branch-office

networking trends

By Bob Laliberte

Networking

76 Optimizing network bandwidth

for secure cloud environments

By Brian Johnson and Rahul Deshmukh

Cloud computing

80 Rapid virtualization deployment

for private clouds

By Marc Stitt and Deepak Kanwar

Index to featured Dell customers

BitCloud ...................................................................... 53

Brodart Company .......................................................81

Expedient Communications ....................................78

HealthDataInsights Inc. ............................................ 63

Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent,

Carrère & Denègre L.L.P. .......................................... 46

Mazda North American Operations ..................... 68

PING ............................................................................. 57

Zuken ............................................................................ 48

Index to advertisers

American Power Conversion Corporation ......... 59

Brocade ........................................................................ 37

Dell Inc. .............................................................. C2, 5, 7

F5 Networks, Inc. ...................................................... C3

Intel Corporation ....................................................... 26

Oracle Corporation ................................................ C4

SonicWALL, Inc. ......................................................... 21

Product showcase

Dell PowerVault™ TL tape library:

Versatile, expandable, and affordable

data protection .......................................................... 54

Get your complimentary digital subscription Power Solutions on Zinio!

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Join the Dell Storage User Group community! Real-world solutions for real-world users

Visit our Dell Storage User Group website for a schedule of upcoming meetings, registration links, and details about giveaways, contests, food, and more! Please visit us at dellstorage.com/usergroups, or simply scan the QR code below from your smartphone for instant access to the site.

Are you interested in engaging with other Dell storage users, sharing insights into best practices, and hearing the latest innovations that Dell has brought to its storage family? Then we invite you to join the Dell Storage User Group community!

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6 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Editor’s comments

Editorial staffEditor-in-chief and publisher Tom KolnowskiManaging editor Debra McDonaldFeatures editor Kathryn WhiteSenior editors Dawn Davidson, James Hurd, Catherine Luo, and Terrence O’DonnellArt director and cover designer David ChanDesigner and illustrator Cynthia WebbCirculation and logistics Sharon Mendoza

Staff writers Romy Bauer, Jeanne Feldkamp, Greg Thomas, and Chris Young

Contributing writers Natasha Bohorquez, Jeremy Bolen, Justin Braun, Christian Childs, Rafael Colorado, Rahul Deshmukh, Jennifer Erickson, Marty J. Glaser, Brian Johnson, Deepak Kanwar, John Karabaic, Bob Laliberte, Reed Martin, Mike Matthews, Lisa Onstot, Muffadal Quettawala, David Schweighofer, Renny Shen, Timothy Sherbak, Maggie Smith, Stanley L. Stevens, Marc Stitt, Patrick Sweeney, Nicholas Sweere, Jack Todd, Tad Walsh, and Sarah Williams

Contributing photographers Tony Bolding, Lee Kirgan, Bryan Kuntz, and Adran Matte

Advertising and sponsorship salesSales director Kyle Walkenhorst (626-396-9400)Sales manager/Western U.S. and South/Central America

sales Shaun Mehr (949-923-1660)Eastern U.S. and Canada sales Steve Branda (201-483-7871)EMEA and APJ sales Mark Makinney (805-709-4745) Advertising sales assistant Cindy Elhaj (626-396-9400)Ad coordinator Catherine Luo

Reader servicesSubscriptions are complimentary to qualified readers who complete the online subscription form. To subscribe to the regular quarterly edition of Dell Power Solutions Magazine, visit the Subscription Center at dell.com/powersolutions. Once there, you can sign up for a new subscription, change your mailing address for a current subscription, or unsubscribe. Going mobile? Visit the digital edition online at zinio.com/powersolutions. For other subscription services, please e-mail our Reader Services team via us_power_solutions@dell.com.

About Dell Dell 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. 44 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 KACE, Dell OpenManage, Alienware, AppAssure, Aventail, Aventail End Point Control, Clean VPN, Clean Wireless, Compellent, Data Instant Replay, Data Progression, Dynamic Capacity, EPC, EqualLogic, ExpressCharge, Fluid Data, Inspiron, Latitude, Mobile Connect, OptiPlex, PowerConnect, PowerEdge, PowerVault, Precision, Remote Instant Replay, Replay Manager, SonicWALL, Storage Center, Tri-Metal, and XPS 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.

Cover illustration by David Chan

2012 Issue 2

It was a freeze-frame moment. Our cover illustration for this issue was designed to

evoke the sense of conducting business-centric computing at speed—in fact, very

high speed. As we progressed through the cover concept stage with art director

David Chan, his renderings of a railway passenger at work with the Dell™ XPS™ 13

Ultrabook laptop reminded me of past journeys through a blurred French countryside

aboard the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse), the country’s high-speed rail service. Sleek,

aerodynamic speed demons—a test version of the TGV has laid claim to the record for

the fastest wheeled train at 357.2 mph.

Conducted in less exotic venues, my recent experiences traveling through an array of

Austin coffee shops, eateries, and office spaces toting Dell’s first Ultrabook nevertheless

revealed some unexpected brushes with sheer speed. Constructed of machined

aluminum and carbon fiber, the XPS checks in as expected: ultraportable, ultrathin,

and lightweight—striking a nice balance between traditional notebooks and tablet form

factors, measuring a mere 6–18 mm thin and weighing less than three pounds.

This particular XPS 13, equipped with an Intel® Core™ i7 processor running at

1.7 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB solid-state drive, felt purpose-built for speed as

my seat-of-the-pants usage tests quickly demonstrated. With a 64-bit version of

Windows® 7 installed, the XPS awakened from sleep nearly instantly, in something

less than a second (essentially, less time than it took to fully raise the lid). Lightweight

browsers and heavyweight image-editing apps came to life at breakneck speed, with

the Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 9 browser loading to a fully rendered home page in

less than 2 seconds, and Adobe® Photoshop® CS5.1 software launching in less than

5 seconds. When it was time to close the clamshell, the XPS went to sleep instantly.

And a cold boot of Windows 7 took less than 15 seconds to a ready desktop.

Beyond its build quality and speed, for the always-mobile worker there’s more

to like about the XPS 13, including availability of Dell ProSupport services, a bright,

edge-to-edge Corning Gorilla Glass 13.3-inch screen, a glass touchpad with gesture

support, and a compact power adapter. For my next trip aboard the TGV, I plan to

tuck an XPS into my bag.

Ultrabook, ultrafast

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

The Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network

The women of Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network know the importance of networking, in both the

technological and the social sense of the word. They understand that for your business to grow, you need

reliable contacts, but you also need a trusted technology partner and advisor.

Dell addresses both of these needs by enabling female entrepreneurs to innovate while connecting them with

like-minded women who can help them expand their business. It is this winning combination of technology

and intrapersonal support that makes Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network members some of the most

successful businesswomen in the world today.

4 4 Join our growing LinkedIn community and learn more at dell.com/women.

Sue Chen, founder and CEO of Nova Medical Products and member of the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network

The key to a strong businessis a strong network.

8 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Recent citings

Recent

citings

Raft of Dell acquisitions expands business goals, solution offerings

In the first part of 2012, Dell has taken another

giant step forward with an acquisition

strategy aimed to fortify the company’s

position as an end-to-end solutions provider.

Dell is concentrating on growth in four key

business areas: end-user computing, enterprise

solutions, software, and services.

At the Dell Annual Industry Analyst

Conference 2012 last April in Austin, Texas,

Chairman and CEO Michael Dell discussed the

transformation. “During the past five years, we’ve

become a different company. The services and

solutions within Dell have doubled and now

account for 30 percent of our revenue. We

have focused on being an end-to-end solutions

provider for our customers.

“We’re moving from product conversations

with our customers to solutions conversations.

You’ll hear us talk more about the connected

client devices. Then you have the cloud

infrastructure of servers, storage, and networking.

We want to help our customers figure out how

to tap into their data and leverage it. You’ll also

see us focusing on security. You then wrap our

services offering around all of this.”

Recent acquisition activity with AppAssure,

SonicWALL, Wyse Technology, Make Technologies,

and Clerity Solutions has significantly advanced

Dell’s goal of delivering a comprehensive suite of

integrated solutions.

AppAssure

Over the last three years, Dell has expanded

its storage portfolio with a broad range of

products and solutions. Now, advanced backup

capabilities from AppAssure enhance storage

offerings by providing robust protection

for applications and data. This unified

approach to backup, archive, and replication

is designed to support complex virtualized,

physical, and cloud environments.

“AppAssure’s unique architecture

delivers innovative, cloud-enabled backup

and replication solutions designed to meet

the challenges of protecting the explosive

growth of data in both virtual and physical

environments,” said Brad Anderson, president,

Enterprise Solutions Group at Dell. “At a

practical level, AppAssure enables Dell

customers to seamlessly move and replicate

data across our existing platforms—from a Dell™

EqualLogic™ array in a remote office to a Dell

Compellent™ array at a data recovery site.”

SonicWALL

Delivering a wealth of security solutions,

SonicWALL’s portfolio includes firewalls,

secure remote access, e-mail security, backup

and recovery, and policy management and

reporting. SonicWALL® Next-Generation

Firewalls and Unified Threat Management

(UTM) Firewalls complement and broaden

Dell’s enterprise offerings. The acquisition of

SonicWALL expands Dell’s rapidly growing

security software and services portfolio,

which includes cloud security solutions, data

encryption solutions, and vulnerability and

patch management.

“We are building a strategic software

portfolio to address the needs of our customers

with key assets in the fast-growing and highly

profitable IT security solutions business. Our

customers see security as a key IT concern for

the foreseeable future. SonicWALL gives Dell

access to unique intellectual property resources

and technology,” said John Swainson, president,

Dell Software Group.

Wyse Technology

The potential acquisition of Wyse Technology,

a leader in client cloud computing solutions, is

intended to bolster Dell’s end-user computing

business. In certain environments, a virtual

desktop approach allows enterprises to

heighten efficiency and security for managing

user and endpoint devices. The addition of

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 9

Recent citings

Wyse Technology is expected to expand

Dell’s desktop virtualization capabilities

and provide fresh solutions and services

opportunities for a comprehensive range

of enterprise offerings.

“Desktop virtualization can help

organizations streamline IT management,

improve productivity and security, and

increase cost-efficiency for discrete workloads

or usage scenarios,” noted Jeff Clarke,

president, End User Computing Solutions

at Dell. “The Wyse Technology desktop

virtualization capability complements Dell’s

strongest-ever device and computing

solutions portfolio, and strengthens our

position in offering customers among the

broadest set of computing choices from the

edge to the core to the cloud.”

Make Technologies

and Clerity Solutions

By delivering IT modernization solutions

and services, both Make Technologies and

Clerity Solutions help organizations

transition from inefficient legacy

platforms, such as those based on the

UNIX® OS, to distributed x86-based

systems. The potential acquisition of

Make Technologies is intended to help

reduce the cost, risk, and time required

to re-engineer applications. In addition,

Clerity Solutions enables Dell Services to

help organizations minimize the cost of

transitioning business-critical applications

and data from legacy computing systems

onto advanced architectures, including

the cloud.

The addition of Make Technologies,

combined with Clerity Solutions, is

expected to position Dell as a high-quality

provider for modernizing applications.

Together, the intellectual property, talent,

and capabilities from Make Technologies

Learn more

AppAssure:

dell.com/appassure

SonicWALL:

dell.com/sonicwall

Wyse Technology:

dell.com/wyse

Clerity Solutions:

dell.com/clerity

Make Technologies:

dell.com/make

Dell acquisitions:

dell.com/acquisitions

Transformational journey

Join Michael Dell as he shares his company’s progress in its transformation to an end-to-end solutions provider for enterprises.

qrs.ly/ss1ttxt

“ During the past five years, we’ve become a different company. The services and solutions within Dell have doubled and now account for 30 percent of our revenue. We have focused on being an end-to-end solutions provider for our customers.”— Michael Dell

Chairman and CEO, Dell

April 2012

and Clerity Solutions significantly augment

the applications expertise offered by

Dell Services.

“The addition of Make Technologies

and Clerity Solutions to Dell Services

positions us to lead in the fast-growing

applications modernization space,” said

Steve Schuckenbrock, president, Dell

Services. “We have the capabilities to help

customers with all their modernization

needs—from re-hosting and re-platforming

to code re-engineering. These offerings

enable Dell to support the thousands of

commercial and public sector customers

looking to migrate business-critical

applications to open, standards-based

architectures, including the cloud.”

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

10 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Lead with end-user computingCoverstory

Fast forward

Five best practices help CIOs create a user-centric computing

strategy that embraces the brisk rate of technological and cultural

change in an agile, secure framework—with the right personal touch

to inspire productivity gains and business innovation.

By Jeanne Feldkamp, Christian Childs, Jennifer Erickson, and David Schweighofer

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 11

There’s no time like the present.

Consumerization of IT and

new computing paradigms

are leading to a fundamental

shift in workplace dynamics, transforming

what it means to conduct business as

usual. As IT decision makers plan the

inevitable transition, they have a golden

opportunity to add strategic value by

creating a flexible framework for ongoing

growth and development.

Mobile computing, smartphones,

tablets, and social media have already

created a culture of constant connectivity.

The boundaries between workspace and

personal space are blurring as employees

increasingly work from home or on the

road. Organizations in virtually every

sector—from technology to education to

health care—are evolving as people work,

interact, collaborate, study, and learn in

diverse new ways.

These advances in mobility and

client computing technology bring both

opportunities and risks. On one hand,

allowing employees to use their own

computing devices and work from anywhere

helps foster productivity and collaboration.

It can also be a plus for talent acquisition,

satisfaction, and retention. Engaging with

customers and constituents using their

preferred devices heightens communication

and builds strong loyalty. In addition,

embracing mobile technologies expands

the possibilities to deliver and receive critical

information in challenging settings such as

emergency rooms or field locations.

On the other hand, security concerns

are real. Many authorized users may try

to access enterprise applications and

data using personal devices or unsecured

networks, which can put enterprise data at

risk. But organizations that take a hard-

line approach and ban personal devices

may find that the policy backfires when

end users simply ignore IT rules—creating

significant security vulnerabilities.

In addition, managing diverse devices,

applications, platforms, and operating

systems may strain the resources and

budgets of IT departments. The complexity

introduced by a wide array of devices

and configurations often leads IT staff to

manage systems manually. However, that

strategy may generate a dramatic rise in

help-desk requests and a corresponding

decline in IT department productivity.

Organizations may also incur elevated

telecom costs if end users place phone

calls, conduct video conferences, or send

data from their devices.

The simple reality is that IT

consumerization is here to stay. To avoid

questionable end-user workarounds, CIOs

need to balance end-user access and

productivity with IT control. They need

to help ensure adequate organizational

security. And they need to incorporate a

strategy for managing costs effectively.

To achieve these goals, CIOs need a

long-term, user-centric strategy that

encompasses not just end-user computing

technologies, but also the people and

processes surrounding them.

Implementing five best practices

for end-user computing

Based on input from thousands of

customers and its firsthand internal

experiences, Dell has developed five

best practices to help enterprises create

their own end-user computing strategy.

Organizations can leverage these best

practices to deploy a highly flexible

end-user computing plan over three to

five years in a way that is designed

to ensure robust security and access,

heighten productivity gains, and optimize

IT efficiency. (See the sidebar, “How best

practices can pay off.”)

How best practices can pay offBy applying its end-user computing

best practices internally, Dell has

achieved dramatic results such as

the following:

• 60 percent reduction in

applications under management

• 100,000+ desktops and PCs

standardized on Windows 7

• 25 percent reduction in IT

support costs

• 50 percent reduction in time

required to complete software

imaging

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

12 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Lead with end-user computingCoverstory

1. Deploy endpoint devices suited

to individual use cases

The cornerstone of any end-user computing

strategy is to match the right tools with the right

workers. A good first step involves identifying

and understanding individual roles—spanning

executive to entry-level positions, including

contract and part-time employees. By studying

worker responsibilities and methods of

utilizing information, IT decision makers can

determine which technologies and tools best

serve individual needs and assess the level of

access end users require to perform their jobs

effectively. Use cases typically fall into one of the

following five worker roles:

• Deskbound employees typically do basic

computing and have limited mobility needs.

The computing tools they use should be low

cost, durable, and easy to deploy—thin clients,

for example.

• Mid-level professionals have more sophisticated

computing needs and greater mobility than

deskbound employees. Still, low-cost, durable

devices suffice for this group.

• Sophisticated workers such as engineers

and IT staff have advanced and specialized

computing needs. Their requirements make the

availability of specific hardware and software

configurations important drivers of purchase

decisions for this group—along with cost,

durability, and ease of deployment.

• Mid- to senior-level managers use high-

performance, lightweight mobile devices

to stay connected anywhere, anytime.

Style matters to this group. The devices

they use reflect on the company they

represent and are expected to present a

positive image. (See the sidebar, “Ultralight,

ultrapowerful, ultracool.”)

• Niche groups primarily within academic

environments—including teachers, students,

and administrators—need durable, quiet

systems that can be shared with others,

boot up quickly, and include comprehensive

hardware and software support.

Once IT leaders understand their end-

user base, they can determine the mobility

requirements for each worker role. Not every

employee needs the same types of devices—

for example, someone in accounts payable

may need data access and a desktop, while

a field sales engineer may need a tablet

and a smartphone instead. The goal is to

meet the needs of each type of end user in

a cost-effective manner.

Dell offers organizations a range of

alternatives through a comprehensive portfolio

of endpoint devices that are designed to be

open, capable, and affordable. By working with

enterprises to leverage existing assets, Dell

helps organizations avoid vendor lock-in to

proprietary solution stacks.

Ultralight, ultrapowerful, ultracoolThe Dell XPS™ 13 Ultrabook ultraportable laptop is powered

by second-generation Intel® Core™ processors to deliver

uncompromising performance and agility for highly mobile

end users such as executives, sales

professionals, and consultants.

The XPS 13 features a bright,

resilient, 13.3-inch display in a

sleek, durable carbon fiber and

aluminum casing.

At just 6–18 mm

thick and less than

three pounds, the XPS 13 offers the functionality of a full-size,

fully featured laptop. Innovative Intel® Rapid Start Technology™

quickly resumes the XPS 13 from sleep mode, and Intel® Smart

Connect Technology offers a smartphone-like, always-on

experience. Plus, the XPS 13 can be supported by Dell ProSupport

and Dell Configuration and Deployment Services offerings.

Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook: Stylish performer in a remarkably thin and light form factor

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 13

Lead with end-user computingCoverstory

Dell™ Latitude™ laptops powered by third-

generation Intel® Core™ processors with Intel®

vPro™ technology enable employees to stay

productive wherever they happen to be. The vPro

technology allows IT administrators to manage

these laptops even if the OS is inoperable or

the laptop is powered off. (See the sidebar, “The

anywhere workplace.”) Organizations can acquire

end-user computing solutions through a single

Dell point of contact, leveraging specific use cases

and vertical solutions to expedite deployment and

accelerate migration to advanced operating

systems and applications—helping reduce

downtime and complexity in the enterprise.

2. Secure enterprise data from the data center

to the endpoint

Whether they are motivated by monetary gain

or strategic intent, as in the case of espionage or

activism, security threats continue to morph with

the evolving technology landscape. However,

if measures to protect enterprise assets cause

worker productivity to suffer, the negative effects

can transfer all the way down to the bottom line.

A strong end-user computing strategy should

balance the need for productivity and security,

taking an organization’s risk objectives, cost

restraints, and overall end-user requirements into

account. Security measures should be proactive

and strategic to help reduce risk and protect data

from unauthorized access—from the endpoint

device to the data center.

Because mobile devices exist largely outside

the enterprise firewall, they can create additional

challenges for protecting enterprise application data.

Secure end-user computing requires IT departments

to consider data security, network security, and

access problems as well as device security. Several

best practices help ensure end-to-end security:

• Examine security risk points: These risk points

may be devices, networks, the data center, or

cloud computing environments.

• Consider client virtualization: Deploying

desktop virtualization can benefit groups of

remote end users to help improve network

access security and separate the enterprise

system image from personal use.

• Monitor security status: Implement an

approach that provides security monitoring

and remediation.

• Implement multilayered Web security: This

consideration helps protect the enterprise’s

networks from phishing, spam, and malware.

• Customize the security approach by end-user

type and device type: Organizations that run

Microsoft® Windows® platforms should update

mobile and client technologies to Windows 7

to avoid end-of-life support issues for Windows

XP and simplify OS management. Moreover,

administrators can enhance security measures

in conjunction with Microsoft Windows Server®

2008 R2, taking advantage of security features

such as the Windows 7 AppLocker™ feature,

Dell Latitude E-Family laptops: Designed for long-term reliability and durability in a broad range of working environments

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

14 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Lead with end-user computingCoverstory

for example. AppLocker enables IT

organizations to specify which users or

groups can run particular applications

based on unique file IDs.

In addition, potential measures to consider

for endpoint device protection include

the following:

• Programmatic separation of personal

and enterprise data on endpoints:

Consider implementing containers to

protect e-mail and access to business

applications on mobile devices.

• Antivirus and antimalware software

that is up-to-date: Maintaining patch

compliance and software updates can go

a long way toward protecting endpoint

devices and corporate networks.

• Advanced encryption technologies:

Features such as contactless smart

cards and fingerprint readers help

reinforce security measures. And hard

drives are not the only components that

should be encrypted; removable media

devices and backup devices should be

encrypted as well.

• Physical security: Ensure organization-

owned devices are built with the

durability to withstand drops, bumps,

falls, food spills, and the hazards of

remote environments.

• Authentication: When a device is lost

or stolen, its password is one of the

last lines of defense against a security

breach. Organizational policy should

stipulate that endpoint devices are

protected by strong passwords.

Dell offers several security services

to help enterprises protect their data.

Dell SecureWorks provides 24/7 security

monitoring and risk mediation as well as

managed services and consulting to help

organizations address security threats in

heterogeneous environments. In addition,

Dell Data Protection | Encryption (DDP | E)

helps organizations comply with security

regulations and ensure that business-critical

data stays secure by utilizing software

encryption for hard drives and removable

storage devices for client systems. Available as

a nondisruptive endpoint encryption solution,

DDP | E enables IT organizations to deploy

encryption enterprise-wide while enforcing

policies and auditing encryption state.

3. Optimize deployment and management

of endpoint devices

Deployment and management of IT assets

often consume a significant portion of the

IT budget. By simplifying management

of endpoint devices, organizations can

maximize efficiency of an end-user

computing strategy and free up resources

that can be reinvested in innovation.

The process begins with a thorough

infrastructure assessment. As the use of

personal devices in the workplace increases,

the risk of noncompliance and fines grows.

Sophisticated, automated asset management

technology helps accurately assess and report

on IT inventory and license agreements.

A comprehensive asset inventory should

include a tally not only of hardware and

devices, but also of software applications

and license agreements. From the

inventory, IT departments can determine

whether any systems or hardware can

be repurposed, and help ensure that the

organization is in compliance with software

license agreements. An inventory also helps

administrators ascertain whether hardware

is within warranty or approaching the end

of its life cycle, and reveal whether any

hardware is missing from the organization.

With a complete picture of the assets

available to the organization, IT decision

makers can map the appropriate devices

to end-user groups. Dell KACE™ appliances

can assist in this process. Designed to

provide OS-neutral solutions for Apple,

Linux®, and Microsoft Windows operating

systems, Dell KACE appliances enable

enterprise IT departments to discover

assets and seamlessly and centrally manage

Dell OptiPlex™ desktops: Designed to deliver adaptable, intuitive design features that fit specific working styles

endpoints, devices, and servers through

a single, easy-to-use console. In addition,

Dell KACE management appliances

integrate with Intel® vPro™ technology to

enable remote management and recovery

capabilities for Dell laptops even if the OS

is inoperable or the laptop is powered off.

This remote management capability offers

administrators a powerful tool for managing

software distribution, patching, and security

vulnerability remediation while helping

reduce laptop management costs.

With a clear picture of the organization’s

IT assets, administrators can optimize device

deployment and life-cycle management.

Between IT resource time and employee

downtime, deployments can grow

quite costly for each PC. In fact, many

organizations postpone performing a

technology refresh because of resource

constraints. But this approach has potential

costs too; outdated technology and

software can expose the enterprise to

increased risk from security threats.

Automated life-cycle management for

client systems can generate significant cost

savings, which helps enhance security by

removing barriers to updating platforms and

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 15

software. Automation also helps reduce

the costs of mobile device management

processes. It accelerates user provisioning

and migrations, centralizes mobile device

tracking, helps reduce help-desk costs,

supports customizable user roles that can

be configured to meet specific business

requirements, and enables multiple

connectivity platforms. These connectivity

platforms include mobile broadband, Wi-Fi®,

wireless wide area network (WWAN), and

cloud computing technologies. Each end

user and administrator can be assigned the

permissions they need to execute their job

responsibilities, and all endpoints can be

managed through a single, centralized system.

To manage the entire pool of endpoint

devices without disrupting end-user

productivity, IT departments should establish

a single command center that can be

accessed from any computer. Administrators

should have the ability to remotely manage

the life cycles of all client systems—including

provisioning, configuring, deploying,

managing, updating, and tracking all

endpoints in the organization.

Dell Mobility Solutions helps organizations

capitalize on the opportunities afforded by

mobile technologies while addressing a

comprehensive range of IT challenges. The

Dell Mobility Solutions portfolio includes

the following services:

• Dell Mobile Device Management tracks

and manages the myriad mobile devices

employees bring to work, regardless of

device type or platform.

• Dell Mobile Application Development

offers cost-effective mobile application

development, management, migration

and re-engineering, and testing services.

• Dell Telecom Expense Management

supports cost-effective carrier

management for mobile device

plans through a central repository for

enhanced operational efficiency.

• Secure mobile e-mail, calendaring,

and contact management enables

optimized, policy-based control of

personal and business information.

4. Virtualize the environment based on

analysis of end-user roles

Desktop virtualization infrastructure can

play an important role in a comprehensive

end-user computing strategy. This

framework helps IT departments achieve

cost savings by reducing manual

maintenance of individual PCs. At the

same time, it enhances security through

centralized data storage in the data

center rather than on individual machines.

Desktop virtualization gives IT departments

the tools to manage a digital identity for

each user, limit end-user access according

to organizational policies, and support

flexible access to productivity resources

while helping to reduce exposure to

outside threats.

A virtualized desktop environment also

speeds client deployment and management,

and helps simplify compliance and policy

management. In addition, deploying

desktop virtualization helps IT departments

protect proprietary data without limiting

workforce access, enhance application

performance, and automate backups of

critical enterprise data.

One caveat, however, is that not every

group of end users will benefit from a

desktop virtualization approach. Rather

than introduce the technology enterprise-

wide, CIOs should carefully consider

the usage information gathered prior

to developing the end-user computing

strategy to determine which user types

are well suited for desktop virtualization.

Dell provides a variety of approaches to

desktop virtualization that are designed

to balance IT control and end-user

access while minimizing complexity.

Organizations can leverage purpose-

built hardware, software, services,

and reference architectures through

integrated solution stacks. These solutions

are designed for fast deployment to help

enterprises adapt quickly to the changing

dynamics of a virtual workplace.

5. Develop a strong mobile strategy

A strong end-user computing strategy

embraces the reality that employees

are going to use personal devices in the

enterprise environment. This certainty

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

16 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Lead with end-user computingCoverstory

The anywhere workplaceEveryone loves a good-looking laptop that’s built to last. Of course,

polished design is also about fast, flexible performance and secure,

unfettered connectivity—be it from the home office or the road.

And for IT decision makers, it is about the way PCs fit into the overall

infrastructure to heighten process efficiency and simplify management.

The latest Dell Latitude E-Family laptops and Dell OptiPlex

desktop computers with Intel® vPro™ technology cater to end

users and IT organizations alike, with world-class security and

manageability. In addition, their green design principles respect

the planet. For example, next-generation Dell systems are designed

with ENERGY STAR 5.2 efficient power supplies, recycled content in

products and packaging, and voluntary avoidance of substances of

concern and environmentally sensitive materials.

Latitude laptops are built for durability. Their Dell Tri-Metal™ casing,

brushed aluminum finish, reinforced magnesium alloy–wrapped

corners and frame, and strong steel hinges avoid damage from minor

mishaps. A range of specialty models give enterprises options for

integrating multiple computing styles into a single IT infrastructure.

OptiPlex 9010 desktops: Tremendous versatility with wireless connectivity for enhanced collaboration, plus a sleek OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One form factor

calls upon CIOs to develop global policies for personally owned

and corporate devices, establish management and security

practices for the employee-owned devices, and develop a long-

term strategy for managing applications across all device types.

Successful bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies focus

on data and access security rather than security of the

end-user devices themselves. Security measures can be

implemented from the desktop level through the data center.

Platforms should have the flexibility to support Apple Mac OS X,

Windows, Linux, and Google Android operating systems,

and have the scalability to easily add and support personally

owned devices as they are introduced. In addition, because

BYOD may not be appropriate for every organization, Dell

recommends using controlled pilot programs for the phased

adoption of personally owned devices.

Optimizing productivity and collaboration

without sacrificing security

By embracing mobility and advanced end-user computing

technology, enterprises can heighten productivity, collaboration,

and innovation in an agile, secure workplace. By leveraging the

five field-tested best practices described in this article, CIOs

On the outside, Dell OptiPlex desktops offer a common visual

design that seamlessly integrates into office environments across

multiple models and generations. The OptiPlex family also features

a form factor option that maximizes valuable desk space, such as

the new OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One. And highly accelerated life-

cycle testing for OptiPlex desktops simulates real-world usage to

help ensure lasting durability.

Smart and productive

Dell commercial systems are packed with performance, versatility,

and collaboration features that help end users be more productive

than ever—no matter where they are working, when they are working,

or with whom they are collaborating. Dell Latitude laptops can be

configured with the third-generation Intel® Core™ i5 or Core™ i7

vPro™ processors and feature high-bandwidth memory and Intel HD

Graphics or NVIDIA graphics cards for agile performance.

Workers can stay productive with long-lasting battery life, a

three-year warranty battery option, battery slice option, and the

Dell ExpressCharge™ feature. Latitude laptops also feature adaptive

charge profiles to help maximize battery life. Varied connectivity

options enable employees to collaborate with colleagues and

clients and share data securely. In addition, Dell Latitude laptops

integrate intuitive design features, E-Family–wide intercompatible

docking stations, and backlit keyboards that give end users the

adaptability to fit their personal work styles.

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

can proactively define and implement a user-centric computing

strategy designed to advance their strategic business and

organizational agenda for the Virtual Era.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 17

Dell OptiPlex desktops deliver agile performance to match end-

user productivity requirements. The Dell OptiPlex 9010 is a powerful

desktop computer designed for demanding business use, offering

up to 2 TB storage, high-bandwidth Double Data Rate 3 (DDR3)

memory, and graphics card options to enable exceptional graphic

performance for creative multimedia projects.

The flexible Dell OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One is packaged in an

elegant, compact form factor designed to enhance productivity,

collaboration, and management. OptiPlex desktops also help

workers maximize productivity, collaboration, and innovation with

their 23-inch display, optional Webcam, and support for Video

Electronics Standards Association (VESA®) mounting.

Efficient management and security controls

Dell client systems are built to enable confident security and cost-

efficient manageability, and comprehensive service and support

features elevate efficient IT control and management. In addition,

Intel vPro technology offers efficient out-of-band management

and embedded security to help effectively manage threats, control

access, and protect data. IT departments can also help safeguard

data and meet compliance regulations with Trusted Platform

Module (TPM), Dell Data Protection | Encryption, encrypted hard

drive options, and contactless smart card and fingerprint reader

login access options. These security features make this generation

of Latitude laptops tremendously secure.

Long life cycles and managed transitions for Dell products enable

long-term stability that helps save time and conserve IT budgets. Dell

Latitude E-Family laptops are backed by a wide range of customizable,

globally focused services and support. Custom Factory Integration

includes custom configuration, consolidation, and integration that

allow IT organizations to deploy systems directly out of the box. And

Dell Asset Resale and Recycling services helps organizations protect

sensitive data and recycle components responsibly.*

Latitude E6430 laptop: Wide-ranging mobility with LTE mobile broadband through Verizon and significantly enhanced battery life with select battery options

Latitude E6330 laptop: Rich, comprehensive features including an optical drive in an extremely compact form factor

Latitude E6230 laptop: Smallest E-Family form factor that slips into a business-class docking station

Latitude E6430s laptop: Innovative integration of a 14-inch display in a 13-inch form factor

* For information on Dell Services support for end-user computing, see “Streamlining PC life-cycle management,” by Jack Todd and Natasha Bohorquez, in Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2, qrs.ly/pn1tui1.

Learn more

Dell Latitude laptops:

dell.com/latitude

Dell OptiPlex desktops:

dell.com/optiplex

Authors

Jeanne Feldkamp is a business and technology writer based

in San Francisco.

Christian Childs is manager of the End User Solutions Marketing

for Commercial Business team at Dell.

Jennifer Erickson is director of the End User Computing Marketing

for Large Enterprise Business team in North America at Dell.

David Schweighofer is the global outbound messaging manager for

Dell Latitude laptops and Dell OptiPlex desktop computers on the

Product Group Marketing team.

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Lead with end-user computingFeaturesection

18 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Traditionally, specialized service

providers such as hospitals,

power plants, and call centers

have needed to operate

24 hours a day. However, today it seems

many organizations have employees and

contractors that require access to work

and business data around the clock. To

meet the needs of increasingly diverse

global workforces, branch offices,

remote and mobile workers, seasonal

workers, and contractors, IT departments

today seek innovative approaches to

streamline resource management and

improve uptime access.

The attendant proliferation of

Ultrabooks, tablets, and smart devices,

meanwhile, is increasing the need to

enhance security around the anytime,

anywhere resources that workers

increasingly expect. These converging

trends are leading IT executives to seriously

consider desktop virtualization1 and

explore possibilities such as cloud-based

desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) solutions.

While some CIOs and IT decision

makers may have considered DaaS

to be risky just a few years ago, many

enterprises are growing increasingly

comfortable with cloud-based DaaS

providers. Other IT organizations are

considering DaaS deployments after

successful proof-of-concept tests

enhanced user productivity and data

security. For IT managers, DaaS can

minimize downtime, streamline IT

resource management, and shift future

depreciating capital expenses for

hardware and software to a predictable

service-based operating expense.

Demand for DaaS is growing in a

variety of segments, and not only among

startups hoping to avoid IT infrastructure

costs or enterprises that would like to get

out of IT management and infrastructure

maintenance altogether. Educational

institutions, health care organizations,

and others are also contributing to the

growth in hosted desktop virtualization

environments. As a result of this demand,

several vendors have launched desktop

virtualization services. Dell, in partnership

with Desktone, offers a cost-effective

cloud-based solution that avoids the

traditional complexity of deploying and

managing virtual desktops and enables

scalability and rapid provisioning to

accelerate deployment.

Global workforces are driving the demand for anywhere, anytime, any-device

computing. Dell now offers two feature-rich, cloud-based delivery models

to enhance productivity, streamline resource management, and advance

innovative support capabilities.

By Reed Martin

Enhancing productivity with desktop as a service

1 For more information on desktop virtualization, see “Accelerating desktop virtualization gains,” by Rafael Colorado and Reed Martin, in Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2, qrs.ly/4v1q9ep.

Lead with end-user computingFeaturesection

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 19Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

As DaaS has evolved, it has become a compelling

option for many IT decision makers, who no longer

view the shift from local server-endpoint computing

to cloud-hosted DaaS as risky or limited. Cloud-based

DaaS provides organizations of all sizes the capability

to meet diverse end-user needs with a security-

conscious, flexible approach. Dell is leveraging its

investment in this arena with expertise across its range

of hardware, software, networking, and services to

create Simplified and Enterprise DaaS environments.

Dell also provides best-practices guidelines to help

decision makers choose hosted environments

that are well suited to specific requirements for IT

management and end-user productivity.2

In addition, Dell End User Computing Services helps

executives and IT decision makers maximize their DaaS

deployments to evolve their business and achieve goals

and objectives. When developing its End User Computing

Services, Dell utilized its own internal IT experiences,

significant proof-of-concept testing at Dell global solution

centers, and real-world experience in supporting a

wide range of DaaS implementations for organizations.

Dell provides consulting to assess the strengths and

weaknesses of their hardware, applications, systems, and

processes to determine what organizations need to meet

their end-user computing goals. The Dell approach to

integrated consulting enables organizations to deploy

powerful end-user computing capabilities quickly, to help

reduce complexity, and to minimize the risk of downtime.

Shifting capital expenses to operating expenses

One of the benefits of DaaS is the opportunity to

shift capital expenses to operating budgets. Many

enterprises hope to avoid procuring additional servers

and storage to expand their operations or to add

capacity to support end-user fluctuations in seasonal

workers, remote workers, or regional contractors.

Other organizations need to enhance capabilities

such as high availability, streamlined OS maintenance,

or endpoint management, while others would like to

improve data security without having to rip and replace

existing server, storage, and networking hardware.

Only rarely can organizations reclaim significant

space in their data centers by migrating computing

resources off-site. However, DaaS can minimize

capital expenses by limiting the need to invest in data

center upgrades and the additional power and cooling

systems that may be necessary for some components.

Inherently, the advanced cloud computing infrastructure

and maintenance needed to support DaaS are leased to

organizations on a utility consumption model.

DaaS implementations also help fundamentally

improve the economics of business startups.

For example, the significant capital outlay for an

IT infrastructure can be an obstacle for many

entrepreneurs. However, founders and developers

can now launch their operations with minimal capital

risk by utilizing subscription-based delivery of their

computing needs at significantly reduced cost, instead

Figure 1. DVS Simplified and Enterprise variants for flexible, hosted DaaS delivery

On

pre

mis

esD

eskt

op

as

a se

rvic

e

DVS Simplified appliance

Customer managed

DVS Simplified

DVS Enterpriseintegrated solution stack

SimplifiedSimple IT infrastructure

EnterpriseAdvanced IT infrastructure

• Cost-e�ective delivery• Fast implementation• Straightforward functionality• Plug-and-play capability• Easy management

• Enhanced scalability and performance• Customizable and extensible infrastructure• Comprehensive imaging and systems management capabilities

Dell managed

DVS Enterprise

2 For more information on opting for a virtual DaaS solution to meet organizational needs, see “Assessing a desktop virtualization strategy,” by Reed Martin, in Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2, qrs.ly/lz1r7ze.

Lead with end-user computingFeaturesection

20 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

of procuring depreciating hardware and hiring the

IT staff to manage it. As a result, DaaS is expected

to contribute to the ongoing democratization of IT:

an entrepreneur with vision and access to funding

can obtain computing capabilities that once

required significant startup capital or the support

of venture capital investment. In turn, lowering the

barrier to entry helps spur innovators—enabling

them to develop and release new technologies

with fewer obstacles.

Easing the transition to cloud-based

desktop virtualization

Dell helps simplify the transition to DaaS by

creating a path for organizations to migrate their

data streams to its cloud-based services. By

applying its Desktop Virtualization Solutions (DVS)

Group portfolio and End User Computing Services

approach to Simplified and Enterprise DaaS

delivery, Dell enables organizations to subscribe to

a range of flexible, highly scalable options that fit

their individual business needs (see Figure 1).

Organizations that prefer to manage their

own virtual desktops can control the OS, their

applications, and all patching and upgrades through

a self-service portal using Dell Simplified DaaS.

IT administrators can simply enter their business

information, create a golden image, assign their

virtual machines, and be up and running.

A K–12 school district provides an excellent

use case for implementing the Simplified

approach to DaaS. The school district may prefer

to avoid managing servers but still maintain

control over its operating systems and software.

The Simplified DaaS model allows administrators

to control their desktop images without having to

rely on an additional layer of management to

interact with the servers in the data center.

Dell Enterprise DaaS delivery—a comprehensive

Dell-managed offering—is available as a

reference architecture that can be used for

large-volume custom deployments. For the

Enterprise DaaS variant, Dell manages the OS,

applications, patching, and all upgrades in a

single golden image, allowing IT professionals

to focus resources on other strategic initiatives.

Dell End User Computing Services creates the

blueprint and benchmarks the organization’s

existing requirements to profile their end-user

base, applications, application update schedule,

and customer databases to design an optimized

solution that meets their requirements. This

effort includes using Dell ProConsult services to

profile the end users and create a smooth path

for data migration from the data center to the

virtual environment. Further, virtual machines

and memory capacity can be added with only

a one-time cost in both the Simplified and

Enterprise DaaS variants.

Both DaaS variants help organizations support

mobile device initiatives in which employees can

bring their own tablets and laptops to work. The

Simplified and Enterprise DaaS options streamline

new OS deployments across multiple endpoint

devices and help reduce the overall cost of

desktop management. These DaaS options also

enhance security because the organization’s

data never resides on the endpoint device but

is instead stored in the data center. In addition,

both DaaS variants allow organizations to stand

up virtualized desktops for seasonal workers and

contractors using the workers’ own PCs and

without having to issue any new devices.

Boosting end-user productivity cost-effectively

Dell is able to leverage its industry experience

and expertise in servers, thin-client hardware,

software, data centers, networking, and services

to deliver an end-to-end approach to DaaS. Its

Simplified and Enterprise variants can meet the

needs of end users in diverse workforces and help

the IT departments supporting them by offering

cloud-hosted environments that help improve

productivity, enhance security, and streamline

management of IT resources.

Implementing DaaS not only enhances end-

user productivity, it enables IT administrators to

minimize downtime, maximize IT effectiveness,

and control costs in today’s challenging economic

climate. Dell continues to draw on its firsthand

experience and well-designed blueprinting program

to help IT executives transition to a secure, hosted

infrastructure. As confidence in cloud-based services

continues to grow, flexible Dell DaaS environments

are expected to be a compelling option to serve a

range of organizational needs.

Author

Reed Martin is a technology

marketing senior advisor in the

Desktop Virtualization Solutions

Group at Dell.

Learn more

Desktop virtualization solutions:

dell.com/virtualdesktops

NETWORK SECURITY

SECURE REMOTE ACCESS

WEB AND E-MAILSECURITY

POLICY AND MANAGEMENT

BACKUP ANDRECOVERY

DYNAMIC SECURITY FOR THE GLOBAL NETWORK

[ TOUGH QUESTION #21]

WHO HAS THE HIGHEST OVERALL PROTECTION NEXT-GEN FIREWALL RECOMMENDED BY NSS LABS?

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22 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Lead with end-user computingFeaturesection

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Organizations today encompass

a diverse range of end users,

from mobile and remote

employees using laptops and

smart devices to task workers performing

routine, relatively predictable processes.

Implementing a single approach to desktop

virtualization may be an unrealistic goal for

meeting the different requirements of these

end users. Now, IT organizations have the

opportunity to deliver the right desktops

and applications for each end user, while

addressing IT priorities such as cost,

security, and ease of management.

As the technology matures, some

organizations have maintained a wait-and-

see approach because of perceptions that

the technology is complex and lingering

concerns about data security, deployment

performance, cost, and complexity. At

the same time, many IT decision makers

are accelerating adoption of desktop

virtualization as the technology reaches

an inflection point based on migration

of consumer devices into enterprise

environments, increased deployment of

thin clients, server virtualization, and

cloud computing.

To facilitate the decision making with

deployments that were more predictable

than was previously possible, a powerful

portfolio of desktop virtualization offerings is

available from the Dell Desktop Virtualization

Solutions (DVS) Group. These offerings are

available in two primary variants—Simplified

and Enterprise. They target infrastructures

of varying scope, from the fast-and-easy,

deploy-and-manage characteristics of the

DVS Simplified solution to the increasingly

robust and demanding environments well

served by the DVS Enterprise solution.

Accelerating desktop virtualization gains

Converging trends toward consumerization, thin-client

deployment, enhanced security requirements, and wide

adoption of cloud-based services are driving increased

interest in desktop virtualization.

By Rafael Colorado and Reed Martin

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 23

Lead with end-user computingFeaturesection

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In addition, the Simplified and Enterprise

models offer on-premises as well as hosted

delivery to meet specific organizational

requirements. Dell provides preconfigured,

end-to-end infrastructure by leveraging its

expertise in servers, storage, networking,

clients, software, and services. And for

organizations that prefer to outsource

their entire desktop virtualization operation,

DVS offers a virtual desktop-as-a-service (DaaS)

platform founded on the Dell-provided

powerful data center network and Dell

investments in the cloud.

Centralizing device deployment

and management

After achieving widespread success in server

deployments, IT organizations are now

expanding virtualization to the end-user

computing environment. Desktop virtualization

enhances anywhere, anytime access to

resources for executives, employees, and

contract workers as well as students, health

care professionals, and other segments.

Given the growing influence of consumers,

IT organizations must balance end-user

needs with their own control and efficiency

requirements as they manage a range of client

desktops, laptops, and handheld devices.

A virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is

one of many desktop virtualization options.

It enables enterprises to cost-effectively

centralize desktop and mobile device

deployment and management. VDI is a form

of desktop virtualization in which the desktop

OS is hosted within a virtual machine running

on a server in a data center. A VDI strategy

helps improve security and regulatory

compliance, increase IT flexibility and business

agility, and strengthen business continuity

and disaster recovery.

Adoption drivers for desktop virtualization

can be categorized into four groups (see

Figure 1). The Dell DVS Group—composed of

virtualization experts who can perform in-depth

assessments of desktop environments—offers

an approach that is aligned with these

emerging demands. Successful deployments

start with evaluating desktop usage in the

organization and identifying target end

users who may benefit immediately from

desktop virtualization.

Understanding adoption indicators

for desktop virtualization

Although the concept is not new, the following

four converging indicators have quickened the

pace of VDI adoption: progression of desktop

virtualization technology, consumerization,

acceleration of thin-client deployment, and

wide adoption of server virtualization and cloud

services. According to IDC, the total number

of virtual desktop seats shipped is estimated

to grow from 11 million in 2010 to 37 million

by 2014, which represents 7 percent of all

enterprise-installed PCs1—meaning traditional PCs

should continue to make up the majority of the

enterprise client world for a long time. Although

these growth projections are a good indicator

of intensifying desktop virtualization penetration,

a series of industry developments points to the

2012 time frame as a possible inflection point

for VDI adoption.

ObjectivesVirtualized desktop benefits during a 12-month period*

Enhanced end-user productivity

• Enable the mobile workforce• Accelerate availability of applications

and performance• Enhance service-desk support

23.4 percent reduction in desktop downtime

Improved security

• Help ensure regulatory compliance• Control access to data flow• Provide virus protection• Help secure data records

76.7 percent reduction in average time to recover from data loss

Efficient data center management

• Enable OS migration, patching, and deployment• Help reduce downtime• Offer easy data backup

20.0 percent reduction in time for routine maintenance

Augmented cost control

• Extend desktop refresh cycles• Provide desktop support cost• Offer desktop scalability

11.7 percent reduction in desktop support spending

* Source: “Analyst insight: Measuring the returns from a desktop virtualization program,” Aberdeen Group, Inc., September 2011.

Figure 1. Desktop virtualization adoption drivers and associated benefits compared to nonvirtualized desktops

1 “Market analysis perspective: Worldwide enterprise virtualization software – client virtualization,” by IDC, Doc #227494, March 2011.

Consumerization in the enterprise

As consumer devices flood into the workplace, organizations require flexible IT environments designed to enhance end-user productivity. This video explores how IT decision makers can design and implement VDI deployments tailored to meet specific end-user needs.

qrs.ly/mq1tjdk

24 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

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Indicator 1: Progression of desktop

virtualization technology

A prominent indicator of accelerated VDI

adoption is the degree to which new

technologies attract innovation and capital.

This metric is increasingly valid during

periods in which the economy is stressed

and investors are less risk-tolerant than in

better economic times.

Pillars of expertise can be used to

classify and filter these investments. The

following pillars are defined as key factors

IT managers need to consider when

deploying desktop virtualization. Pillars

of expertise define industry sectors

with high influence on the growth of

VDI because of their emphasis on areas

critical to the end-user experience,

cost, or efficiency:

• Delivery systems: Innovation that

facilitates the hosting and delivery of

virtual desktops, applications, and data

including DaaS and appliances

• Brokering and session management:

Efficient management and allocation

of virtual machines

• User experience: Policy and

personalization management

• System monitoring: End-user and

infrastructure performance management

• Endpoint devices: Terminals used as part

of desktop virtualization approaches

• VDI management and storage

optimization: Image and storage

efficiency management

• Security features: Enhanced protection

of confidential data in the data center, on

the network, and at endpoints

• Data center infrastructure: On-premises

data center hardware including servers,

storage, and networking

• Services: Expertise brought to the

organization to facilitate sizing,

configuration, deployment, and

management of the environment

Several organizations that were

founded or aligned through acquisitions

toward desktop virtualization during a

10-year span are shown in Figure 2. After

an early cycle of innovation, acceleration

of investment toward the end of the same

10-year span was evident, which supports

the increased total available market that

typically precedes acceleration in the rate

of adopting new technologies.

Indicator 2: Consumerization

As consumerization transforms large

sectors of the workforce, the proliferation

of advanced smartphones, tablets, and

other mobile devices is motivating IT

departments to redefine policies that

support employee-owned technology

in the workplace. Desktop virtualization

is expected to both drive and derive

benefits from this trend. It enables

a secure separation of personal and

organizational workloads while allowing

the coexistence of personal and work

environments on the devices end users

prefer (see Figure 3).

To balance the sometimes

conflicting goals of end users with the

important security, management, and

resource constraints of organizations,

IT departments are opting to deploy

desktop virtualization to enable the

productivity benefits of consumerization.2

These virtualization approaches require

deployments that include hardware,

software, and services with predictable

cost and performance to help achieve

successful deployment.

Indicator 3: Acceleration of

thin-client deployment

The growth of thin-client devices can

arguably be correlated with the growth of

interest in hosted desktop virtualization

models such as VDI. Thin clients are

not the only device option for hosted

desktops; PCs can be used in many

virtual desktop deployments. However, as

organizations realize the benefits of thin

clients—including device management,

power consumption, and cost—thin

and zero clients are being increasingly

Figure 2. Organizations investing in desktop virtualization between 2000 and 2010

2000 2010

Wyse Technologyacquires NetierTechnologies

AppSensefounded

Microsoft launchesTerminal Services

MokaFivefounded

VMware launchesVDI suite

2005Virtual Bridgesfounded

2005

Citrix Systemslaunches Citrix

XenDesktop® software

Desktonefounded

Kavizafounded

AtlantisComputing

founded

Xangatifounded

vComputefounded

UnideskCorporation

founded

Red Hatacquires

Qumranet

LiquidwareLabs founded

Delivery system

Brokering and session management

End-user experience management

VDI management and storage optimization

Endpoint device

Monitoring

Dell launchesthin clients

Citrix SystemsacquiresKaviza

Citrix Systemsacquires

RingCube

VMwareacquires

RTO Software

Dell launchesdesktop as a

service

2“Consumerization of IT: An IDC survey,” by IDC, Doc #227925, April 2011.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 25

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used in virtual desktop deployments

or replacing repurposed PCs as they

approach the upgrade cycle. This

association highlights the correlation

between heightened adoption of

thin-client technology and hosted

desktop solutions. Dell offers a range of

thin-client devices as part of its end-to-

end desktop virtualization portfolio.

Indicator 4: Wide adoption of server

virtualization and cloud services

IT departments tend to be increasingly

tolerant of consumer cloud services from

organizations such as Amazon, Google, and

Microsoft. According to IDC, 93.6 percent

of respondents surveyed are “proactively

moving forward or still evaluating the

idea” of adopting cloud services in their

organizations, while only 6.4 percent of the

respondents reported they “have no plan to

utilize cloud in any fashion.”3

Accelerated adoption of desktop

virtualization and the openness of IT

departments to allowing access to

applications through cloud services

are creating a fertile environment that

stimulates further interest in virtual

desktop technologies.

Scaling desktop virtualization

for specific needs

Dell has considerable experience and

expertise developing desktop virtualization

solutions by investing resources ahead

of the industry adoption curve. The result is

a well-implemented, mature portfolio that

leverages this expertise and investment

in data center hardware, software,

endpoints, and services. Dell helps reduce

complexity and improve predictability of

each deployment by creating end-to-end

solutions that scale according to the

needs and expansion goals of each

organization and help maximize productivity

for IT departments and end users.

No single desktop virtualization

approach can serve the needs of all

organizations in the same way. Based

on global quantitative research and

use-case expertise acquired during

customer engagements, the Dell DVS

Group identified common patterns in two

segments. Dell targets organizations having

simple IT needs with the Simplified line of

solutions and presents organizations with

large enterprise data centers and diverse

IT requirements with the Enterprise line of

solutions (see Figure 4).

The Simplified line of solutions

includes plug-and-play appliances

that are easy to install and operate for

organizations preferring to manage their

own desktops. The Enterprise line of

solutions is designed to scale to more

than 5,000 users, with enhanced levels of

redundancy, availability, management, and

mobility. On-premises Enterprise solutions

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Pe

rce

nt

of

resp

on

de

nts

Not supported

Source: “Consumerization of IT: An IDC survey,” by IDC, Doc #227925, April 2011.

Not supportedtoday, butevaluating

Plan tosupport inthe future

Alreadysupported

Employee-owned, Microsoft® Windows® OS–based laptops

Apple laptops

Apple iOS devices

Google Android–based devices

BlackBerry devices

Windows Mobile OS–based devices

n = 490

Figure 3. Adoption of end-user devices and supporting technology

Figure 4. Dell desktop virtualization delivery systems

SimplifiedSimple IT infrastructure

Dell cloudinfrastructure

On

pre

mis

es

De

skto

p a

s a

serv

ice

Customer infrastructure

Dell hostedCustomer managed

Dell hostedDell managed

DVS Simplified appliance

DVS Enterprise 6010

Optional Dell-managed services

EnterpriseAdvanced IT infrastructure

3 “Consumerization of IT: An IDC survey,” by IDC, Doc #227925, April 2011.

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Lead with end-user computingFeaturesection

include a preconfigured and pretested

infrastructure comprising the entire

virtualization stack: server, networking,

and storage using either industry-leading

VMware® or Citrix® software along with

Dell Services to design, implement,

and support the overall infrastructure.

Additionally, DVS leverages Dell

investments in data centers worldwide

to offer compelling DaaS approaches for

both the Simplified and Enterprise delivery

models for organizations that prefer to

outsource hosting of their virtualized

desktops to Dell data centers.

Delivering end-to-end desktop

virtualization

Converging indicators reveal the uptake

in demand for desktop virtualization. This

demand is being fueled by innovations in

virtualization technology and adoption

of adjacent technologies that are helping

improve end-user and IT productivity.

Many organizations are looking for end-

to-end approaches that help reduce

deployment complexity and enable

predictable outcomes through a diverse

portfolio with the flexibility to meet

specific requirements.

In anticipation of this shift in

demand, and leveraging its expertise

in hardware, software, and services,

Dell created an organization dedicated

to streamlining desktop virtualization

deployments by delivering a portfolio

of end-to-end solutions. This Dell™

desktop virtualization portfolio—available

in Simplified and Enterprise segments—

effectively addresses the diversity

of organizations.

Learn more

Desktop virtualization solutions:

dell.com/virtualdesktops

Authors

Rafael Colorado is director of marketing for

the Desktop Virtualization Solutions Group at

Dell. The group is responsible for creating and

communicating desktop virtualization strategies.

Reed Martin is a technology marketing senior

advisor in the Desktop Virtualization Solutions

Group at Dell.

Ethernet. Unbound.

© 2012 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

Intel® Ethernet Network Daughter Card

I350-T4

Intel® Ethernet Network Daughter Card

10G X520 KR

Intel® Ethernet Network Daughter Card X540-T2 and I350-T2

To learn more, read the article on page 76 and visit www.IntelEthernet-DellPS.com

Introducing the new Intel® Ethernet LAN on Motherboard options for the Dell™ PowerEdge™ Select Network Adapter family. Smartest choice for virtualization performance or simplest route to a fully flexible unified network? Actually, both.

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Many IT organizations have

learned a lot about desktop

virtualization during the first

half of 2012,1 but the process

of designing, purchasing, and deploying an

effective desktop virtualization environment

can still seem complex and challenging

to IT decision makers. Organizations

looking to acquire the benefits of desktop

virtualization—enhanced data security,

centralized management, and increased

user flexibility among other benefits—can

become frustrated because the optimal

transition path is often elusive. The Dell

Desktop Virtualization Solutions (DVS)

Group provides a supportive, advisor role to

help organizations clarify which approach

to desktop virtualization is well suited for

their specific deployment requirements.

The number of desktop virtualization

options available to organizations today

often creates uncertainty about the

technology’s ability to meet the needs of

each organization within existing budget

constraints. To help reduce this confusion,

the Dell DVS Group has created a decision

tree to guide IT decision makers toward

optimal desktop virtualization deployments

through either on-premises or cloud-based

delivery (see Figure 1). The DVS portfolio

decision tree also helps organizations

eliminate several misperceptions about the

drivers that should inform their decisions.

Finally, it enables IT organizations to

determine which variant can meet their

service-level needs while addressing their

questions about running proof-of-concept

tests and later, comprehensive deployments.

Setting the right course

The Dell DVS portfolio decision tree guides

IT administrators through the evaluation

process and helps them determine how

to align a desktop virtualization test and

deployment with their required level of

Before transitioning to a virtual desktop environment, IT

decision makers often consider its many challenges and

benefits. The Dell Desktop Virtualization Solutions Group

offers a decision tree for matching an organization’s needs

to a delivery model.

By Reed Martin

Assessing a desktop virtualization strategy

1 For more information on desktop virtualization adoption, see “Accelerating desktop virtualization gains,” by Rafael Colorado and Reed Martin, in Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2, qrs.ly/4v1q9ep.

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IT management. The DVS Group has

developed two clear paths to adoption—

Simplified and Enterprise. These delivery

models can be deployed on premises

or hosted on the Dell™ cloud platform,

depending on end-user needs, specific use

cases, and organizational goals.

The first step for an organization is to

decide whether the needs of its IT staff

and the computing needs of its end-

user base fit the Simplified or Enterprise

category. The second step is to then

decide whether an on-premises or cloud-

hosted delivery model is well suited to

those parameters. The relative skill level

of an existing IT staff and its ability to

integrate desktop virtualization into the

existing network is a key determinant in

whether an organization is well aligned

with the Simplified or Enterprise path.

An organization with a generalist IT staff,

or one that hopes to accelerate time

to deployment, is more likely to be in

the Simplified category. Conversely, an

organization with a highly skilled IT staff

that can focus on integrating desktop

virtualization may be well aligned with the

Enterprise variant.

The Simplified option can reduce

the initial time required for installation

and getting the virtualized environment

up and running. This variant is also

particularly suitable for organizations that

do not require advanced features such as

image management, graphics processing

virtualization, application virtualization,

or application streaming. The Simplified

variant can be adopted by organizations

that are comfortable with basic failover

capability rather than high availability, as

well as those that do not require dynamic

motion of virtual machines. Organizations

can also utilize the Simplified variant when

planning to use mainly nonpersistent

virtual desktops. And it can be used by

organizations that do not anticipate

an upgrade to a comprehensive virtual

desktop infrastructure (VDI) experience,

such as the Citrix® XenDesktop® or

VMware® View™ desktop virtualization

environment, or when IT budgets are

significantly constrained.

Despite a common misperception

that either low seat counts or use cases

with low I/Os per second (IOPS) are the

primary drivers for the Simplified delivery

option, this variant offers a suitable desktop

virtualization option for organizations

requiring simple deployment and

management. The Simplified option can be

well suited for IT organizations hoping to

deploy a plug-and-play Simplified appliance

in an environment that does not require

networking, storage area network arrays,

separate management and host servers, and

multiple management consoles. Examples

of successful use cases for the Simplified

delivery model include call centers,

Figure 1. The Dell DVS portfolio decision tree for mapping a course to desktop virtualization

Analysis ofworkload demands

Yes

A few simpleapplications and asingle virtualization

technology

Yes

Limitedcustomization and

accelerateddeployment

Yes

Onpremises

Yes

Capitalexpense

Yes

Appliance

No

No

No

No

No

Simplified

Yes

Yes

Yes

Capitalexpense

Yes

Integratedsolution stack

No

No

No

No

Desktop asa service

Enterprise

Limitedcustomization

Hostedapplication

Cu

sto

m

Yes

Others

Onpremises

Extensivecustomization

required

Complex setof applications

Desktop asa service

Limited ITresources and noVDI experience

On premises

Dell cloud

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university libraries, small laboratories,

branch offices of large enterprises, help

desks, select government agencies, or order

processing environments.

The Enterprise delivery model is

recommended for organizations seeking

to handle a wide range of compute

tasks, or those organizations running

workload-intensive applications, requiring

high availability, and considering large-

scale deployments of more than 1,000

end users. However, small organizations

with compute-intensive needs may also

benefit from the Enterprise variant given

its capabilities.

Once IT organizations have determined

their specific desktop virtualization

requirements, the next step is to establish

a delivery method that helps them meet

those computing needs. The Simplified

and Enterprise options can utilize

hardware residing in an organization’s

data center or deliver virtual desktops

through a Dell cloud–based, desktop-as-

a-service (DaaS) arrangement.2

The appropriateness of delivery

options may be governed by regulatory

requirements with strict parameters for

sensitive data storage. As a result, IT

decision makers at hospitals, medical

offices, and financial services institutions

need to house delivery in their own

data centers to comply with regulations

mandating the protection of medical and

financial records. Organizations not facing

such constraints may opt for DaaS delivery

from the Dell cloud platform.

Evaluating workloads and benefits

Some key decisions represented in the

decision tree are driven by the workloads

in an organization. The Simplified path

can be suitable for organizations that

require only a handful of applications

with relatively low application demands

to run on kiosks or in a call center

environment. Similarly, the branch office

of a large enterprise seeking fast-and-

easy deployment can also use the Dell

on-premises Simplified appliance to get the

office’s desktop computing infrastructure

up and running quickly and efficiently.

Organizations that require a high level

of persistence, storage optimization,

personalization, and the ability to

maintain user preferences can opt

for the Enterprise variant. It allows for

including third-party technologies

such as acceleration cards to enhance

video streaming capabilities. It is also

appropriate for integrating legacy

equipment such as storage arrays and

specific top-of-rack networking. The

Enterprise model is well suited for

complex workloads that may require

additional processor, memory, and

storage resources.

Whichever model IT organizations

adopt, many have the opportunity to

forgo IT management, including server

deployment, IT help-desk staffing, and

endpoint repair. In these cases, Dell-

hosted DaaS offerings and thin-client

devices enable enterprises to access virtual

desktops from the Dell cloud platform

and redirect IT workers toward strategic

projects. DaaS also enables organizations

to shift computing costs from capital

expenses to predictable operating

expenditures, thereby avoiding costly

investments in server infrastructure. Dell

cloud-based DaaS also enables more rapid

deployment than in a typical hardware

procurement cycle.

The on-premises Simplified option

provides an appliance designed for

rapid deployment in a network within

organizations staffed by IT generalists

and running basic applications with

low IOPS demands. The on-premises

Enterprise option offers sophisticated

delivery for organizations that staff IT

specialists. This option is geared for

deployment in environments that require

advanced management feature sets and

an increased level of high availability,

persistence, and redundancy. As a Dell

cloud–based service, the Simplified DaaS

option offers organizations a high degree

of control over their environments. And

the Enterprise DaaS option provides a Dell

cloud–hosted, comprehensively managed

service that enables IT organizations to

focus on strategic projects rather than

desktop management.

Streamlining the path

to desktop virtualization

Organizations considering a move

to desktop virtualization often have

questions and concerns about which

approach is the right one to take. After

an organization has defined itself based

on its IT sophistication and workloads,

the appropriate path comes into focus.

For enterprises that are interested in

adopting virtual desktops to address

specific computing, mobility, security, and

flexibility needs, Dell offers approaches

to fit a broad range of use cases. The

DVS portfolio decision tree helps them

evaluate which virtualized desktop

environment can meet their desktop

virtualization needs.

Learn more

Desktop virtualization:

dell.com/desktopvirtualization

Author

Reed Martin is a technology marketing senior

advisor in the Desktop Virtualization Solutions

Group at Dell.

2 For more information on DaaS delivery offered by Dell, see “Enhancing productivity with desktop as a service,” by Reed Martin, in Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2, qrs.ly/pw1r7zf.

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With the increasing acceptance

of smartphones and tablets as

de facto network endpoints in

the workplace, IT departments

are embracing bring-your-own-device (BYOD)

policies to control the use of personal consumer

devices to access corporate network resources.

Running on platforms such as Google Android

and Apple iOS, today’s consumer mobile devices

are powerful, sophisticated systems capable of

launching business-critical applications. As a result

of this consumerization of IT, BYOD policies are

rapidly becoming a critical component of the

business infrastructure. A BYOD approach offers

benefits such as increased business mobility,

enhanced user satisfaction, and low up-front

technology expenditures. Some organizations

go so far as to allocate budget to supplement

employee purchases of consumer devices that

are vital to conducting business.

Organizations are adopting bring-your-own-device (BYOD)

policies to harness the power and utility of personal mobile devices

in the workplace. Smart strategies help ensure secure network

access from both inside and outside the network perimeter.

By Patrick Sweeney

Securing remote access for consumer mobile devices

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 31

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However, BYOD also shifts control over

network endpoints away from IT. Subsequently,

organizations must determine suitable tools and

strategic best practices to address the challenges

introduced by mobile devices accessing network

resources from inside and outside the perimeter.

Security, productivity,

and performance challenges

When implementing a BYOD policy, IT

departments must consider how mobile

devices affect network and data security. For

example, employees sometimes jailbreak their

smartphones so that they can add unauthorized

software—which may originate from suspect

or fraudulent sites. Adding applications from

unknown sites opens devices to numerous

exploits, including root password theft, malware,

spyware, and botnet distribution systems.

Increased popularity has made smartphones

and tablets a lucrative target for these kinds of

criminal attacks. In addition, the same types of

threats that plague traditional computer systems

affect consumer mobile devices, disseminated in

e-mail, social media sites, games, screen savers,

instant messages, and presentation decks.

Consumer mobile devices are also subject

to man-in-the-middle attacks unless they use

encrypted access and authentication over a

virtual private network (VPN).

Compounding the issue, today’s consumer

mobile devices often operate in two worlds:

either connecting to the internal network over

wireless or bypassing the network using mobile

cellular connections. Mobile device users might

download malware from the Web over 3G or 4G

cellular networks and then disseminate it over

the corporate wireless network. Any consumer

mobile device that can bypass countermeasures

by alternating between access methods is

effectively insecure.

Because mobile devices are perceived as

a more intimate communications channel

than desktops, users often take a relaxed

approach to security and are more likely to

fall for scams and malware masquerading as

personal communications. In fact, consumer

mobile devices can magnify malware distribution

through spam, phishing, pharming, and

pretexting. For example, users viewing small

screens on smartphones and tablets cannot

detect cues that a Web site is a false front as

easily as they could when viewing the site on

a full-size screen. Once in, malware can then

propagate undetected across the network

through other mobile devices.

Data leakage is another serious challenge for

BYOD environments. Whether unintentionally,

maliciously, or driven by profit, employees are

leaking a growing amount of data over their

consumer mobile devices. For example, an

employee might retain sensitive or proprietary

data while connected to the corporate wireless

network and then leak it over the unsecured

cellular network to the Web. Also, smartphone

content can be especially vulnerable to loss

or theft, because network access codes,

usernames, and passwords are often unsecured

or set for automatic logon.

What’s more, the abundance of apps

available on today’s consumer mobile devices

Strengthening end-to-end security options Organizations of all sizes face intensifying IT security challenges, from the

exponential growth of data and rapid adoption of cloud-based services to

the extensive use of consumer devices in the enterprise environment. To

offer organizations a comprehensive range of enterprise security options,

Dell has acquired SonicWALL, a leader in advanced network security and

data protection. The tightly integrated hardware, software, and services

from SonicWALL complement the rapidly growing Dell security solutions

portfolio, which includes Dell SecureWorks security services, cloud

security and data encryption solutions, and Dell KACE™ vulnerability and

patch management.

SonicWALL security solutions include firewalls; secure remote access;

e-mail security; backup and recovery; and policy, management, and

reporting. These offerings are designed to integrate advanced networking

and remote access technologies to verify and defend the security of

traditional and wireless networks, users, and applications—and their

endpoint devices—while scanning the data stream across platforms

and perimeters.

32 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

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creates challenges for workforce productivity

and network performance. Inside the office,

mobile device apps can be either critical

business solutions or personal time-wasters

that consume bandwidth. The sheer volume

of interactive Web 2.0 and streaming media

traffic over mobile devices can affect corporate

wireless network throughput. Compounding the

problem, some applications, such as streaming

video, constantly evolve to avoid network traffic

control. In addition, like any Web-facing endpoint

devices running applications over the network,

even smartphones can open potential channels

for forced denial-of-service attacks.

Most applications that users will download

come from white-list distribution systems—

the Apple iTunes Store, for instance. While

white-listing does add a layer of scrutiny, due

diligence is not foolproof and does not apply to

jailbroken devices.

Integrated approaches for securing

network connections

Fortunately, IT departments have multiple tools

at their disposal to secure access by consumer

mobile devices connecting from both outside

and inside the network perimeter (see the sidebar,

“Strengthening end-to-end security options”).

At a minimum, to secure access from external

connections IT departments should establish a

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) VPN reverse-proxy

portal or an SSL VPN tunnel with endpoint control.

SSL VPN reverse-proxy portals authenticate and

encrypt Web-based access to network resources

from employees using standard Web browsers

on their consumer mobile devices. This approach

can minimize deployment overhead by delivering

access agnostically to mobile device platforms.

More realistically, though, employees typically

require greater network access than that provided

through an SSL VPN Web portal. To easily add

in-office network-level access for mobile devices

connecting from outside the perimeter, IT

departments can deploy agent-based encrypted

SSL VPN tunnels, which enable secure access

without additional infrastructure costs. IT

departments can deploy endpoint control to

determine the presence of security applications,

and either allow, quarantine, or deny access

based on security policy and user identity.

To effectively achieve network security, IT

departments should add strong authentication

for smartphones and tablets. Both the SSL

VPN reverse-proxy and SSL VPN tunnel should

integrate seamlessly with standard authentication

methods such as two-factor authentication or

one-time passwords.

An organization can heighten security and

employee access to the network by leveraging

authorized VPN clients. Smartphone and tablet

operating systems such as Android and iOS

support VPN clients from a select group of security

vendors. These clients provide low-level access to

the OS. If a VPN client is not validated by the OS

developer, the vendor must piggyback its client

onto a third-party authorized client, creating a

cobbled-together solution. In addition, by working

with a single vendor that provides authorized VPN

clients for an organization’s remote device types,

IT departments are enabled to easily deploy and

maintain gateway remote access.

Furthermore, VPN traffic should be scanned

through a next-generation firewall, such as

the SonicWALL® Network Security Appliance

(NSA) Series. For example, by integrating an

SSL VPN provided by the SonicWALL Aventail®

Secure Remote Access appliance with the NSA

firewall, organizations can establish a SonicWALL

Clean VPN™ solution that helps deliver the

dual protection necessary to secure both VPN

access and traffic (see Figure 1). Clean VPN is

designed to decrypt and then scan traffic for

malware passing through smartphones and

tablets. Deploying gateway security features

on next-generation firewalls, such as antivirus,

antispyware, and intrusion prevention, helps

decontaminate inbound threats before they can

enter the network.

For secure access from consumer mobile

devices connecting over wireless inside the

perimeter, IT departments can integrate their

wireless networks with SonicWALL Next-Generation

Firewalls to create a SonicWALL Clean Wireless™

network. An integrated next-generation firewall

can provide multiple security features that

address concerns over the use of mobile devices

Connecting the mobile workforce, securely

Mobile employees expect to access information and applications from more remote devices and platforms than ever before. Learn how the SonicWALL Secure Remote Access family of products helps secure connectivity for today’s on-the-go workforce.

qrs.ly/oy1tjdo

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inside the perimeter. For example, application

intelligence enables IT departments to enforce

control over mobile device applications and

bandwidth allocation. Data leakage protection

is designed to scan inbound and outbound

traffic, block or allow file transmission based on

watermarked content or regular expressions,

and forward noncompliant information to IT,

human resources, or management for further

remediation. Content filtering provides a means

for organizations to enforce their browsing

policies, helping mobile users comply with

regulatory and legal mandates and ensure

a nonhostile network environment. And

antimalware scanning of outbound traffic at the

gateway is designed to identify and block botnet

attacks launched from mobile devices connected

from inside the perimeter.

Deep protection for anywhere,

anytime access

Personal smartphone and tablet use in

enterprise environments has reached a

tipping point. More than ever, end users are

demanding access to network resources from

their consumer mobile devices. Although a

BYOD policy offers potential business benefits,

access to network resources from these devices

comes with inherent risks, including intensified

exposure to malware, scams, bypassed security,

and data loss, as well as decreased network

productivity and bandwidth.

Organizations can address many of these

network access challenges by incorporating

SonicWALL network security and secure remote

access products in their BYOD environments.

SonicWALL Secure Remote Access products

offer SSL VPN reverse-proxy portal and SSL VPN

tunnel options for consumer mobile device

access. Organizations can integrate these

products with SonicWALL Next-Generation

Firewall security to obtain Clean VPN, Clean

Wireless over 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless networks,

and application intelligence and control.

Moreover, SonicWALL Mobile Connect™ client

apps are authorized for both Android and

iOS devices, and the SonicWALL Aventail End

Point Control™ (EPC™) feature helps block or

quarantine access if an iOS device is jailbroken

or an Android device is rooted. These integrated

approaches help organizations reap the rewards

of BYOD while keeping the network secure.

Author

Patrick Sweeney is vice president of the product

management team at SonicWALL, where he

oversees its network security, content security,

business continuity, and policy and management

product lines.

Learn more

SonicWALL secure mobility:

qrs.ly/oa1tjdp

Resources for SSL VPN Secure Remote Access:

qrs.ly/2i1tjds

SonicWALL SSL VPN Secure Remote Access platforms:

qrs.ly/sv1tjdu

Figure 1. Integration of an SSL VPN with a next-generation firewall helps clean up traffic before it enters the corporate network

SonicWALL AventailSecure Remote Access appliance

Provides identification and access control

SonicWALL E-Class NSANext-Generation Firewall

Provides deep packet inspection scanning

Protected clean tra�c

Directories

Lightweight DirectoryAccess Protocol (LDAP)

LDAP

Microsoft® Active Directory®

directory service

Remote AuthenticationDial-In User Service (RADIUS)

Applications

Web applications

Client and server applications

File shares

Databases

Voice over IP (VoIP)

Virtual desktopinfrastructure (VDI)

Corporate network

34 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

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Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Investing in up-to-date hardware and

software helps enterprises achieve

significant performance, efficiency,

and productivity gains. Perhaps an

organization is ready to refresh its client

systems with the latest Dell™ Latitude™

laptops. Or maybe it is preparing for an

upgrade to a new OS. Whether hardware

refresh or software upgrade, administrators

must conduct the migration as smoothly

as possible to avoid end-user downtime

from multiple file backups, file transfers,

and reconfigurations.

Whether they involve 10, 1,000, or

10,000 endpoints, migration projects

present many challenges. How can IT

managers easily migrate data, and only the

necessary data, while importing end-user

settings to minimize organizational impact?

One common challenge is a lack

of visibility into the organization’s

infrastructure, to determine whether a

particular system needs to be migrated.

Additionally, end-user requirements,

habits, practices, and system types need

to be considered. To do so requires

comprehensive data collection on the state

and utilization of supported assets.

Many administrators rely on manual

methods, executing migration tasks on

computers one by one. This costly and

time-consuming process may lead to

deployment errors and slow follow-ups that

impair end-user productivity.

Automating the migration process

Traditional OS deployment software

typically takes an all-or-nothing approach.

One scenario involves migrating everything,

Automated, appliance-based deployment helps simplify endpoint migration

To migrate large numbers of endpoints, organizations

are exploring an automated, integrated approach to

systems provisioning. Dell KACE™ deployment appliances,

along with key best practices, facilitate an efficient,

cost-effective migration.

By John Karabaic

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 35

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Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

which consumes bandwidth and time and

greatly reduces the number of systems

that administrators can migrate in a day.

Alternately, administrators may manually

provision systems with point imaging

products or internally developed scripts.

These options often consume IT time

and effort without ensuring that all user

settings and business data have been

successfully transferred.

An efficient, effective migration

alternative is to leverage an automated

systems deployment appliance. Automation

allows administrators to quickly and easily

package, deploy, and configure large

numbers of endpoints in a consistent

manner, helping ensure reliable and cost-

effective implementations. One approach

is the Dell KACE K2000 Deployment

Appliance, which enables administrators to

centrally capture and deploy user-specific

settings, files, and applications (see Figure 1).

Moreover, the appliance is designed to

enforce compliance by excluding files by

type and location, and it also offers a single-

step offline migration. Migration templates

let administrators specify what data will

be transferred. As a result, the information

that end users and their organizations need

to retain from the previous system will be

available when computers or operating

systems are booted for the first time.

Employing best practices for planning

and deployment

Together with an automated systems

deployment approach to streamline the

process, several best practices help ensure

a successful migration project.

Conduct an inventory of end-user assets

It is important to have an accurate starting

point from which to plan a migration

strategy. Identifying the assets that end

users have in play—including hardware,

applications, and operating systems—is

critical at the outset. Moreover, organizations

should verify that inventory data is obtained

in real time so that it is accurate when

needed for making decisions that can

directly affect the outcome of the migration

project. The inventory data also must be

sufficiently detailed to provide the hardware

and software information necessary to

plan the migration.

Develop a remote user and site plan

Organizations should know where all

computers, remote users, and remote

offices are located both physically and on

the network topography. Dell KACE K2000

Remote Site Appliances are designed to

seamlessly extend the Dell KACE K2000

Deployment Appliance to remote networks

of computers. The virtual Remote Site

Appliance caches local copies of images,

scripted installations, and tasks on a local

network. These resources are synchronized

from the Dell KACE K2000 Deployment

Appliance using a minimum change-set

architecture, helping reduce the network

bandwidth used. Dell Factory Services can

also assist by drop-shipping computers

prepped with Dell KACE K2000 deployments

directly to individual remote users.

Develop a migration policy

Once administrators have obtained an

inventory of the software, settings, and

file types in the organization, developing

a migration policy is key. Policy-based

migration not only helps improve

standardization and compliance, but also

helps simplify migration by avoiding the

transfer of unsupported files and software

while maintaining individual user data

and settings. These policies enable IT

managers to reduce the amount of

network bandwidth and time consumed

during the migration process.

Figure 1. The user state migration feature of Dell KACE K2000 enables seamless deployment of user-specific files and settings, along with the OS and applications

36 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

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Decide between online and offline migration

Online migrations are performed prior to

deploying the new OS, with the current OS up

and running—for example, Windows® 7 for a

migration to Windows 8. Offline migrations

are performed when the computer is booted

from another medium, such as the network

or a USB drive.

Online migrations allow administrators to

inspect the migration for errors and provide an

effective way to test migration templates used for

migration policies. Offline migrations are efficient

for performing the capture-deploy-migrate

process in one step.

Decide between automated

or user-initiated migration

Will system administrators or end users be

initiating the migration? If the former, migration

time frames should minimize the impact on

end users and the organization, for example,

late evenings or weekends. IT should also avoid

migrating all users at once, to allow sufficient

time to debug problems and train end users

between sets of deployments. If end users are

initiating the migration, IT should establish a

centralized interface for requesting software

packages and services.

Establish a training plan

Following a successful migration or upgrade,

end users may still find unfamiliar, new interfaces

and features challenging. It is important to have

a training plan in place. IT organizations must be

prepared to help end users with questions and

to troubleshoot problems, whether providing

instructions through e-mail, assistance in person,

or remote support over the phone.

Streamlining migration through

appliance-based deployment

Migration projects are a fact of life for IT

organizations. Leveraging automated deployment

methods enables system administrators to

save time, avoid deployment errors, and

expedite end-user follow-ups to help ensure

a successful rollout.

Appliance-based systems management

approaches, such as the Dell KACE K2000

Deployment Appliance, are designed to eliminate

time-consuming manual tasks, regardless of the

size of the organization. This comprehensive

approach also advances compliance, system

readiness, and configuration planning while

accelerating deployment—freeing IT staff to

focus on innovative projects that further an

organization’s mission.

Learn more

Dell KACE Systems Management

Appliances:

dell.com/kace

Dell KACE K2000 Deployment

Appliance:

qrs.ly/ie1tjde

Author

John Karabaic is a senior

product manager for Dell KACE,

a leading provider of systems

management appliances.

Dive deeper

Organizations are looking for ways to reduce high client provisioning costs through automation and process improvements. This white paper examines how Dell KACE appliances can be used to implement best practices that streamline the PC provisioning process through automated systems deployment.

qrs.ly/cd1tjdd

Comprehensive systems provisioningThe Dell KACE K2000 Deployment Appliance is an all-in-one device that facilitates systems

deployment tasks for organizations of all sizes, including inventory assessment, OS and application

provisioning, migration, and recovery.

• Easytouse:Deploy in as little as one day and train to use in hours through the Web

• Comprehensive:Automates pre- and post-deployment configuration tasks

• Cost-effective:Has no hardware or software prerequisites or incremental professional

service fees

http://www.brocade.com/partnerships/oems/dell/resources.page

38 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

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Today’s enterprise employees use,

share, and store information in

novel ways. Increasing numbers

expect to work remotely and

communicate and collaborate through

multiple computing and storage devices. They

store data on a variety of internal and external

drives, and they often use USB drives to share

and move this data between devices or to

take work home. Enterprises are embracing

these changes. By allowing employees to

work anytime, anywhere, on virtually any

device, organizations can boost productivity

and increase employee satisfaction.

While IT departments want to maximize

end-user productivity, they also want

to maintain control of and protect their

data. They need to secure customer data,

intellectual property, competitive data, and

other sensitive information that now flows

among many devices and external storage.

Security tools must provide the control,

protection, and streamlined management

that IT requires without compromising the

performance and flexibility that employees

expect—no matter where, how, or on what

device they are working.

Although fortifying the walls around

the network remains critical for blocking

intrusions, viruses, and spam, organizations

With employee mobility and IT consumerization on the rise, organizations require robust

data protection. Dell™ Data Protection | Encryption offers comprehensive endpoint security

that helps simplify management while maintaining a rich user experience.

By Jeremy Bolen and Sarah Williams

Simple, flexible endpoint security through data encryption

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 39

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also need to protect enterprise data

from loss or theft—especially data that is

accessed, shared, and stored on endpoints

beyond enterprise firewalls. However,

implementing multiple point solutions

to cover the variety of endpoint devices

and operating systems used can still leave

security gaps while adding significant IT

costs and complexity.

To address these security concerns,

Dell offers a comprehensive portfolio that

includes security solutions, consulting, and

operational services to help protect the IT

infrastructure. In particular, the Dell Data

Protection | Encryption (DDP | E) solution

is well suited for providing boundaryless

security and management for endpoints.

When done well, encryption can offer

a simple, fast, comprehensive, and flexible

method of protecting enterprise information.

Ideally, every laptop, desktop, and external

media device with intellectual property or

sensitive information should be encrypted.

Encryption helps protect sensitive data

wherever employees work and enables them

to use a variety of computing devices and a

full range of external storage types.

One of the top drivers for encryption

of endpoint devices is compliance with

international, federal, and local laws that

require organizations to protect personally

identifiable information. Should a device get

lost or stolen and an organization can prove

that the data was encrypted, many laws offer

safe harbor so that the expense of reporting

and lost reputation may be avoided.

By adopting DDP | E, IT groups can easily

deploy, enforce, and audit data encryption

across the entire organization. DDP | E helps

secure critical business data across multiple

types of endpoint computers, operating

systems, and storage devices while delivering

a nondisruptive experience for users.

Comprehensive data protection

for endpoint devices

DDP | E offers a full set of data protection

capabilities that give organizations the

flexibility to select and apply the right

capabilities—and the right level of data

security—for multiple types of end users.

Enterprise Edition: Centralized

remote management

DDP | E Enterprise Edition includes both

software- and hardware-based encryption

for endpoint devices. Software-based

Data-Centric Encryption capabilities

enable IT groups to easily set and enforce

encryption policies across system drives,

ports, and external media, delivering

Federal Information Processing Standards

(FIPS)–level data protection. With support

for a variety of Dell and non-Dell systems

and multiple operating systems, Data-

Centric Encryption can be deployed across

heterogeneous endpoint environments.

Hardware-based Full Volume Encryption

provides an even higher level of data

protection. It is designed to protect data on

any internal drives used by the system as well

as external media, including flash drives or

external hard drives. In effect, hardware-based

Full Volume Encryption enables any system’s

drive to become a self-encrypting drive. For

internal system drives, the result is FIPS 140-2

Level 3 military-grade security—the highest

level of FIPS certification commercially

available for a disk encryption solution.

To achieve this level of protection

without affecting system performance,

Full Volume Encryption capitalizes on the

Dell Hardware Encryption Accelerator—

available as an option with select models

of Dell Latitude™ laptops, Dell OptiPlex™

desktops, and Dell Precision™ workstations.

The Hardware Encryption Accelerator

offloads encryption activities from the

processor, enabling data to be encrypted

on the drive without disrupting the end-

user experience.

To simplify management of encryption

capabilities, DDP | E Enterprise Edition provides

the centralized DDP | E Management Console

(see Figure 1). Administrators can manage

encryption of the heterogeneous enterprise

end-user computing environment from a

single location.

Figure 1. The Dell Data Protection | Encryption Management Console enables administrators to centrally monitor, protect, and manage endpoint devices wherever they are.

40 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

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Personal Edition: Local management

DDP | E Personal Edition is designed to help

branch offices and small-to-midsize organizations

secure data. It combines the same software-

and hardware-based encryption capabilities of

Enterprise Edition with local management to

facilitate easy deployment and control.

External Media Edition: Media encryption

DDP | E External Media Edition—which is

included with Enterprise Edition and Personal

Edition and also available as a stand-alone

product—enables organizations to secure data

stored on a range of external media devices, from

hard drives and memory cards to thumb drives

and CDs. Administrators can block or restrict

access to ports without affecting the operation of

input devices such as keyboards and mice, and

they can define and enforce encryption policies

for an external media device connecting to an

end-user system. For example, IT can enforce a

policy that all data written on a USB flash drive

must be encrypted and can be opened only on

a company-owned system. This type of policy

allows employees to continue being productive

and utilizing the full capability of their systems,

but in a protected and IT-compliant way. Because

it can work with existing security products and

encrypted drives, External Media Edition enables

organizations to easily extend data protection and

address an increasingly prevalent security gap.

These capabilities can be particularly useful

in virtual desktop environments. While these

environments help safeguard data by storing

information in the data center, External Media

Edition protects data that is transferred from a

client system to external media. With External

Media Edition, IT groups can help increase end-

user productivity through secure data sharing.

BitLocker Manager: Management tool

DDP | E BitLocker Manager provides a full range of

capabilities for managing Microsoft® BitLocker®

drive encryption—all from the same console

used to manage other DDP | E offerings. Many

organizations have adopted BitLocker, available

with Windows® 7 Ultimate and Enterprise operating

systems, as an efficient and auditable way to

implement software-based drive encryption. Those

cost savings can be quickly erased, however, if

administrators must manage these encryption

processes manually—a time-consuming endeavor

that may not provide the required level of

management, enforcement, and audit capabilities.

With BitLocker Manager, administrators can

manage encryption keys, enforce policies, and

access auditing and reporting tools through

the centralized DDP | E Management Console.

BitLocker Manager enables organizations to

maximize the value of BitLocker protection

while helping to integrate BitLocker as part of an

organization’s broad data protection profile and

to keep management costs under control.

Fast deployment, centralized management

DDP | E is designed for simple and rapid

deployment across enterprise end-user systems.

Some full-disk encryption products require

disk checking and correcting tools and utilities

to ensure system integrity and defragmenting

drives before encrypting. With the Data-Centric

approach of DDP | E, administrators can simply

deploy an agent with very little, if any, preparatory

work on the systems. In addition, policy

templates available through the management

console enable rapid deployment of policies,

so that organizations can quickly establish a

data protection profile that helps them meet

compliance reporting requirements.

Because DDP | E supports existing processes

for authentication, patching, disk recovery, and

forensics, administrators can also avoid the

time needed to implement new processes for

authentication and management.

Although point solutions can require multiple

management consoles, DDP | E offers a

single management console. Administrators

can manage a full range of capabilities—including

Data-Centric Encryption, External Media Encryption,

Full Volume Encryption, and BitLocker Manager

capabilities—across a broad spectrum of systems

and security levels, all from one location. Using

DDP | E Management Console, administrators can

manage endpoint devices wherever they are—

whether accessing the existing infrastructure from

within the internal network, across the demilitarized

Protecting data, wherever it resides

Learn how Dell Data Protection | Encryption helps organizations overcome the real-world security challenges of a workforce that is using, sharing, and storing data in novel ways.

qrs.ly/yp1tje8

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 41

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zone (DMZ), through a protected remote network,

or outside the firewall (see Figure 2).

Support for a heterogeneous environment

DDP | E helps secure a range of Dell and non-

Dell endpoint devices and a growing number of

operating systems. It also supports a full range

of external drive types, from USB thumb drives

and external hard drives to optical media. With

such wide-ranging protection, DDP | E enables

organizations to accommodate the increasing

variety of systems and devices that employees are

using for work without increasing management

costs or complexity.

Streamlined auditing and reporting

DDP | E facilitates auditing and compliance

reporting—which is critical for demonstrating

that data was protected in the event of a

security breach or loss of a device. One-touch

compliance policy templates help streamline

the implementation of policies for compliance.

Auditing capabilities allow administrators to easily

check the encryption state of particular devices

and data through DDP | E Management Console.

DDP | E also enables administrators to easily

generate reports from the central console,

showing proof that a lost or stolen device

was encrypted. With that proof, organizations

may have safe harbor from disclosure rules

as specified in business regulations such as

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard

(PCI DSS), government regulations such as the

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability

Act (HIPAA), and any number of local, national

and international laws and mandates.

Transparency for end users

DDP | E is designed to deliver high levels of

data security without reducing end-user system

performance or disrupting work. The optional

Dell Hardware Encryption Accelerator helps

eliminate the performance costs of encrypting

every sector on a drive.

DDP | E External Media Edition also helps

deliver transparency, avoiding time-consuming

formatting of removable drives and requiring only

a single login for external drives. Because External

Media Edition encrypts only the sensitive data on

external devices without changing the operation

of the devices, end users can store personal

information alongside sensitive data.

Data security for a changing

end-user environment

As more enterprises enable employees to work

remotely using a variety of endpoint devices,

IT groups need to provide data protection and

compliance across all devices accessing the

organization’s network—whether company- or

employee-owned. As part of the portfolio of Dell

security solutions, DDP | E offers a comprehensive

collection of data encryption capabilities for a full

range of endpoint devices and external media while

providing the flexibility for organizations to select the

right solution for user and enterprise needs.

Learn more

Dell Data Protection | Encryption:

dell.com/encryption

Authors

Jeremy Bolen is in the Dell End

User Computing Group and focuses

on software and solutions.

Sarah Williams is director of

software product marketing in

the End User Computing Group

at Dell, focusing on security for

end-user computing.

Internal network

Centraladministrator

console

Existing infrastructure

Dell DataProtection | EncryptionManagement Console

Protected endpoint devicesFi

rew

all

DMZ

Fire

wal

l

Remote network

Protected endpoint devices

Protected endpoint devices

InternetPolicy proxy

Figure 2. Dell Data Protection | Encryption helps enforce security policies inside and outside an organization’s network

42 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

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Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

End users expect the devices they use

in the workplace to provide secure,

efficient, on-demand access to

organizational resources. IT teams,

in turn, need to support end users with well-

managed, secure, up-to-date PCs. Members

of today’s increasingly distributed and mobile

workforce want to use the desktops, laptops,

smartphones, and other personal devices

that they prefer to help them succeed at their

jobs. Managing and maintaining this range of

devices in the workplace requires providing

comprehensive services for managing the life

cycles of these varied end-user systems.

A support life cycle for end-user systems

includes configuration, installation, upgrades and

management, comprehensive ongoing support

services, and resale or recycling services at end

of life (see Figure 1). While providing

end-to-end, life-cycle support helps ensure

the consistency, security, and effectiveness of

end-user systems, it can be challenging

for budget-constrained IT organizations and

time-consuming for busy IT professionals.

Rigorous management of the PC life cycle is essential for diverse,

distributed workforces. Dell offers a comprehensive mix of

configuration, installation, ongoing support, and IT asset disposition

services for efficiently managing end-user systems.

By Jack Todd and Natasha Bohorquez

Streamlining PC life-cycle management

Time-saving services

Dell ProSupport helps organizations enhance productivity cost-effectively while avoiding potential IT difficulties later on. Download this technical report offering a study of real-world organizations that benefit from ongoing support services provided by Dell ProSupport.

qrs.ly/fn1tuid

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 43

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Dell Services offers a comprehensive

portfolio to help IT organizations manage

the life cycle of PCs and mobile devices.

By helping to simplify and streamline

client system management, Dell Services

enables IT organizations to boost end-

user productivity, maintain a secure

environment, and free valuable IT resources

for strategic pursuits.

Configuring systems in the factory

Valuable IT resources can be consumed

when configuring and installing PCs for

employees and end users. For many

IT organizations, receiving a PC from

the factory and integrating it into an

organizational environment can be a

time-consuming undertaking. Ensuring

efficient, successful configuration and

installation of PCs requires comprehensive

planning and preparation.

Many organizations rely on their own

IT resources to manually configure client

systems, or they outsource configuration.

These methods can be inefficient, take IT

professionals away from other important

projects, and introduce human error.

In addition, space must be available to

stage systems in a central location, and a

massive rollout requires comprehensive

logistical planning.

Configuration involves tasks that

prepare systems for deployment in an

organization’s end-user environment. Dell

Configuration Services helps organizations

create and maintain a master image for

laptop and desktop computers to set

up the software for end users. Master

images often include operating systems

and productivity applications, software

for a virtual private network or access to

a network, and security software for virus

and malware protection. These master

images are loaded onto the laptops

and desktops at the time of the system

build, removing the need for secondary

configuration touches that can increase

cost and time.

Other configuration tasks can include

customizing BIOS settings, installing

additional hardware and applications such

as video cards or custom software, and

applying asset tags for identifying, tracking,

and reporting information on the client

systems. The PCs are then delivered and

ready to be installed, integrated, and put to

immediate use.

To help ensure a consistent, secure,

reliable, and streamlined deployment, Dell

Configuration Services provides factory-

based configuration of Dell™ laptops and

desktops. Configuration takes place at

the Dell factory in a defined, automated

manufacturing process. Automated

configuration enables an IT professional

to rapidly install and integrate configured

laptops and desktops as well as server and

storage systems. The PCs are delivered

ready for deployment, without requiring

any additional on-site configuration

prior to installation.

To facilitate factory-based configuration,

Dell Configuration Services offers

comprehensive image management

services. Both self-service management

and custom image design help

organizations create and manage

consistent, up-to-date master images.

Dell ImageDirect provides secure

cloud-based access to online image

management that enables IT organizations

to create, upload, test, and manage

corporate images. ImageDirect helps

ensure images are consistent and

up-to-date with appropriate upgrades

and security patches. This state-of-the-art

imaging technology is designed to ensure

images are validated across multiple

platforms including Dell Precision™, Dell

OptiPlex™, and Dell Latitude™ computers.

IT administrators can use the portal

to remove unwanted applications—for

example, games provided with an OS—

and disable specific modifications such

Figure 1. Dell-provided comprehensive management life cycle for client systems

Configure PCs

Install PCs

Support PCsand IT

organizations

Resell orrecycle assets

44 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Lead with end-user computingFeaturesection

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

as preventing end users from installing

unauthorized applications or changing

particular settings. Administrators can

also preload the OS and settings to help

ensure security.

For organizations that require assistance

creating images from scratch, or working

with complex images, Dell also offers

X-Image imaging solutions for on-site

image build and maintenance. In addition,

Image Consulting services provide highly

trained Dell imaging experts who work with

an organization to design and build images

from scratch and integrate them with PCs

before they are shipped.

After creation and validation, images

can be loaded onto PCs in the factory

using Factory Image Load. In addition to

loading images, Dell Services can also apply

both external and BIOS-level asset tags to

facilitate automated tracking and reporting.

And because permanent identification

can be a deterrent to theft, PCs can also

be custom branded using a laser to etch

identifying information or full-color custom

skins directly onto the device.

Installing systems on-site

After configuration at the Dell factory,

PCs are ready for delivery to the intended

location and installation. Dell Laptop and

Desktop Installation Services provides a

range of offerings to help organizations

save time and money.

Dell on-site technicians can provide

basic install and setup for laptops and

desktops, including connecting them

to peripheral devices. If the PCs to be

installed are replacing existing systems, the

technician can migrate end-user data to the

new PCs that are replacing them.

Other on-site services can include

installing a wireless router or loading images

and applying asset tags for tracking and

reporting, if these configuration services

were not already executed in the factory.

These services also include de-installation of

a previous PC and removal of all packaging

waste from the end-user location. Dell

Laptop and Desktop Installation Services

helps streamline client system installation,

minimize downtime and disruption, and

enhance overall end-user productivity.

Supporting end-user systems

Providing support for end-user systems—

from laptops and desktops to tablets and

mobile devices—through their life cycles

has grown increasingly complex. Changes

in the IT landscape such as mobile

workforces and consumerization make

these services key to maintaining end-user

productivity. The Dell suite of hardware

and software support, protection, and

advisory services (see Figure 2) allows

organizations to tailor support to

their needs and make the most of

limited budgets.

Dell ProSupport provides a single

source for premium hardware, software,

and end-user solution support with

fast and efficient issue resolution. A

single point of accountability and access

to highly trained Dell experts around

the world enable IT organizations to

help ensure end-to-end support for their

internal user base. Dell ProSupport also

includes third-party collaboration to

resolve issues for commonly deployed,

critical software applications—such as the

Microsoft® Office productivity suite—on

PCs and mobile devices.

Dell ProSupport also covers multivendor

hardware, enabling organizations to help

simplify the management of support

contracts and leverage consistent

processes throughout the environment.

Support is made easy with a single phone

number to call for access to Dell expertise

across all systems and a single support

contract to manage.

The easy-to-use Dell TechDirect

portal—previously, Dell Online Self

Dispatch—empowers IT administrators

to manage their support, parts, and labor

needs. This global portal enables IT

technicians to log and track service

calls, order and dispatch parts

internationally, and access advanced

technical training and certification.

Employees rely on their PCs, tablets,

and mobile devices as well as the data

stored on them to be productive. As

workforces become more mobile,

organizations find themselves increasingly

at risk of PC damage and data loss.

Figure 2. Dell Support Services to help simplify the management of end-user systems

Hardware supportBasic service

Dell ProSupport with multivendor support capabilities

On-site services

Software supportDell ProSupport

Software subscription o�ers and support

Protection servicesAccidental Damage Service

Extended Battery Service

Keep Your Hard Drive

Hard Drive Data Recovery

Advisory servicesDell IT Advisory Services

Remote Advisory Services

Proactive Maintenance

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 45

Lead with end-user computingFeaturesection

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

To help alleviate end-user downtime

and associated escalations, Dell offers

protection services to help mitigate that risk.

Dell Accidental Damage Service can restore

damaged systems with minimal cost and

downtime. Laptops can be repaired or replaced

if they are accidentally damaged from drops,

liquid spills, or power surges. Additionally, the

Dell Hard Drive Data Recovery service can

recover sensitive data from failed hard drives,

helping save time and frustration.

End users enjoy the mobility of their

laptops, and that mobility depends on a reliable

battery. Dell Extended Battery Service allows

organizations to plan for replacement battery

needs in advance, to help ensure uptime and

manage PC life cycles cost-effectively.

An organization’s data is critical and

sometimes requires specific data destruction

processes based on regulatory requirements

or customer commitments. Typically, vendors

require a failed drive to be returned in exchange

for a replacement, but with the Dell Keep Your

Hard Drive service, organizations can retain

failed hard drives and dispose of them according

to their internal processes.

IT organizations face new challenges in

effectively supporting a wide array of end-user

platforms because employees are increasingly

demanding to use their own personal devices in

the workplace. Dell ProSupport helps ease those

challenges by extending business-class support

to Dell consumer devices. End users who procure

a Dell XPS™ or Dell Alienware™ system, and the

IT administrators who support them, can benefit

from the expertise, global availability, and scale

of Dell ProSupport. These systems can also be

protected with Accidental Damage Service to

minimize downtime and maximize productivity.

Decommissioning systems safely

and securely

Often, a PC upgrade for an end user means

a replacement for an existing system. IT

administrators have several considerations

when decommissioning an asset including its

environmentally responsible physical disposal,

protection of sensitive data on the hard drive

to help prevent identity theft and intellectual

property loss, regulatory compliance, and asset

resale options. Dell Asset Resale and Recycling

services are designed specifically to facilitate safe,

secure disposal of systems including those from

vendors other than Dell.

Asset Resale and Recycling services

begin with asset removal, which includes

auditing, packing, and planning as well as data

destruction and pick up and sorting of systems.

For many organizations, a key part of the

decommissioning process includes destroying

data stored on hard drives before the systems

leave their site. The Dell Data Destruction Policy

specifies a three-pass wipe1 of all sectors of the

hard drive. After this process is complete, the

drives are then tested to ensure that all data was

deleted. If the data wipe was not successful,

the drive is destroyed. Data can be destroyed at

either an on-site or off-site location, depending

on organizational requirements. Dell also offers

options for equipment resale, if the asset has

residual value, or equipment recycling, donation,

or lease return.

Managing the end-user system life cycle

Today’s IT organizations are tasked with

supporting diverse, distributed workforces

using a broad range of systems and devices.

Configuring, installing, deploying, managing,

and supporting laptops, desktops, tablets, and

mobile devices can tax IT resources and divert

them from key strategic initiatives.

Dell Services offers a comprehensive

array of services for the life cycle of end-user

systems from configuration and deployment

to ongoing support to asset decommission. In

providing these support services, Dell Services

functions as an extension to IT teams in

organizations that are looking to support end-

user productivity and enhance the efficiency

and effectiveness of IT operations.

Learn more

Dell Configuration and

Deployment Services:

dell.com/services/deployment

Dell ProSupport:

dell.com/prosupport

Dell Services:

dell.com/services

Authors

Jack Todd is the product

marketing and messaging

manager for Dell Deployment

Services at Dell.

Natasha Bohorquez is the

marketing manager for Dell

Global Support and Deployment

Services at Dell.

1 No data removal process leaves a hard drive or computer as free from residual data as a new product. Dell makes no recommendations regarding the security needs or representations regarding the effectiveness of one method of data removal over another for an organization procuring data removal services. The organization has the responsibility to protect any confidential or sensitive information contained on its hard drives recovered by Dell.

46 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Lead with end-user computing | Customer perspectiveFeaturesection

One of the largest law firms in the Gulf South, Jones Walker

extended its presence to five states and the District of Columbia

after a recent merger. Now Jones Walker has 12 office locations

supporting 300 attorneys and 324 staff members, as well as

a lights-out co-location facility in Ohio. The firm’s 40 percent growth over

the past decade requires the capacity to respond to a wide variety of scenarios

and end-user needs. “I came from a banking operation where we’d roll out one

standard image that met everyone’s needs,” says CIO Ruark Chick. “That just

doesn’t work here.”

Jones Walker relies on a virtualized infrastructure to meet growing demands

on IT resources. “Virtualization makes it very easy and fast to roll out changes,”

says Chick. “In the event of a natural disaster, we have to make sure that our e-mail

still works and our clients’ documents are still available.”

Virtualizing for hardware and power efficiency

The firm’s foray into virtualization began with the recommendation for a Dell™

server. “The equipment was wonderful, very reliable, and the cost was better. So

we made the decision to transition to Dell servers, and that’s when we started to

virtualize,” says Chick.

Jones Walker uses Dell PowerEdge™ R710 servers with Intel® Xeon® processor

5600 series at its main data center, a secondary site, and the lights-out facility.

Its servers, including some running Microsoft® Exchange Server and Microsoft

SQL Server® 2008 databases, are now more than 90 percent virtualized.

“Virtualization has helped us meet our internal

needs,” says Chick, who points to reductions in

the number of physical servers and in power and

cooling costs. “It helps us serve our clients better

by providing them with reliable and state-of-the-art

IT services.”

Distributing desktop management

The IT team wanted to efficiently deploy and maintain

desktop systems for nonmobile support staff, as well

as to migrate from the Microsoft Windows® XP OS

to the Windows 7 OS. Jones Walker engaged Dell

Consulting Services to help.

“We feel like the Dell consultants are part of our

team,” says Chick. “We choose to supplement our

staff with Dell Services when we have requirements

for a project that go beyond our core skill sets.” The

Dell consultants recommended desktop virtualization:

it would enhance control over remote systems,

allow a cost-effective rip-and-replace model for

systems needing repairs, and smooth the transition

to Windows 7. In addition, because virtual desktop

images and data are not stored locally on client

To keep up with rapid growth, streamline desktop

management, and strengthen disaster recovery,

Jones Walker turned to server and desktop

virtualization—a cost-effective approach enabling

the law firm to respond quickly and flexibly to

client needs.

Jones Walker

Setting a precedent for virtualization

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 47

Lead with end-user computing | Customer perspectiveFeaturesection

Expansion in the firm’s Lafayette,

Louisiana, office provided a good

opportunity to deploy desktop

virtualization using Dell OptiPlex™ FX160

thin clients with Intel Atom™ processors.

These client computers have no spinning

hard drives, just a small solid-state drive

running Windows XP Embedded. Dell

PowerEdge R710 servers run VMware®

View™ desktop virtualization software,

and Dell PowerVault™ MD3000i storage

area network (SAN) arrays host the virtual

desktop data. The firm is deploying the

setup to support staff at its remaining

offices. Its attorneys, who are highly

mobile, will not yet transition to the

virtual desktops but instead use Dell

Latitude™ E4300 laptops with Intel

Core™2 Duo processors.

Achieving a cost-effective IT

infrastructure

Project results have been impressive.

Chick expects reduced transition time

to Windows 7. “Desktop deployments

have been simplified since we control the

complete system image in our main data

center,” says Chick. “Our time to update

machines, the company could store data

in the data center, which helps to improve

security and minimize the risk of data loss.

Examining the evidenceServer and desktop virtualization has helped law firm Jones Walker reduce downtime while enabling cost savings through

hardware efficiency. Based on the flexibility it has offered, Jones Walker expects increases both in desktop uptime and in

the firm’s ability to satisfy client requirements on the fly.

90%Realizing the simplified management, quick disaster recovery, and power savings enabled by virtualization, Jones Walker has virtualized more than 90 percent of its Dell servers.

3 yearsJones Walker anticipates a three-year payback for desktop virtualization, scaling servers by simply adding processors and memory and minimizing reliance on costly support contractors.

80%Jones Walker expects an 80 percent or greater decrease in the time required to deploy new images to employees’ virtual desktops, accelerating OS migrations.

each PC will decrease by at least 80 percent,

since all we have to do is reboot to a new

virtual desktop image, which takes a couple

of minutes, versus taking 10 to 15 minutes

per machine to image them individually.”

Also, the firm anticipates increased uptime

as a result of removing the OS and data from

the end user’s desktop.

Chick expects a three-year payback

for the desktop virtualization project. When

the virtual desktops have been in place for

three years, he can keep them in service

just by adding processors and memory to

the servers. “We will avoid having to bring

in additional contract staff for desktop

support,” says Chick, enabling him to

further cut costs.

To help ensure a seamless migration

to Microsoft Exchange 2010, Jones Walker

is using Dell Consulting Services. “Dell

Services also helped us in three of our

mergers,” says Chick. “We’re very satisfied

with the way Dell has managed these

engagements. The support we get through

Dell customer service and Dell ProSupport

takes the place of one-half a full-time

employee. Dell offers solutions that really

empower us.”

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

48 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Lead with end-user computing | Customer perspectiveFeaturesection

Performing proof-of-concept testing

The challenge for Zuken was to deploy and

manage essential systems more effectively

than it had done previously, without

expanding its IT team. Januschke first heard

about Dell KACE solutions at a lunch-and-

learn session conducted by IT sure, a Dell

partner and long-term IT provider. “We saw

that Dell KACE would reduce the burden

of day-to-day IT administration, freeing

IT staff and allowing them to focus on

important tasks that they didn’t have time

to complete before,” says Januschke. The

IT sure organization worked with Zuken

to conduct proof-of-concept testing

with two solutions—the Dell KACE K1000

Management Appliance and the Dell KACE

K2000 Deployment Appliance.

During proof-of-concept testing, the

two organizations also worked together to

run an inventory of the entire client base.

“With the Dell partner supporting us, we

checked the application and license status

of all our client devices and ensured that

every instance was correctly represented in

the Dell KACE solution,” says Januschke.

Collaborating for a smooth transition

Zuken and IT sure worked together to

administer a phased deployment. “It was

good to have IT sure’s support during

the rollout because our resources would

have been stretched had we done it

Managing client devices and software licenses was consuming valuable time for the IT team

at Zuken. Deploying Dell KACE™ Systems Management Appliances enhanced employee

productivity and freed the IT staff to focus on strategic initiatives.

Zuken

Expediting client deployments and IT efficiency gains

Zuken, a software development company with its headquarters in Japan, helps

many worldwide organizations strengthen their electrical and electronic

engineering processes from development to production. A workforce with diverse

skills enables the firm to serve organizations in many industries—from aerospace

to consumer electronics—employing approaches that use electronic design automation and

computer-aided engineering.

Zuken has offices across Europe and data centers in Germany and the United States.

The IT teams in Munich and Ulm support 300 client devices and 75 servers for the groups

in Europe and the United States. Thomas Januschke, head of IT at Zuken, saw that client

management was growing increasingly difficult, especially because licenses, updates, and

patches were complex to monitor.

“Managing the estate was time-consuming, with lots of manual processes and a lack of

visibility,” says Januschke. “We needed a centralized management platform to simplify core

tasks and improve end-user experience.”

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 49

Lead with end-user computing | Customer perspectiveFeaturesection

alone,” says Januschke. The Dell partner

also provided training for the IT team that

allowed the solution to be implemented

quickly. The IT team was using it soon

after it was deployed.

“The collaboration among Zuken, Dell,

and IT sure was excellent—great knowledge

transfer, quick reaction times, and strong

communication,” says Januschke. “The

project confirmed our commitment to Dell

solutions and services.”

As part of a one-week pilot program,

the software development department,

which has the most complex IT needs,

was migrated onto the Dell KACE K1000

Management Appliance. The pilot project

gave the IT team the confidence to proceed

with deployment to other divisions.

The IT team used the Dell KACE

project as an opportunity to review

licensing for every application. “We now

have good visibility of our licenses thanks

to Dell KACE K1000—and peace of mind

that we have the right status for all our

software,” says Januschke.

In the past, the team found it difficult

to track license purchases across the

company. Now, it has an ongoing inventory

that provides insight into the licensing status

of each application at each site. “We can

also see how many versions of software,

such as WinZip, the staff are using. Without

Dell KACE, this was virtually impossible,”

says Januschke. In addition, the team

uses the Dell KACE K1000 Management

Appliance to perform the following tasks:

• Monitor assets

• Distribute software

• Manage patches

• Control power settings

• Run security audits

• Set policies and configurations

“We can even set the Dell KACE

K1000 Management Appliance to run

overnight backups for automated desktop

maintenance, raising the stability and

performance of our client estate with very

little manual input,” Januschke says.

In the past, if a desktop failed in a

branch office the authorized user had to

send the machine to Munich and wait

for it to be returned after repairs. “With

Dell KACE, we can reinstall the operating

system for a client device remotely; this

saves around a week, so we no longer

get negative feedback from our users,”

says Januschke.

A simple means of upgrading and

replacing machines is essential for Zuken

because the organization has so many

devices to look after. Now, the team can

reduce the time required to provide new

hires with the resources they need or meet

the changing requirements of existing staff.

“With Dell KACE K2000, we can

successfully set up devices at any of our

global sites,” says Januschke. “Using its

remote management capabilities, we can

run a range of tasks that give end users

high-performance solutions fast, helping

them to do their jobs without worrying

about IT.” The team uses the Dell KACE

K2000 Deployment Appliance for the

following operations:

• Computer inventory scanning

and assessment

• Network OS installation

• End-user state migration

• System repairs and recovery

• Disk imaging

Enhancing IT team productivity

Since the Dell KACE deployment, Januschke

and his colleagues have returned to

several projects that they had been unable

to complete previously. The team can

now focus on network security and has

engaged in a Microsoft® SharePoint® Server

collaboration software rollout. “Dell KACE

appliances are easy to use,” says Januschke.

“They’ve transformed the way we work.

I couldn’t imagine life without them now.

They require almost zero maintenance

and have a Web-based user interface that’s

intuitive. With Dell KACE, we’re around

50 percent more productive.”

Streamlining systems managementZuken implemented

Dell KACE appliances

to help improve client

device deployment and

management, enhancing

the organization’s

control over devices,

asset management,

licensing practices, and

help-desk services.

300Zuken supports 300 client devices, as well as 75 servers, across its Munich and Ulm data centers—representing a time-consuming management challenge for its IT staff.

50%Dell KACE appliances enabled Zuken to transform operations; the intuitive, Web-based interface helped increase productivity for the organization by around 50 percent.

1 weekBy remotely reinstalling an OS for a failed device in a branch office, the Dell KACE K1000 Management Appliance helps the organization avoid approximately one week of downtime.

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

50 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Data managementSpecialsection

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Virtualization of the IT infrastructure has

been a key driver of storage innovation.

The classic storage-as-a-subsystem

paradigm has yielded to standardized

networking approaches and a virtualized storage

architecture, paving the way for the emergence

of a private cloud computing environment. At

the same time, savvy line-of-business leaders and

end users are finding that in some cases they can

obtain cost-effective and highly agile services from

public cloud computing providers.

Together, these forces are inevitably

moving the IT landscape toward hybrid cloud

computing deployments. Many IT departments

may eventually manage a hybrid of internally

delivered IT services alongside and integrated

with third-party delivery of public, cloud-based

services. This approach can meet the service-level

needs of demanding organizational units, while

enabling IT departments to broker optimal total

cost of ownership (TCO) and to help ensure proper

governance for the entire organization.

As IT environments evolve to hybrid cloud

computing, strategic IT oversight and best-

practices life-cycle data management are

key imperatives to help ensure governance,

service levels, and security. Over time, storage

infrastructure is expected to seamlessly integrate

the hybrid computing paradigm in support of

further increases in efficiency, resiliency, and agility.

IT innovation is guiding many organizations on a strategic trek

toward hybrid environments that integrate both private and public

cloud-based services. This evolution is prompting careful evaluation

and planning for storage and data management.

By Timothy Sherbak

Data’s journey to the cloud

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 51

Data managementSpecialsection

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Evolution of private clouds

Organizations evolve from physical

infrastructure to private cloud computing

through a series of stages (see Figure 1).

Initially, IT managers focus on reducing

physical server sprawl by creating

virtualized server pools standardized

on a converged network. A primary

objective is to consolidate infrastructure

to increase efficiency by reducing capital

costs for equipment. As IT organizations

increasingly embrace virtualization, they

look to extend the infrastructure to support

mission-critical applications, inducing strict

resiliency requirements for consistent

performance, availability, data protection,

and business continuity.1

The emergence of the virtualized

environment as the primary data center

infrastructure is now placing heightened

demand on reducing operating costs

through simplifying procedures and

automating workflows. As organizations

progress to cloud-based systems, a

primary focus is to increase organizational

responsiveness and agility, driving

projects to comprehensively integrate and

automate process life cycles and adopt

self-service provisioning.

Whereas a shared storage architecture

is a baseline requirement for a private

cloud, specific storage attributes define

how effectively the storage infrastructure

can meet requirements for efficiency,

resiliency, and agility. These storage

considerations also determine how

prepared organizations are for making the

move to private cloud computing.

To maintain high service levels cost-

effectively, organizations should aim for a

highly dynamic storage architecture that

is optimized for virtualized environments.

A cloud computing environment is

well served by a storage infrastructure

that enhances efficiency and agility

of the cloud computing environment.

In particular, virtualized storage is well suited

to a private cloud, enabling IT groups to

create a dynamic, on-demand environment

that can quickly accommodate changing

organizational needs.

Emergence of dynamic storage

Advanced storage virtualization abstracts

storage resources to create a dynamic,

virtual pool of shared storage resources.

This approach is designed to present

network storage to servers simply as disk

capacity, creating any size virtual volume

without allocating physical drives to specific

servers. Integrated management tools

for simple storage deployment, storage

provisioning, and data protection are

key features for a storage strategy when

building a private cloud environment.

Administrators may reduce the number

of disk drives and the cost for disk drives by

optimizing utilization in several ways. First,

storage architectures with thin provisioning

enable administrators to create a virtual

volume for each virtual server without pre-

allocating the physical storage capacity up

front. Second, automated tiered storage

allows administrators to automatically

move data between storage tiers and RAID

levels specified by policy-based rules.

Other storage efficiency measures such

as snapshots, thin clones, and replication

are also essential to minimize storage

space requirements.

Storage for cloud-based services delivery

must be highly scalable to keep up with the

rapid growth in data volume and variety.

Data volumes are continuing to expand and

include escalating amounts of unstructured

data, such as Web content, along with

traditional structured information. The rise of

big data analysis leads to an increase in the

usefulness and retention lifetime of data as

well. Regulatory and legal rules that require

data to remain available for e-discovery also

heighten the need for long-term storage.

Two dimensions of scalability are needed

for cloud computing models. Capacity can

be scaled up by adding disk drives to an array

controller, and infrastructure can be scaled

out by adding nodes to a pooled or peer-

scaling array in which performance scales

with capacity. In addition, organizations can

integrate advanced generations of hardware

technologies without making significant

upgrades—thereby preserving and extending

software license investments to next-

generation platforms.

A converged infrastructure with a common

pool of IT assets from computing and

networking to storage and management tools

enables IT organizations to rapidly provision

server and virtual machine (VM) resources

without requiring manual intervention. For

example, prepackaged offerings such as

Dell™ vStart now integrate software, servers,

networking, and storage to accelerate

adoption of private cloud infrastructure.

Figure 1. Evolving stages of the IT landscape toward cloud computing

Physical environment Consolidation Virtualization Cloud computing

Application

OS

Hardware

OS OSOS

Virtualization

Hardware

Application Application Application VM VMVM

VM VMVM

VM VMVM

VM VMVM

VM VMVM

VM VMVM

VM VMVM

VM VMVM

Maximize e�ciency Increase agilityOptimize resiliency

1 For information on how one organization is supporting mission-critical databases with a virtual infrastructure, see “Accelerating performance through virtualized, tiered storage,” in Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2, qrs.ly/ps1tuhm.

52 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Data managementSpecialsection

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Advent of public clouds

Organizations and their individual business

units are finding that they can obtain IT

services directly from third-party public

cloud computing providers on a utility basis.

Using a select number of public cloud

services provides an easy and cost-effective

way for many organizations to begin taking

advantage of cloud computing. Public

cloud computing services include the

following delivery models:

• Software as a service (SaaS): This

class of cloud-based services delivers

enterprise applications. Salesforce

customer relationship management

(CRM) software offers a familiar example

to many business users. A wide range of

other applications includes Dell Email

Management Services (EMS) and Dell

Unified Clinical Archive.

• Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): Offering

an on-demand approach to IT resources,

this service delivery model enables an

organization to outsource flexible access to

the equipment used to support operations,

including storage, servers, and networking

components. For example, Dell offers

a multitenant computing infrastructure

in its Dell Cloud with VMware vCloud®

Datacenter Service offering.

• Platform as a service (PaaS): This

category of cloud services delivers a

software development and hosting

environment that provides a computing

platform and tools stack for creating,

deploying, and testing Web applications

over the Internet—for example, the Dell-

hosted Windows Azure™ platform.

• Storage as a service: In this scenario, an

organization or individual leases storage

capacity from a provider, primarily as a

low-cost storage repository for backups,

archives, or relatively inactive data. For

example, Dell provides cloud-based

data protection in its Dell AppAssure™

Backup, Replication, and Recovery

Online offering.

The instant agility provided by third-party

cloud-based services offers a compelling

business proposition, but it also raises

significant concerns. Many IT managers are

aware of the security and regulatory issues

of putting sensitive data onto multitenant,

public cloud storage. Piecemeal cloud

services acquired by individual business

units or line-of-business executives may not

meet security and compliance requirements.

Centralized management of cloud services

by IT is necessary to negotiate agreements,

keep TCO down, and help ensure service-

level agreements (SLAs) are met.

Architecturally, many vendor-provided

cloud environments are proprietary

implementations tailored specifically for their

intended use. IT managers need to carefully

consider the maturity of the infrastructure,

particularly as it pertains to data protection,

performance, and availability. They also

require an understanding of implementation

details that the vendor may be otherwise

unaccustomed to revealing.

Because public cloud services

aggregate resources to support a growing

number of organizations, the scale of the

infrastructure—particularly as it relates to

storage—should efficiently accommodate

this growth. Like private clouds, public

clouds gain efficiency through technology

advances including deduplication and

compression to sustain cost-efficient

Nascent capabilities for cloud-enabled storageA highly efficient storage infrastructure that integrates cloud-based services offers a

formidable strategy for evolving enterprise data centers to a hybrid cloud environment.

Cloud-enabled storage architectures are expected to evolve to integrated cloud-based

services including automated tiering; compressed, deduplicated data transfers;

backup and recovery; disaster recovery; archiving; and active remote data copies:

• Automatedtiering: Cloud-based storage is expected to become just another

tier of storage that is comprehensively integrated and automatically extends

automated tiering functions of the on-premises storage.

• Compressed,deduplicateddatatransfers:Content-aware algorithms

compress data to efficiently transfer and store data in the cloud.

• Backupandrecovery:Data can be protected and quickly recovered from

cloud-based resources through standard, well-integrated backup services.

• Disasterrecovery:Replication services enable even very small organizations to

implement a strong business continuity plan with additional disaster recovery

capacity on demand.

• Archiving: Implementation of automatic cloud archiving can migrate rarely

accessed data to low-speed, cost-effective storage.

• Activeremotedatacopies: Cloud-based data copies can become active data

for cloud bursting, application failover, or remote processing.

All together, these capabilities help organizations harness the power of data

storage in the cloud and implement a flexible, hybrid-based infrastructure for

delivering applications and services.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 53

Data managementSpecialsection

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storage operations. As these resources are

externally defined, IT managers need to be

diligent in ensuring that their service provider can

sustain cost-effective delivery without sacrificing

enterprise-class reliability.

Of course, endorsing a self-service public

cloud platform is not a green light for IT

organizations to relax their data management

measures or SLAs. Cloud architectures tend to

serve many authorized users simultaneously on

the same underlying physical resources. This

concentration of end users can deliver high

utilization and favorable return on investment

for the hardware. However, organizations

contracting with third-party services have far

less control over the architecture of the

underlying infrastructure than they do over

a private cloud platform.

To remain in control of where and how

enterprise data is stored, IT organizations may

require increased deployments of private cloud

data storage services. These services can be

used in conjunction with carefully brokered

public storage services when and where they add

value—for example, replication to a third-party

site for enhanced disaster recovery. Significant

investments in IT infrastructure should be

made only into open and flexible assets from

committed, viable vendors that have achieved

results from innovation and demonstrated the

ability to deliver on their vision.

Expansion to hybrid clouds

Naturally, many organizations need to avoid

the cost of a single, comprehensive data center

overhaul. Instead, they are exploring ways to

gradually implement key projects that are well

suited for leveraging early cloud computing

adoption efforts. Authorized users familiar with the

agility of cloud-based services are likely to demand

this type of service, regardless of whether they use

an external or internal cloud services provider. As

a result, IT organizations are being called upon to

effectively evolve internal IT services delivery to be

more cloud-like than traditional IT services delivery.

Building private cloud resources can be a

natural step for organizations on their journey to

the cloud. Private cloud computing is particularly

appropriate for organizations that are already

heavily vested in virtualization and have security

and governance requirements—or must address

other circumstances in which comprehensively

leveraging a public cloud platform is not advised.

Advocates of public cloud computing may

argue that private clouds do not offer a true utility

model of costs to the organization. However,

private cloud computing can offer the same or

increased agility with elastic, self-service resources

that enhance security and governance because

data remains on the premises. They also help to

improve cost accounting for IT services across

lines of business and to assess the contribution of

IT investments to growing revenue.

As organizations transition their internal

IT infrastructure to a cloud-based services

orientation and step up the adoption of public

cloud services, the resulting IT architecture is

evolving into a hybrid of the two. (See the sidebar,

“Nascent capabilities for cloud-enabled storage.”)

In a hybrid cloud environment, IT organizations

can run some services directly while brokering

subscriptions to others, retaining the ability to

integrate third-party services on behalf of their

constituent authorized-user base. A hybrid cloud

approach is a strategic option that makes sense

for many organizations.

Management of cloud-based

storage and data

Organizations endeavoring to compete effectively

require an IT infrastructure that scales quickly to

meet dynamic business demands, maximizes

performance and utilization of IT resources,

and enhances end-user productivity. Many

organizations are advancing their virtualization

environments to the next step along the

evolutionary path to cloud computing.

Dell has developed a growing portfolio of

efficient cloud computing offerings to help

organizations implement fast, flexible delivery of

cloud-based applications and services, no matter

where they are on their journey. Organizations can

benefit from Dell expertise and end-to-end cloud-

based offerings that encompass storage, servers,

networking, and professional services as well as

Dell-provided cloud-based services delivery.

Learn more

Dell storage:

dellstorage.com

Dell cloud computing:

dell.com/cloud

Author

Timothy Sherbak is director of

storage solutions marketing in the

Dell Enterprise Solutions Group.

Scalable cloud-based IT

BitCloud, an Internet services provider in Australia, deployed Dell servers and storage in a flexible IT infrastructure to support a growing end-user base. Download this case study to learn how the company’s highly scalable storage infrastructure helped reduce IT maintenance time by 33 percent.

qrs.ly/4e1tuen

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Organizations have more data to manage, protect,

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before. The Dell™ PowerVault™ TL tape library offers

affordable, easy-to-use backup and archiving to

safeguard data for business continuity, competitive

advantage, and regulatory compliance. This expandable,

energy-efficient platform allows organizations of all

sizes to manage explosive data growth. Automating

data backup and archiving processes with the versatile

PowerVault TL tape library helps reduce the need for

manual intervention and the risk of human error.

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Big capacity, small spaceWith its compact form factor, the PowerVault TL tape library is designed to offer up to 72 TB of native storage capacity in four units of rack space.

High performance, compatibilityThe PowerVault TL tape library supports LTO-5 tape technology designed to natively back up 504 GB of data per hour. LTO technology features backward compatibility with prior-generation tape media—helping preserve media investments.

Exceptional dependability, efficiencyWith a typical shelf life of over 20 years, tape is well suited for long-term data archiving. Data archived on tape consumes no energy until accessed.

For more information, visit dell.to/PowerVault-tape-automation

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 55

In the virtual era, organizations are

transforming the role of IT in driving

success and creating business value. For

example, consolidation and virtualization

have helped to deliver great efficiencies

and to reduce costs. Now, organizations

look to extend these benefits by virtualizing

business-critical applications and deploying

private clouds—virtualized data center

environments designed to provide

application delivery as a service exclusively

to a single organization.

Although virtualization can deliver

tremendous business value, it presents

several challenges that can potentially

impede an IT organization’s ability to

migrate to a private cloud environment.

To avoid pitfalls and realize the potential of

private cloud computing, enterprises require

a tightly integrated storage foundation that is

designed to provide tremendous efficiency,

resiliency, and agility.

For example, rampant data growth is

accompanied by an increase in storage

requirements. IT organizations may

encounter virtual machine sprawl, which

can lead to overprovisioning and create

islands of storage that are costly to

manage and difficult to reallocate. On the

other hand, insufficient capacity affects

data availability.

Also, the complexity of virtualized

environments and unpredictable workload

demands can make it difficult for

organizations to meet storage performance

and availability requirements, manage

multiple layers and components, and

ensure data protection. In particular, legacy

storage platforms that are not specifically

designed for highly virtualized application

environments often cannot meet these

demands, leading to high costs and even

potentially negating the positive benefits of

server virtualization.

The Dell Compellent Storage Center™

storage area network (SAN) array is

well suited for supporting the agility,

performance, and availability requirements

Private clouds can deliver great efficiency, flexibility, and

data protection. Tight integration of Dell™ Compellent™

storage and Microsoft® applications enables organizations

to unlock the full potential of Microsoft Hyper-V®–based

cloud deployments.

By Stanley L. Stevens, Justin Braun, Marty J. Glaser, and Nicholas Sweere

Advancing the value of private clouds with virtualized, consolidated storage

Data management Specialsection

56 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Data managementSpecialsection

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of private clouds based on the Microsoft

Hyper-V virtualization platform. Its fully

virtualized design extends the efficiency

and flexibility benefits of virtualization to

storage and enables seamless scalability.

(For more information, see the sidebar,

“Driving innovation.”) The array’s automated,

intelligent Dell Fluid Data™ architecture

is designed to optimize performance,

enhance efficiency, and streamline

management. In addition, integration with

Hyper-V and other Microsoft applications

enhances efficiency and manageability.

Purpose-built, virtualized storage

Compellent storage is designed from

the ground up to support consolidated,

virtualized data center environments, such

as those built on the Hyper-V virtualization

platform. By integrating features such

as thin provisioning and storage tiering,

Compellent storage helps slash the total

cost of storage dramatically.

Modular, virtualized architecture

Compellent storage features a modular,

virtualized Fluid Data architecture that is

designed to provide seamless, enterprise-

class scalability—avoiding the need for forklift

upgrades. A range of drive types is supported,

including solid-state drive (SSD) and Serial

Attached SCSI (SAS). Front-end interconnects

include 8 Gbps Fibre Channel, 10 Gbps Fibre

Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and 10 Gbps

Internet SCSI (iSCSI). Interconnects can easily

be upgraded by simply adding or replacing I/O

cards to the controller.

End-to-end virtualization of data path

components—including host and server ports,

controllers, and drives—facilitates technology

independence, enabling organizations to

seamlessly replace, upgrade, or add hardware

components without system disruption.

Additionally, a perpetual software licensing

model helps ensure that organizations can

protect their investment while responding to

changing business needs.

The Fluid Data architecture also

enables automated intelligence features

such as thin provisioning, storage tiering,

and continuous snapshots to optimize

efficiency, resiliency, and agility in

virtualized environments (see Figure 1).

Efficient space utilization

Thin provisioning, which is a virtualized

storage allocation model, helps organizations

manage space consumption and minimize

provisioning requirements in private cloud

deployments. Dell Compellent Dynamic

Capacity™ thin provisioning, a feature of

Compellent storage arrays, is designed

to meet the capacity demands of virtual

machines while minimizing physical capacity

requirements. With Dynamic Capacity, actual

physical space—including space for volumes,

snapshots, and replication data—is not pre-

allocated. Instead, administrators provision

virtual volumes of any size up front, without

affecting physical resources. Dynamic

Capacity allocates and consumes physical

disk space only when actual data is written to

the volume.

Dynamic Capacity enables organizations

to dramatically reduce physical disk capacity

requirements and enhance utilization rates

while still meeting the demands of private

clouds. Organizations can buy storage only

as needed instead of based on anticipated

requirements. Additionally, capacity can

be added in small increments as needed

and is designed to be deployed without

system disruption or downtime. And legacy

volumes can be imported and converted

to thin provisioning using included Thin

Import technology.

Intelligent, automated tiering

Ensuring performance and availability

can be challenging in highly virtualized,

consolidated cloud environments. To meet

service-level agreements, organizations

often overprocure costly tier 1 storage.

The Dell Compellent Data Progression™

feature of Compellent storage is a

sophisticated data movement engine

designed to help optimize storage

performance, ensure availability, and minimize

costs. Data Progression automatically places

heavily accessed data on high-performance

drives using performance-optimized RAID

levels and less frequently accessed data on

low-cost, high-capacity drives and/or low-

overhead RAID levels.

To optimize data placement, Data

Progression maintains ongoing awareness Figure 1. Fluid Data architecture enables efficient use of disk space across Compellent storage arrays

PerformanceRAID-1+0: Write

RAID-5, RAID-6: Read

Thin provisioning

Free space recovery

Automated tiered storage

Continuous snapshots

RAID-5 or 6

RAID-1+0 RAID-1+0

RAID-5 or 6

Block-level virtualization

11:4512:00

12:15

Block-level intelligence

Tier 1 storage

Tier 2 storage

Tier 3 storage

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 57

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of data usage characteristics—or metadata,

including creation date, last-access data,

and relative frequency of access—and

uses that intelligence to tier data. This

metadata is gathered continuously and

in real time at the block level, allowing

data to be automatically tiered at an

extremely granular level. In this way, Data

Progression supports highly targeted

data placement and avoids the need for

manual classification and movement.

By optimizing data placement, Data

Progression enables organizations to

minimize the amount of high-performance

storage required and maximize utilization

of less-expensive, lower-tier storage.

For example, in a private cloud

environment virtualized through Hyper-V,

the most active data, such as log files

for Microsoft SQL Server® database

software, could be automatically placed

on high-performance, tier 1 SSDs. Static,

minimally accessed data such as image

files, PDF files, and e-mail archives from

Microsoft Exchange messaging software

could be automatically placed on lower-

cost, higher-capacity storage. A gold

image—the image on which a virtual

machine is based—would typically have

the majority of its OS data placed on tier 3,

while new writes to the OS would still be

saved to tier 1. Specific data sets can also be

manually tiered to customize performance

and responsiveness.

With the intelligent Data Progression

feature, Compellent arrays help ensure that

private cloud data is automatically stored in the

right place at the right time for the right cost.

Enhanced data protection

To enable robust data protection and

rapid recoverability in private cloud

environments, Compellent storage arrays

offer Dell Compellent Data Instant Replay™

continuous data protection. Data Instant

Replay allows administrators to create

space-efficient snapshots called replays.

Once a base snapshot of a volume is

taken, only incremental changes in block

data need to be captured. This process

not only saves disk space, but also speeds

local recovery of lost or deleted files. Most

volumes can be recovered within minutes

for high availability, and a point-and-click

interface enables simple rollback to a

previously known state.

Dell Compellent Replay Manager

snapshot consistency software leverages

Data Instant Replay to provide point-

in-time, application-consistent replays

of Exchange, Hyper-V, or SQL Server

application data. Integration with the

Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service

(VSS) enables Replay Manager to capture

replays without system disruption and

impact on virtual servers.1

Integration for on-demand IT services

In addition to providing a fully virtualized,

highly scalable storage platform designed

for cloud environments, Compellent

storage is tightly integrated with Hyper-V

and other Microsoft applications. This

integration helps enhance efficiency,

support automation, dramatically simplify

manageability, and efficiently protect

applications in complex, virtualized private

cloud environments.

1 For more information about how Compellent storage uses replays to protect SQL Server databases, see “Boosting database availability through intelligent virtualized storage,” by Maggie Smith, Mike Matthews, and Nicholas Sweere, in Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2, qrs.ly/fh1q6f9.

Driving innovationOn the links, golf club manufacturer PING is synonymous with

innovation. The company constantly searches for new ways of

perfecting its approach to delivering custom-fit performance to

players. To stay on par with progress, the company’s IT department

needed to design a new infrastructure that would support business

operations—from design to delivery—in an environment that

embraced change. Facing a forklift upgrade of an old storage

area network (SAN) that had reached capacity and could not

adapt to the company’s changing business requirements, the IT

department sought a flexible, scalable solution.

The Dell Compellent Storage Center SAN with Dell Fluid

Data architecture proved to be the right fit for PING because

of its scalability, flexibility, true virtualization, and intelligent

software applications. For example, advanced thin provisioning

allows the IT team to accommodate unexpected growth

patterns from the design team.

Also, Compellent virtual storage complements the

company’s Microsoft Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V virtual

servers, allowing PING to easily scale from a virtualized pool

of storage without disruption as the company grows. Multiple

requests are processed in parallel to help improve system

performance and utilization. Using Hyper-V virtualization and

Compellent storage, PING has consolidated multiple servers,

saving 25 percent of projected hardware costs and reducing

initial deployment and management costs by 60 percent.

For more information on how Compellent storage helps

PING support changing performance and capacity demands

driven by constant innovation, visit qrs.ly/oq1ts73.

58 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

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Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Streamlined management

Compellent storage leverages the data center

management functionality of Microsoft System

Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012. The

storage communicates with System Center

Virtual Machine Manager through the Storage

Management Initiative–Specification (SMI-S)

protocol. This communication enables virtual

machine administrators to perform essential

storage administration tasks directly from the

System Center interface instead of the Compellent

interface. System Center Virtual Machine Manager

2012 helps organizations create a private cloud

by providing the interface to manage compute,

network, and storage resources, in turn facilitating

easy management and provisioning of those

resources to individual business units.

Using cmdlets—lightweight commands that

are used in the Microsoft Windows PowerShell™

scripting environment—with Hyper-V and

Compellent storage, organizations can further

streamline storage management and automate

the deployment of storage resources. The

Compellent Storage Center Command Set

for Windows PowerShell includes more than

60 Windows PowerShell cmdlets designed to

automate common storage management tasks.

For example, in Hyper-V–based private

cloud environments, Data Instant Replay can

be used to space-efficiently provision new

virtual machines. Administrators create a

single gold virtual machine image. They then

use Compellent Storage Center Windows

PowerShell cmdlets to rapidly provision new

virtual machines. Instead of creating full copies

for each virtual machine, the cmdlet uses a

replay of the gold image. Each virtual machine

created shares the same gold image. The only

storage consumed beyond that image is the

space required for the unique characteristics

of each virtual machine, resulting in efficient

space utilization.

Space-efficient application protection

Compellent Replay Manager snapshot

consistency software integrates with VSS to

help ensure the integrity of Hyper-V, Microsoft

Exchange, and Microsoft SQL Server data. VSS

coordinates the OS, application, and storage

so that Replay Manager can initiate snapshots

when I/O is quiesced. As a result, Replay Manager

provides time-consistent snapshots even if

Hyper-V, Exchange, or SQL Server is running

during the process.

Replay Manager also includes 43 Windows

PowerShell cmdlets that enable administrators to

automate recovery operations through scripting.

These cmdlets can be used to automate many

Replay Manager tasks, including, for example,

recovering a SQL database to be used as a

reporting database on the same server.

Intelligent automation for IT efficiency

As organizations transition to private cloud or

as-a-service application delivery models, achieving

the expected efficiency, agility, and resiliency is

a paramount concern. Compellent storage

is well suited for Hyper-V–based virtualization

and cloud deployments. Its highly automated,

intelligent Fluid Data architecture is designed to

deliver enhanced efficiency, resiliency, and agility.

A modular, virtualized design enables seamless

scaling, providing a solid storage foundation that

grows and adapts to IT demands.

To help organizations get a jump start on their

Hyper-V–based private cloud deployments, Dell

offers the Dell vStart implementation package. This

turnkey service includes everything needed to deploy

a private cloud, including hardware components,

servers, switches, storage, management tools,

installation services, and fine-tuning.2

Compellent advanced virtualized storage

is deeply integrated with Hyper-V, Windows

PowerShell, System Center Virtual Machine

Manager, and business-critical applications

including Exchange and SQL Server. This

integration helps simplify the deployment

and ongoing management of virtualized

infrastructures that are designed to maximize

efficiency, streamline management, and ensure

availability—enabling organizations to reap the

full benefits of private cloud deployments.

Learn more

Dell Compellent Storage Center:

dellstorage.com/compellent

Dell Compellent Storage Center

in a Hyper-V environment:

qrs.ly/sx1tje3

Authors

Stanley L. Stevens is a virtualization

solutions marketing manager in

the Dell Large Enterprise Storage

Marketing Group.

Justin Braun is a senior manager of

Microsoft and virtualization solutions

for Dell Compellent in the Dell

Enterprise Solutions Group.

Marty J. Glaser is a virtualization

product specialist at Dell

Compellent, focused on Microsoft

Hyper-V and Microsoft System

Center Virtual Machine Manager

virtualization technologies.

Nicholas Sweere is a product

marketing manager for Dell

Compellent storage, focused on

core applications and third-party

integrations.

2 For more information about using vStart for a private cloud deployment, see “Rapid virtualization deployment for private clouds,” by Marc Stitt and Deepak Kanwar, in Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2, qrs.ly/e91qw2h.

Virtualized, enterprise storage for the cloud

As IT organizations evolve toward private cloud environments, careful consideration of the storage infrastructure is paramount. Discover how Dell Compellent Storage Center enhances efficiency, resiliency, and agility in Microsoft virtualization and cloud deployments.

qrs.ly/ng1tuel

©2012 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are owned by Schneider Electric Industries SAS or its affiliated companies. • 132 Fairgrounds Road, West Kingston RI • 998-4498_GMA-US

Our step and repeat approach Now, grow your facility-level power and cooling capacity in 500 kW increments as you need it.

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Modularity at the facility levelAfter pioneering modularity within the data center’s traditional IT space, Schneider ElectricTM now brings the modular approach to the facility domains of data center physical infrastructure. This design/build approach transfers the time intensive engineering and pretesting of facility-related data center components to the “factory,” in turn making large data center deployment fast and easy. It also allows right-sized deployment today, while enabling quick capacity changes tomorrow.

Fast, easy, cost-effective deploymentSchneider Electric facility modules, which include a power unit and two types of cooling (water chiller or air) units, complement IT containers to give companies the complete infrastructure support they need to add capacity to existing data centers or to turn available space (e.g., former warehouses or manufacturing plants) into highly available, energy-effi cient, world-class data centers in just weeks. This scalable approach speeds up deployment, lowers costs, and simplifi es the build process. Accordingly, data centers can move at the speed of business at all times — with the fl exibility to adapt to future business needs.

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Introducing scalable Schneider Electric

Today Tomorrow

Dell-Power-solutions_US_June1_p113v.indd 1 4/26/2012 9:58:21 AM

60 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Data managementSpecialsection

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Microsoft SQL Server database

deployments play a crucial role

in enterprise operations. And

as they become repositories

for everything from sales transactions

to customer information, they continue to

grow. Mission-critical SQL Server applications

require maximum database uptime and

data availability. In the event of a failure, data

must be restored quickly and accurately.

To maintain the integrity and resiliency of

SQL Server applications, organizations can

capitalize on key features provided by Dell

Compellent Storage Center™ storage area

network (SAN) arrays and enhancements

in SQL Server 2012.

For example, Compellent automated

tiered storage enables highly active data,

such as SQL Server log files, to reside on

high-performance drives while moving

less active data to lower tiers. The Dell

Compellent Data Instant Replay™ feature

provides application-consistent snapshots

that help ensure accurate and complete

restore points in the event of data failure.

And AlwaysOn features in SQL Server

2012—availability groups and failover

cluster instances—enable administrators to

configure availability at both the database

and the instance level.

Considering the critical role

of database servers

Databases are among the most important

IT elements in many organizations. They

often form the foundation of the application

infrastructure, supporting business-critical

functions from decision support systems to

online transaction processing. Additionally,

the explosion of data in today’s enterprises

The rapid growth of data has made data availability a

critical part of IT strategy. Dell™ Compellent™ storage and

Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 database software leverage

snapshots, tiering, and other capabilities to enhance

database resiliency.

By Maggie Smith, Mike Matthews, and Nicholas Sweere

Boosting database availability through intelligent virtualized storage

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 61

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is accelerating the growth of database footprints.

The Microsoft SQL Server database platform

and applications can be particularly important,

because they are frequently used to manage

core business functions ranging from sales and

marketing to order administration and financials.

To illustrate, although applications such as

Microsoft Exchange messaging software are

vital, IT administrators can take them down

for maintenance at off-hours during the day—

but doing so can still affect the organization.

However, if a financial institution using SQL Server

to run core financial modeling allowed that

database to become unavailable, the downtime

could result in significant loss of productivity,

revenue, and customer goodwill. Similarly, a

global company that depends on its Web site

for 24/7 online sales cannot afford to have the

underlying database offline.

For these reasons, organizations require

database resiliency to help ensure continuity of

business operations. Selecting the right storage

is essential for meeting these requirements—

organizations need available, responsive,

and flexible storage that can grow with their

databases. Dell Compellent storage supports

high-availability features introduced in SQL

Server 2012 and includes capabilities that enable

administrators to manage databases in a way that

helps ensure continuous uptime and resiliency.

(For more information on how Compellent

and Microsoft virtualization technologies work

together to boost IT efficiency, see the sidebar,

“Heightening business agility.”)

Examining database resiliency features

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 offers several

capabilities that enhance database availability

and data protection. It includes SQL Server

AlwaysOn, a high-availability and disaster-

recovery feature that helps improve application

failover time to increase the availability of

mission-critical applications.

AlwaysOn availability groups, introduced

in SQL Server 2012, help ensure availability of

application databases with an integrated set

of options, including automatic and manual

failover of a logical group of databases,

support for up to four secondary replicas, fast

application failover, and automatic page repair.

AlwaysOn failover cluster instances support

multisite clustering across subnets, which enables

failover of SQL Server instances across data

centers. This fast, predictable failover capability

facilitates quick application recovery.

In addition, SQL Server 2012 introduces key

features such as in-memory column store for

increased speed and fast response to queries.

Data quality services help ensure the integrity

of data and the accuracy of reports. And

enhanced data modeling capabilities address

the diverse requirements of business intelligence

users across an organization.

Extending data protection, availability,

and performance

IT organizations can leverage storage-based

resiliency features to enhance and extend

Microsoft SQL Server database resiliency—if

the storage selected meets at least three key

requirements. First, storage must be built to

avoid downtime through hardware redundancy

and on-the-fly administration. Second, storage-

based business continuity technologies such

as snapshots are essential for protecting

Heightening business agility Together with advanced storage virtualization technologies from Dell

Compellent, end-to-end server virtualization and management tools from

Microsoft help IT decision makers simplify data center management—enabling

organizations to adapt quickly and flexibly to changing business conditions.

Capitalizing on Compellent virtual storage for server consolidation allows

organizations to advance IT efficiency in several major ways:

• Maximize utilization of storage resources

• Minimize data center footprint

• Heighten power and cooling efficiency

• Optimize total cost of ownership

A virtual data center environment based on Microsoft and Compellent

technologies is designed to ensure continuous availability and improved

disaster recovery through instant local virtual machine recovery and simple

replication of virtual servers and storage.

Replays for application integrity

Dell Compellent Replay Manager integrates with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to help ensure time-consistent replays of Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and Microsoft Hyper-V® volumes. In this video, discover how to use Replay Manager to schedule and manage replays for maintaining application integrity.

qrs.ly/831tje6

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mission-critical application data. Finally,

storage that includes next-generation data

efficiencies can automate data movement

and optimize for both performance and

capacity. Organizations can leverage the

capabilities of Dell Compellent storage

in these ways to extend the availability

of essential application data stored in

SQL Server databases.

Of course, the need for outage

recovery is avoided altogether if an

outage does not occur in the first

place. Hardware redundancy built into

Compellent storage allows a controller

or hard drive to fail without interrupting

data availability to end users. Compellent

storage also enables administrators to add

capacity and performance dynamically—

an organization can increase the size of

the storage volume, switch out hot-

swappable drives, or add new drives

without taking down the SQL Server

database. Controllers can be upgraded

to adapt to new demands while the SAN

stays up and running.

If a system failure occurs, organizations

can greatly mitigate the impact of

downtime on the customer experience

through automatic and transparent

recovery using Dell Compellent Replay

Manager™ software. Replay Manager works

with Compellent Data Instant Replay to

provide application-aware, time-consistent

snapshots, or replays, for Microsoft SQL

Server (see Figure 1).

The Dell Compellent Data Progression™

feature provides automated storage

tiering, which helps minimize latency for

mission-critical SQL Server applications

by automatically moving infrequently

used data from tier 1 to a lower storage

tier. This capability is especially useful in

data warehouse environments, which

typically contain large amounts of static

data. Administrators often partition data

to improve manageability, separating out

old data and designating it as read only.

To facilitate and help manage this often

complex process, administrators can use

Data Progression to establish policies

for aging data and automatically move

infrequently accessed data to lower-tier,

cost-effective storage, freeing the high-

performance tier 1 storage for active data.

Data Progression enables

improvements in application performance.

With the most important data on tier 1

drives, disk reads and writes are fast,

which in turn can speed up applications

or databases accessing data on those

drives. If lower-tier data comes back into

frequent use, Compellent storage returns

it to the top tier. (For more information on

how Compellent storage can boost the

performance of SQL Server databases, see

the sidebar, “Accelerating insights.”)

Recovering local and remote

databases

Together, Microsoft and Dell Compellent

technologies enable organizations

to quickly and efficiently safeguard

geographically dispersed Microsoft SQL

Server 2012 databases. These technologies

leverage replays to continuously protect

data from server failures, viruses, human

error, and other disruptive events.

Compellent Data Instant Replay is

designed to deliver continuous data

protection by taking multiple space-efficient

snapshots throughout the day. Once a

base snapshot is taken of data written

to a volume, only incremental changes

are captured in ongoing snapshots. This

technique helps save disk space and speed

local recovery. Administrators can take

thousands of snapshots in short intervals for

recovery to a previously known state. Real-

time intelligence and virtual pointers keep

associated snapshots in sync.

The ability to take thousands of

replays of SQL Server databases allows

organizations to efficiently back up

large amounts of data with minimal user

interruption and to recover data quickly.

Replays enable administrators to back

up even large SQL Server databases in

a matter of seconds. Those replays can

then be used to recover data to a server

just as quickly, using a simple point-and-

click interface or using Microsoft Windows

PowerShell™ scripts.

By leveraging integration with Microsoft

Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS),

Compellent Replay Manager helps ensure

data remains consistent even if SQL Server

is running when the snapshot is captured.

SQL Server remains online during the

snapshot process, but I/O between

SQL Server and Compellent storage is

momentarily quiesced—or paused—to

enable point-in-time accuracy. Figure 1. Taking an application-aware, time-consistent snapshot using Dell Compellent Replay Manager

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VSS coordinates the function and

timing of the OS, application, and

storage, enabling Data Instant Replay to

take replays without error, disruption, or

downtime. After the replay is taken, the

SQL Server application resumes normal

operation without disrupting end-user

access to enterprise data.

The Dell Compellent Remote Instant

Replay™ feature leverages the same space-

efficient snapshot technology between

local and remote sites for cost-effective

disaster recovery and business continuity.

Following initial site synchronization,

only incremental changes in enterprise

data need to be replicated. Storage

administrators using Remote Instant Replay

can choose between Fibre Channel and

native IP connectivity for data transfer.

Maintaining the integrity and

resiliency of database applications

Dell Compellent storage works side by

side with the native AlwaysOn feature

of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 to offer

reliable, consistent protection of SQL

Server databases. IT decision makers

weighing the benefits of native backup

and storage-based snapshots can

implement both approaches in the

same environment. In some cases, data

protection strategies such as nightly

off-site backups of the full database

using native capabilities of SQL Server

2012 will meet organizational needs.

Other tier 1 applications and databases

may require more frequent backups.

Compellent storage can play an important

role in minimizing backup windows,

using replays to help reduce the intervals

between recovery points and recovery

time objective targets.

In the end, the high-availability,

data protection capabilities of

Compellent storage and SQL Server

share the ultimate goal of protecting

today’s deluge of business-critical

application data and helping IT

administrators to meet ever-increasing

service-level agreements.

Learn more

Dell Compellent storage:

dell.com/compellent

Dell Compellent Replay Manager:

qrs.ly/js1u63g

Microsoft SQL Server 2012:

microsoft.com/sqlserver

Authors

Maggie Smith is a senior marketing manager

at Dell. She is focused on storage solutions for

Microsoft applications and has over 30 years of

experience marketing technology products.

Mike Matthews is a product specialist for Dell

Compellent, focused on helping customers use

Microsoft SQL Server on Dell Compellent storage.

Nicholas Sweere is a product marketing manager

for Dell Compellent storage, focused on core

applications and third-party integrations.

Accelerating insightsAs expensive as healthcare is in the United States,

government and private insurance companies must

verify the integrity of claims after they have been paid in

order to recoup any overpayments. These organizations

turn to Las Vegas–based HealthDataInsights Inc. (HDI), a

technology-enabled healthcare services company that

specializes in the identification and recoupment of claim

overpayments to providers.

The company’s profitability depends largely on how fast

it can load its customers’ claims data—as much as 2 TB a

month—as well as how quickly it can analyze that data and

return results. The company optimized this process using

Dell PowerEdge™ R910 servers running Microsoft SQL Server

2008 but quickly identified its storage area network (SAN) as a

performance bottleneck.

After replacing its legacy SAN with the Dell Compellent

Storage Center SAN, HDI quickly saw improvements in

performance and disk utilization. For example, using Storage

Center to store and manage its SQL Server databases, HDI

obtained a 60 percent improvement in performance on data

loads and an 84 percent performance improvement on SQL

queries compared to the legacy SAN.

With its legacy SAN, HDI found the process of allocating

SAN space to be extremely time-consuming, and the drives

were poorly utilized. Because Compellent storage virtualizes

the underlying arrays, storage utilization was much more

efficient—HDI achieved a 60 percent reduction in the number

of disk drives required compared to the legacy system.

As well as enabling HDI to improve its data analysis

capabilities, Compellent storage helps HDI ensure high

availability through fully redundant hardware and advanced

failover features—continuously protecting critical claims data

against downtime and disaster. For more information, visit

qrs.ly/uo1u550.

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From e-mail and text messages

to multimedia files and medical

images, today’s burgeoning growth

of unstructured digital content is

driving many IT organizations to reconsider

their data storage needs. Beyond the

challenges of cost-effectively storing,

managing, searching, and preserving large

volumes of data, IT organizations must

grapple with understanding the context and

content of each unstructured data file—

which is key to determining where the file

will reside, whether it should be backed up,

and how long it should be maintained.

Object-based storage, though not

strictly designed for handling unstructured

data, introduces intelligence into the

storage environment so that large volumes

of unstructured data files, or objects, can

be managed smartly and accessed readily

when needed. In particular, the Dell DX

Object Storage Platform combines data and

storage management features, making it

simple to manage and enabling it to cost-

effectively scale to billions of objects.

Integrating the DX Object Storage

Platform into an existing environment

requires careful planning to fit it into the

overall data storage architecture. What types

of data will it store? When will data move

to it? How will end users and applications

connect to it? These considerations are

amplified when the existing environment

is underpinned by diverse communication

protocols. For example, the DX Object

Storage Platform employs an HTTP

representational state transfer (REST)

application programming interface (API) to

communicate with client systems, whereas

traditional file storage environments rely on

the Common Internet File System (CIFS) or

Network File System (NFS) protocols.

F5 ARX file virtualization devices help

organizations seamlessly integrate the

DX Object Storage Platform into existing file

storage environments. It provides a global

namespace—a collection of virtual network

file shares that federates multiple physical CIFS

Object-based storage offers a cost-effective option to

manage unstructured data growth. The F5® ARX® device

uses a global namespace and automated storage tiering to

integrate the Dell™ DX Object Storage Platform for scalable,

transparent file access.

By Renny Shen and Muffadal Quettawala

Integrating object-based storage using a global namespace

Cost-effective, object-based storage

The Dell DX Object Storage Platform is designed to provide a massively scalable, cost-effective approach for long-term data retention and preservation. Use the DX Object Storage Savings Calculator to estimate the return on investment of deploying the DX Object Storage Platform to archive data intelligently.

qrs.ly/r41tjdv

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shares or NFS exports—to decouple logical

access to files from physical locations in the

environment. The global namespace helps

simplify file access, enabling files to be moved

between file systems and storage devices with

minimal impact to users and applications. The

F5 ARX Cloud Extender™ product augments

the DX Object Storage Platform with a file

system front end that the ARX device can

federate with existing file storage devices

into the global namespace. Using the ARX

device’s file-level data management policies,

IT can then automate file movement

between the DX Object Storage Platform and

existing storage according to organizational

goals, such as helping to reduce costs

through file-level storage tiering.

Virtualizing file storage

In a typical file storage environment, each

network attached storage (NAS) device

is contained within its own namespace.

However, because a namespace is tied to

a specific device, file storage and access

through the namespace is limited to that

device. Individual namespaces increase the

complexity of managing multiple storage

devices, even those of the same type—making

it difficult to share capacity or migrate files.

To address this storage management

challenge, the F5 ARX device is designed

to proxy CIFS- and NFS-based file access

through the global namespace to the

appropriate physical share or export.

It federates the individual namespaces

of storage devices in the environment,

regardless of type or manufacturer.

Figure 1 shows a virtual share federating

four physical shares: three presented

by Dell EqualLogic™, Dell Compellent™,

and Dell PowerVault™ systems and the

fourth by an ARX Cloud Extender device

acting as a front end to a Dell DX Object

Storage Platform cluster. The virtual share

aggregates physical capacity; for example,

if each physical share has 1 TB of available

space, then the virtual share would have

4 TB. Client systems map to the virtual share

in the global namespace instead of to the

individual physical shares. Within the virtual

share, files can reside on any physical share.

The virtualization of the file storage

environment provided by the ARX device

helps simplify file access and management

in environments with multiple file storage

devices. Instead of managing file mappings

to individual namespaces, administrators

can configure file mappings to a unified

global namespace.

Moreover, because clients access

files through a global namespace,

their files can be stored across multiple

heterogeneous devices in a unified

storage pool. This federation of storage

capacity enables organizations to

efficiently utilize storage capacity and

integrate different storage technologies

within their existing infrastructure.

By decoupling logical access to files

from the files’ physical locations, the ARX

device is designed to allow a file’s physical

location to change transparently to client

systems. In turn, it enables administrators

to perform management tasks that

require modifications to the physical

environment, such as tiering files between

different storage devices, with minimal

disruptions and downtime.

Figure 1. A global namespace virtualizes the file storage environment to enable easy, transparent file access for end users

User and application clients

home

Globalnamespace F5 ARX Series

Intelligent file virtualization

CIFS*/NFS

CIFS*/NFS

HTTP

home

Physical namespaces

home home

Dell Fluid File SystemDell EqualLogic, Compellent*, or PowerVault

Dell DX ObjectStorage Platform

CIFS*/NFS

home

Physicalnamespace

F5 ARX Cloud Extender

*Support for Compellent-based Dell Fluid File System and CIFS support for Dell Fluid File System products are planned for 2H 2012.

66 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

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Providing file access to

object-based storage

Unlike NAS devices and file servers, which use

CIFS or NFS protocols, the Dell DX Object

Storage Platform communicates using HTTP

through a proprietary REST-based API, making

it well suited to support Web applications.

However, organizations wishing to integrate

an object-based storage platform into a file

storage environment must first translate the

CIFS and NFS protocols to the REST-based

API. F5 ARX Cloud Extender provides a CIFS or

NFS front end that extends the ARX device’s

global namespace to a wide range of public

and private cloud storage options, including

the DX Object Storage Platform. This file

system front end provides several essential

components (see Figure 2):

• API translation: ARX Cloud Extender

translates CIFS- and NFS-based access

to the appropriate REST-based API call to

store or retrieve files through this interface.

• File staging: Because client systems

cannot access files directly from an

object store, the local file system

provides a staging area where client

systems can write or read files before

the ARX Cloud Extender migrates them

to the DX Object Storage Platform.

• File-level access control: ARX Cloud

Extender provides file-level access

control to data stored in the DX Object

Storage Platform, helping ensure that

client systems can read and write only

files for which they have the appropriate

access privileges.

• Local metadata cache: Some file-

access operations require only file

metadata instead of file contents. A

local metadata cache fulfills these access

requests without retrieving files from

the DX Object Storage Platform, helping

minimize file access latency.

When a client attempts to access a file,

ARX Cloud Extender verifies that the client

has the appropriate privileges, allowing or

rejecting access as necessary. In the case

of new file creation, it allows the client to

create the file in the local file system.

For a metadata-only operation, ARX

Cloud Extender satisfies the request from its

local metadata cache without recalling the

file. To read an existing file, the ARX Cloud

Extender issues an API call to GET the file

from the DX Object Storage Platform cluster

and then makes the file available to the client

for reading. To write to an existing file or

create a new file, the ARX Cloud Extender

issues the API call to PUT or POST the file

in the DX Object Storage Platform cluster.

Once the data has been moved to the DX

Object Storage Platform, the ARX Cloud

Extender discards the local copy of the file,

replacing it with a pointer containing the

file’s metadata and the location of the object

on the DX Object Storage Platform.

Automatically tiering files

From an operational perspective, smooth

integration of the Dell DX Object Storage

Platform into an existing file storage

environment requires automatic storage Figure 2. F5 ARX Cloud Extender helps manage the process by which files are stored on the Dell DX Object Storage Platform

CIFS/NFS file access

F5 ARX Cloud Extender Filestaging

PUT/GET/POST

Dell DX Object Storage Platform

File-level access control

Local metadata cache

API translation

Implementing object-based storageTo help organizations integrate object-based storage into their existing environments,

Dell Services uses experience gained through thousands of engagements with

organizations in a variety of industries. Consultants from Dell Services collaborate

with organizations to help them plan, assess, and implement data management

projects and keep projects focused and on schedule. Dell offers a wide range of

customized consultation services that deliver robust design and implementation to

facilitate successful deployment of the Dell DX Object Storage Platform for cloud

storage and archiving.

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of files on appropriate storage platforms without

administrator intervention. F5 ARX devices provide

automated storage tiering policies that classify

files by their organizational value and match

classifications to appropriate types of storage.

The ARX device provides a simple, customizable

approach to classification using a variety of file

characteristics, including the following:

• Age: Files tend to have maximum organizational

value immediately after they are created and

while they are in active use. As files age, they

decline in value but may still need to be retained,

for compliance or other reasons. Policies can be

designed to place active files on high-performance

storage and move inactive files to lower-cost,

lower-performance storage when appropriate.

• Type: Different types of files have inherently

higher or lower value than others, depending

on organizational priorities. Administrators can

create policies to assign different types of files

to appropriate storage tiers.

• Location: Organizational value often can be

determined based on file location. For example,

the contents of file shares on corporate

servers used by a business application may

be of higher value than files in end users’

home directories.

ARX devices can automatically move or place

individual files on different storage tiers. In the

example scenario shown in Figure 3, most files are

automatically placed on tier 1, or primary storage,

when created. After 90 days of inactivity, the ARX

device migrates the files to tier 2, or backup/

secondary storage. Additionally, PST files in this

example scenario are always placed on tier 3 archival

storage, where administrators can apply a separate

backup policy. User clients have online access to their

files through the global namespace, regardless of the

type of storage where each file physically resides.

Effectively integrating object-based storage

The Dell DX Object Storage Platform provides

enterprises with simple, scalable, and cost-

effective storage that is well suited for many types

of applications, from Web publishing to long-

term archiving (see the sidebar, “Implementing

object-based storage”). F5 ARX and ARX Cloud

Extender help organizations seamlessly integrate

object-based storage into their existing file storage

environments to hold unstructured data.

The ARX device is designed to migrate and tier

files between heterogeneous NAS devices without

disrupting users and applications. The ARX Cloud

Extender brings migration and tiering of files to

cloud storage. Working together, these technologies

help federate capacity from multiple heterogeneous

storage devices into a unified storage pool;

provide CIFS- and NFS-based file access to data

stored on an object-based storage platform; and

automatically tier files between different types of

storage based on organizational value.

Using these capabilities, the ARX system

enables file-management efficiencies and reduced

operational costs through policies and tiering to

the DX Object Storage Platform. It extends the use

of archive storage within a scalable cluster to large

numbers of clients—helping to maximize the value

of an enterprise’s investment in an object-based

storage repository.

Learn more

Dell and F5 Networks:

bit.ly/qQVxA4

F5 DevCentral Dell community:

devcentral.f5.com/dell

Dell DX Object Storage Platform:

dell.to/fWmtkv

F5 trial software downloads:

f5.com/trial

Authors

Renny Shen is a product marketing

manager at F5 Networks.

Muffadal Quettawala is a storage

solutions engineer at Dell.

Figure 3. In an example scenario, automated storage tiering helps maximize cost-effectiveness by moving data at the right time to the right storage

User clients

home

Globalnamespace

F5 ARX

CIFS/NFS

CIFS/NFS

<90 days

Physical namespaces

>90 days *.PST

$$$$$$

68 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Data management | Customer perspectiveSpecialsection

One of the world’s most recognizable automotive brands, Mazda Motor

Company manufactures roughly one million cars annually. To stay on the

fast track, the infrastructure services department at Mazda North American

Operations test-drove storage and virtualization options. Finding the right

solution would help the department streamline business operations for 1,100 internal

business users and more than 16,000 users at 800 dealerships across North America, as

well as global projects assigned by the head office in Japan.

Virtualized servers and tiered storage helped Mazda minimize IT

complexity and increase network and application performance,

freeing IT to focus on initiatives that advance business innovation.

Mazda North American Operations

Accelerating performance through virtualized, tiered storage

However, storage constraints

threatened to become a roadblock.

“Our legacy storage architecture had

adequate capacity but couldn’t provide

the performance we needed to support

virtualization,” says Kai Sookwongse,

department manager for IT infrastructure

services. Sookwongse and his team also

needed to cut annual spending and

maintenance time for over 200 physical

servers requiring lengthy backup and

snapshot processes. The staff spent

significant time swapping out servers and

moving critical applications.

Tiering to boost I/O throughput

Sookwongse and his colleagues

examined the Dell™ Compellent™ Storage

Center storage area network (SAN) array

based on Dell Fluid Data™ architecture.

“Thanks to the way the architecture

manages data at the block level, we

discovered we could perform I/O

writes to the storage system very rapidly,”

says Sookwongse.

The Mazda infrastructure services

department implemented a Compellent

storage architecture with three tiers

of capacity. Tier 1 comprises nine

solid-state drives (SSDs) that handle

VMware® virtualization software and

high-performance databases, as well as an

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 69

Data management | Customer perspectiveSpecialsection

SAP® accounting module and system-level

functions such as Microsoft® Windows®

OS page files. Tier 2 storage includes

15,000 rpm Fibre Channel drives and covers

lower-performing databases. Performance

remained high enough to cover some SAP

application support and write I/O to tier 2

directly. Tier 3 comprises 7,200 rpm drives

and is used for read-only storage, allowing

read-concurrency performance as high as

that in tier 1.

The Fluid Data architecture is designed

to intelligently move information across

and within the Compellent storage so

organizations can scale up and out

seamlessly. “The Dell Compellent SAN

accelerates VMware performance and helps

us get maximum value from our key storage

assets,” says Sookwongse.

Virtualizing for performance gains

Mazda virtualized its SAP applications

on 29 guest machines powered by

four Dell PowerEdge™ R710 servers.

“The newer, more powerful Dell servers

support the virtualized environment

extremely well,” says Barry Blakeley,

infrastructure architect at Mazda North

American Operations.

With an end-to-end virtualized server

and storage architecture powered by the

SAN in place, the Mazda infrastructure

services department has substantially

boosted application performance. “We

are now enjoying performance gains

anywhere from 80 to 400 percent,”

Sookwongse says. “Critical applications

like SAP actually run better.”

Compellent storage helped Mazda

reduce the window for nightly batch jobs

by 69 percent. Tight integration between

Compellent storage and VMware software

lets the IT team perform many backup

deduplication tasks more quickly than

before. Complete system snapshots now

take 30 seconds using the Dell Compellent

Data Instant Replay™ feature, and full

backup routines that once took 16 hours

now take 6 hours.

Furthermore, the auto-tiering capabilities

of Storage Center helped reduce time-

consuming manual tasks. “We simply set

up the storage profile, and the system

automatically moves the data to the

highest-performing storage tier based on

the actual usage of the application,” says

Blakeley. “It’s all handled without IT staff

intervention, which frees our staff to focus

on more important things.”

Innovating for the advantage

The Mazda infrastructure department

has been able to cut annual spending on

servers by 60 percent. Aggregating physical

disks into logical virtual volumes allows the

department to leverage a single dynamic

pool of storage resources shared by virtual

machines, regardless of disk type, RAID

level, or server connectivity.

Mazda is steering its network environment

toward 99 percent virtualization. Eighty

percent of the network environment is

virtualized, and hosting business-critical

applications on virtual servers is now the

standard North American service offering.

The new storage and middleware

has improved the department’s ability to

provision critical business applications on

demand. “We support sales and marketing

for all of North America, and virtualization

is simply the most cost-effective way

to support the various business units,”

says Sookwongse.

The Mazda infrastructure services

department now concentrates on helping

the company become more efficient in

daily operations. “We recently released

an iPad application for dealers to use in

the sales process, and we need to be

agile to do that,” says Jim DiMarzio, CIO

at Mazda North American Operations.

“Our Dell Compellent system gives us the

competitive advantage we need to come

up with innovative new applications that

work in mobile environments and be first

to market.”

Driving performance, savingsStorage and server virtualization helped the Mazda infrastructure services department boost operational performance and reduce the

amount of time it spends on support and management, allowing the company to reallocate resources to research and development.

As a result, Mazda aims to attain 99 percent virtualization of its network environment, capitalizing on the benefits of virtualization.

400%Mazda realized substantial gains in application performance—anywhere from 80 percent to 400 percent—by virtualizing its storage.

6 hoursIntegration between Compellent storage and VMware virtualization enabled the IT team to reduce full data backups from 16 hours to 6 hours.

60%By leveraging the single pool of shared storage created through virtualization, the IT team was able to cut annual spending on physical servers by 60 percent.

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

70 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Intelligent server infrastructure

Large enterprise data centers

are not alone in requiring fast,

adaptable servers to help increase

infrastructure intelligence and

accelerate response to complex service

demands. The efficiency, performance,

and scalability of IT systems help drive the

success of any size organization.

Innovative 12th-generation Dell

PowerEdge servers reflect the input Dell

received about what customers worldwide

need to power their organizations. The

resulting portfolio of 12th-generation

PowerEdge servers is engineered with

intelligent infrastructure that is designed to

enhance IT flexibility and business agility

through advanced systems management,

fast deployment, and streamlined workload

provisioning. Moreover, these servers optimize

resource utilization through virtualization

and minimize power and cooling costs with

heightened energy efficiency.

Elevating data center intelligence

across a broad range of deployments

Earlier this year, Dell introduced innovations

in its first wave of 12th-generation PowerEdge

servers designed primarily for large enterprise

data centers.1 Dell is extending these

significant advancements in a second wave

of 12th-generation PowerEdge servers.

In addition to large enterprise operations,

these systems are expressly designed

to meet the needs of small and midsize

organizations as well as departments and

remote offices of large organizations (see

the sidebar, “Benefits rich, size agnostic”).

Centralized remote management

Organizations can utilize cost-effective

systems management capabilities built

into these PowerEdge servers, which are

By launching the latest members of the 12th-generation

Dell™ PowerEdge™ server family, Dell extends the benefits

of advanced innovations to organizations of all sizes—from

small and medium businesses to large enterprises.

By Lisa Onstot and Tad Walsh

Extending the benefits of server innovation

1 For more information on the first wave of 12th-generation Dell PowerEdge servers, see “The intelligent data center,” by Paul Steeves and Matt McGinnis, in Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 1, qrs.ly/6e1tjdy.

2 For more information on Dell OpenManage Essentials, see “Streamlining basic hardware management,” by Travis Zhao, Rob Cox, Enrico Bracalente, and Kevin Noreen, in Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 1, qrs.ly/1o1tjea.

Online systems management tool

IT decision makers can use the interactive Systems Management – Dell OpenManage advisor tool to help simplify data center planning. Its easy-to-use, interactive interface presents a series of multiple-choice questions designed to zero in on systems management requirements for server deployments.

dell.com/openmanageadvisor

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 71

designed to save time and reduce the

potential for error through automation.

These built-in capabilities are available

in Dell OpenManage™ Essentials2 and

Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7

(iDRAC7) with Lifecycle Controller for agent-

free embedded systems management.

Using these PowerEdge servers,

small or remote organizations can

access enterprise-scale, one-to-many,

automated management tools, and large

organizations can leverage these tools to

monitor their remote offices. Without this

level of monitoring in previous-generation

platforms, technicians often had to travel to

remote sites to diagnose and fix problems.

Instead, built-in monitoring and fault

systems management in PowerEdge servers

enable organizations to administer remote

systems from a primary site—enhancing

cost-effective use of IT resources.

Optimized virtualization support

As virtualization continues to expand into

production environments, PowerEdge servers

are designed to support the stepped-up

deployments. For example, dual embedded

Secure Digital (SD) media enables hypervisor

information to be mirrored, providing for

enterprise-quality hypervisor protection.

Moreover, these PowerEdge servers

are designed to offer significantly more

powerful processing capabilities with

either the Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2400

product family or the Intel Xeon processor

E5-4600 product family, together with

increased memory capacity compared to

previous generations. This augmented

processing power facilitates provisioning

for high numbers of virtual machines per

server. And to avoid bottlenecks in virtual

machine performance, these PowerEdge

servers also feature expanded I/O—offering

additional PCI Express (PCIe) slots as well

as PCIe 3.0 capability to provide more

lanes than in previous generations to help

speed throughput.

Room for organizational growth

Whether an organization is small, midsize,

or large, it needs capacity for growth. But

the rate of expansion often can be difficult

to predict. For example, IT decision makers

could anticipate an upcoming year’s

growth to be approximately 5 percent,

but it may just as easily end up being

50 percent or higher. For this reason,

Benefits rich, size agnostic The second wave of 12th-generation Dell PowerEdge servers advances business and organizational agility with innovative, enterprise-class

features designed to heighten data center efficiency, performance, and scalability. In addition, the systems span rack, tower, and blade server

form factors to meet specific platform needs for small or midsize organizations, small or branch offices, and large enterprises alike.

PowerEdge R820 PowerEdge R520 PowerEdge R420

Key features and

capabilities

Designed to excel at running a wide range of applications for both midsize and large enterprises, this ultradense four-socket, 2U rack server offers compute-intensive performance with highly scalable memory up to 1.5 TB and impressive I/O capabilities. Powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 product family, this server provides 48 dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs) and the capability to support dual RAID controllers. It readily handles demanding workloads including enterprise resource planning, data warehousing, and virtual desktop infrastructure.

This two-socket, 2U rack server powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family offers an excellent balance of performance and scalability that is well suited for Web serving and hosting, e-mail and messaging, or running a wide range of core applications. Its configuration flexibility and scalability, together with its memory capacity and balanced I/O bandwidth, provide a cost-effective platform for consolidation and virtualization.

Organizations requiring double-down density and performance may find this robust two-socket, 1U rack server powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family to be an excellent fit for compute-intense applications and high-performance computing workloads. A low profile also makes it attractive for departmental e-mail, workgroup collaboration, and file and print applications.

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

72 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Intelligent server infrastructure

deploying servers that can expand with

organizational needs over time regardless

of the rate of growth is important.

When it comes to memory, hard drives,

and even processors, these PowerEdge

servers are designed to provide improved

expandability and flexibility. Enhanced

capacity helps IT organizations leverage their

initial server investment as they grow and

avoid downtime during reconfiguration or

server swaps. Increased internal storage in

these servers helps save space and reduce

storage systems management requirements

compared to external storage. This flexible

capacity can be a tremendous benefit not only

for large enterprises, but also for remote or

satellite offices and growing organizations that

may not have abundant internal IT expertise.

Fresh approach for cooling

and energy efficiency

Because 12th-generation PowerEdge servers

are Fresh Air compliant, they are designed

to continue operating without problems in

temperatures up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit (°F)

or 45 degrees Celsius (°C)—for example,

if it becomes necessary to raise the

temperature of the workplace to meet

brownout power limits set by a utility. This

Fresh Air compliance not only delivers

cost savings in the data center by helping

reduce cooling needs, but it also helps

organizations ride through power brownouts

that are commonplace during summer

months in many geographical areas.

Fresh Air compliance is also well suited

for organizations with small, remote, or

temporary installations in the field, from

producers of music concerts to oil and gas

companies. For example, oil exploration may

require a limited number of remote on-site

servers to keep track of seismic testing data,

and PowerEdge servers can operate in the

extended temperature ranges that might be

a condition in these field activities.

Exploring flexible form factors

The second wave of 12th-generation

Dell PowerEdge servers includes rack,

tower, and blade form factors. Rack-

mounted PowerEdge servers offer

more hot-swappable hard drives than

previous-generation PowerEdge servers

to provide added support for growing

volumes of internally stored data. These

next-generation servers also provide a

substantial increase in memory—up to

50 percent more dual in-line memory

module (DIMM) slots than the previous

generation. These DIMM slots can be

used to provide rapid response times for

memory-intensive workloads such as

small and medium database applications.

The rack servers are available with a small

form factor and enhanced density that is

well suited for virtualization deployments.

Locations that require a slim-profile server

may place this form factor on a desktop,

shelf, or countertop.

Reliability, availability, and serviceability

(RAS) features, such as memory mirroring,

that are not typically available in servers

designed for price-sensitive environments

are available in PowerEdge rack servers.

Memory mirroring allows the server to

keep working in spite of a DIMM failure,

preventing a potential server outage that

could put business activity at risk. The

PowerEdge R320 PowerEdge T420 PowerEdge T320

Featuring enterprise-class, high availability and high-capacity internal storage with up to eight hard drives, this one-socket, 1U rack server based on the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family and Intel Pentium® processor product family is designed to offer highly reliable and secure Web serving and file sharing. Straightforward systems management helps free up time for IT administrators while providing cost-effective local and remote operations.

The acoustical profile of this two-socket, rackable tower server powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family is quiet office compliant and helps to reduce noise levels in data centers. Its performance and built-in capacity for nondisruptive growth make it an excellent platform for general-purpose business workloads such as data sharing, file and print, and e-mail. Small and remote offices, where IT skills may be limited, can benefit from its easy manageability enabled by Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7 (iDRAC7) with Lifecycle Controller.

With enterprise-class memory protection features that help keep organizations up and running, this powerful yet quiet one-socket, rackable tower server powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family is appropriate for workgroup collaboration and productivity applications. Small offices that may not have trained technical IT resources on-site can benefit from its robust design and easy manageability.

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 73

servers also offer hard drive and memory

expandability for future growth.

Dell engineers were able to reduce

the depth of PowerEdge tower servers by

two inches, which enables them to fit into

a smaller space than previous-generation

PowerEdge tower servers, or allow more

room behind the server for cabling and airflow.

Moreover, enhanced acoustics allow these

servers to be placed unobtrusively in small,

quiet offices.

In addition, PowerEdge tower servers

can be converted to rackable units.

This feature can be advantageous for

fast-growing organizations and remote

offices. As organizations or departments

experience growth, they often lose space

underneath desks or on countertops

where tower servers are typically located.

Consolidating servers into one or more

racks helps conserve space in a confined

server closet or a small room serving as a

compact data center, as well as minimizing

the server footprint in large data centers.

Maximized performance, density, and

efficiency of PowerEdge blade servers

enable organizations to greatly reduce

the cost and complexity of managing

computing resources. This form factor

allows organizations to minimize the server

footprint by housing multiple blades in a single

enclosure. As business activity grows and

additional compute resources are needed,

organizations can simply slide additional

blades into the enclosure. Redundant

chassis components combine with remote

management and fail-safe hypervisor

capabilities to help ensure uptime for key

applications and virtualization deployments.

Scaling server platforms for optimal

agility and growth

By provisioning exceptionally flexible

compute capacity, IT organizations

can boost productivity and growth.

Twelfth-generation Dell PowerEdge

servers are designed to optimize energy

efficiency, streamline management, and

enhance compute power for heightened

application performance, with abundant

memory capacity to support virtualization

and increasingly complex workloads.

Continuous efficiency gains are essential

for organizations trying to do more with

less. Built to bring world-class, enterprise-

caliber performance and operational

efficiency to any size organization, this

fresh wave of 12th-generation PowerEdge

servers enables IT decision makers to

advance business and organizational

goals—with a significant return on their

technology investment.

PowerEdge M820 PowerEdge M520 PowerEdge M420

This feature-rich, enterprise-class platform powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 product family offers remarkable memory capacity that scales up to 1.5 TB per full-height, four-socket blade server. Its form factor and leading-edge performance are well suited for high-end databases or dense data center environments that require very capable and highly scalable nodes.

In this flexible, half-height blade platform powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family, energy efficiency and capable performance are well suited for mainstream business applications as well as e-mail, database, and virtual environments—even in small and midsize organizations where space may be at a premium.

This quarter-height blade server powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family delivers impressive computational density by leveraging the Dell PowerEdge M1000e chassis, which accommodates up to 32 individually serviceable blade servers. By providing enterprise-class features, this server offers a combination of performance and efficiency that is well suited for space-constrained data centers or organizations looking to achieve cost-benefits from high node-count density.

Authors

Lisa Onstot is a server marketing director in the

Enterprise Server Group at Dell.

Tad Walsh is outbound marketing manager

for server platforms in the Enterprise Solutions

Group at Dell.

Learn more

Dell PowerEdge 12th-generation servers:

dell.com/servers

Embedded server management:

dell.com/idrac7

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

74 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Point of view

At many organizations today, the

network that connects headquarters to

remote offices/branch offices (ROBOs)

has become crucial to maintaining

smooth, uninterrupted business operations. And

moving forward, the network will keep playing an

important role. For proof, just look at the number

of aggressively paced data center consolidation

and application centralization projects underway

across the business landscape—projects

happening with IT efficiency and application

delivery improvement in mind.

Because of the consolidation trend,

ROBOs are now connecting over much longer

distances than before. In a survey of networking

professionals representing midmarket and

enterprise-class organizations, IT analyst firm

Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) uncovered

a number of interesting points tied to this

development.1 For one thing, physical data

center consolidation itself is now so prevalent

it is classified as a top-ten IT initiative. And

when ESG asked IT professionals about their

preferred deployment method for applications

supporting ROBOs, more than 50 percent of the

respondents indicated a preference for deploying

and managing applications centrally, rather than

having ROBOs access the applications over the

wide area network (WAN).

It is no surprise that data center merging has

become popular. Consolidating facilities and

applications leads to many benefits. For example,

an organization that consolidates its data centers

can avoid excess infrastructure and IT staff at the

remote sites. And the IT group that consolidates

applications can streamline upgrades and patches

efficiently, from a central point of control.

Organizations are being quite thoughtful

about their priorities for their ROBOs. Security,

application performance, and availability appear to

be their most important considerations. Efficient

information sharing, backup improvements, and

WAN cost reduction also factor highly on the

priority list. But balancing the multiple priorities

can get challenging.

Consolidation of regional data centers and

applications into larger, centralized operations is

a complicated endeavor. And as organizations

run more traffic over their WANs than before,

consolidation can begin to generate hassles.

The current state of affairs

In recent months, ESG has conducted

considerable primary research on network

trends—collecting enough intelligence to

formulate some high-level observations regarding

ROBOs and the centralized networks they now

rely on so much.2

First, ROBO network connection configurations

still vary widely. The most common types of

connections are virtual private networks (VPNs),

digital subscriber line (DSL) networks, and

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks.

But organizations are leveraging everything from

56 Kbps dial-up to private optical connections

that reach speeds exceeding 1 Gbps. Most links

Remote- and branch-office networking trends

The corporate network has become more important than ever

before. But is all that traffic flowing to and from remote offices

starting to impair the business-critical link?

By Bob Laliberte

1,2,3 “ Remote office/branch office network trends,” by Bob Laliberte, Enterprise Strategy Group, April 2012, qrs.ly/8i1u54y.

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 75

Point of view

are connecting at between 1.5 Mbps

and 45 Mbps. As one might expect,

the higher the head count at a remote

office, the faster the WAN connection

is likely to be.

Second, organizations are

experiencing challenges with these

ROBO-connected networks (see

Figure 1). Their number-one difficulty

involves managing WAN performance:

39 percent of the organizations ESG

spoke to consider performance

management to be problematic.

Following the performance issue are

challenges in managing WAN traffic,

configuring remote devices, and

accommodating video and voice over

IP (VoIP) applications.

The bigger truth

As organizations with ROBOs carry

on consolidating data centers

and centralizing applications, the

onus remains on them to ensure

adequate application performance

at all locations. ROBO environments

vary greatly. But the organizations

running them share similar goals: to

tighten security, improve application

performance, and better support

remote workers.

Unfortunately, organizations are

still working out how to establish the

proper bandwidth to manage WAN

performance while keeping WAN

costs under control (see the sidebar,

“Bandwidth hogs”). Given that most

organizations ESG surveyed pay more

than US$1,000 per month, per site,

the costs definitely add up. IT teams

should strongly consider using WAN

optimization technology to help

improve network performance and

reduce network costs.

Learn more

Enterprise Strategy Group:

enterprisestrategygroup.com

Author

Bob Laliberte is senior analyst at Enterprise

Strategy Group. He focuses on data center

networking technologies and management

software, tracking networking discontinuity

issues, software-defined networks, and

network optimization.

Figure 1. Many organizations face challenges in managing WAN performance for ROBOs

Bandwidth hogsWhat applications consume the most

network bandwidth? Here’s a list of culprits:

• E-mail:Even with top-notch spam filtering,

employees get a tremendous amount of

e-mail daily. In a typical in-box, half the

messages may have huge Microsoft®

PowerPoint® files, high-definition videos,

or digital pictures attached.

• Collaborationandfile-sharing

applications:For an application such

as Microsoft SharePoint® collaboration

software to have true value, it must

be centralized. This means that every

day, remote workers are accessing,

downloading, editing, and uploading

files. For the organization, collaboration

drives productivity. For IT, all that

bandwidth consumption eventually

causes a negative impact.

• Customerrelationshipmanagement

(CRM)andsalesforceautomation

(SFA):CRM and SFA tools also require

centralization and constant accessibility

to be beneficial. CRM traffic is already

affecting WANs.

• Videoandmultimediacreation:As

organizations increasingly leverage

video to impart information and

conduct training, multimedia

applications are likely to climb

higher on the list of bandwidth hogs

in the near future. Certainly, WAN

optimization vendors recognize the

need to support video, and they have

adapted their products accordingly.

• Webapplicationsande-commercesites:

Most commonly, organizations convert

previously distributed applications into

Web-based applications and deploy

them centrally.

WAN performance management

WAN availability

Configuring/managing remoteo�ce networking equipment

Monitoring/managing WAN tra�c

Managing latency-sensitive applicationslike video and IP telephony

Network configuration management

Load-balancing application accessacross multiple data centers

Identifying, prioritizing, and acceleratingapplication tra�c on the WAN

Installing/managing WANoptimization equipment

Configuring and managing ROBOwired and wireless networks

Managing WAN providers

Configuring/managingDomain Name System (DNS)

0 10% 20% 30% 40%

39%

30%

30%

29%

28%

27%

25%

25%

22%

22%

What would you consider to be the biggest networking challenges your organization faces when it comes to supporting IT requirements for ROBO locations and remote workers?(Percent of respondents, N=279, multiple responses accepted)3

22%

16%

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

76 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Networking

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Ongoing adoption of cloud-based

systems for delivering applications

and services, coupled with a

corresponding steady rise in data

volume, is driving the demand for increased levels

of performance, accelerated throughput, and

enhanced security. To help meet the performance

needs required for implementing private or public

cloud platforms, many organizations are moving

to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) connectivity in

their data centers. 10GbE networks offer increased

bandwidth for transmitting large volumes of data.

However, existing server deployments are often

not able to keep pace with the increased I/O that

results from cloud-based transactions and the rise

in data flowing through an expanded pipe.

Security is also a paramount consideration

in cloud-based delivery systems. The uptick in

sensitive information—personal identification,

financial transactions, medical histories,

proprietary business-critical data, and so on—

that is leaving the traditional on-premises IT

environment is intensifying the demand for

data encryption to meet the expectations of

authorized users. The necessary encryption and

decryption processing for the 10GbE line rate can

also create bottlenecks.

Data centers facilitating cloud computing

platforms require enhanced bandwidth and fast

encryption capabilities to deliver cloud-based

services flexibly, efficiently, and securely.

Working together, Dell and Intel have developed

networking innovations for a platform designed

to provide both high performance and increased

security across a wide array of operating systems.

Cost-effective 12th-generation Dell PowerEdge

servers powered by the Intel® Xeon® processor

E5 product family offer a flexible, easy-to-manage

platform for providing agile, secure, and efficient

delivery of cloud-based applications and services.

These servers can utilize Dell PowerEdge Select

Network Adapters based on Intel® Ethernet

technology to optimize 10GbE networking and

enable balanced, scalable I/O capabilities.

Through a combination of processor-level

and platform-level features, 12th-generation

PowerEdge servers are designed to improve

security and ensure fast encryption and

decryption at 10GbE speeds, while also helping

simplify management of virtual machines.

Scaling I/O for enhanced performance

To handle the increase in data traffic through

their networks, many organizations providing

cloud-based services are transitioning to 10GbE

connectivity for networks and storage, and

12th-generation Dell PowerEdge servers help

simplify this transition. These PowerEdge

server platforms are designed to support and

adapt to increasingly complex workloads,

and are well suited for building efficient,

virtualized environments.

Enterprises can enhance performance and security for cloud-based

services by deploying 12th-generation Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers

powered by the Intel® Xeon® processor E5 product family and the

Intel® Ethernet 10 Gigabit Converged Network Adapter family.

By Brian Johnson and Rahul Deshmukh

Optimizing network bandwidth for secure cloud environments

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 77

Networking

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

In particular, Dell PowerEdge R720 servers based on the Intel

Xeon processor E5 product family support integrated 10GbE LAN

on Motherboard (LOM) connectivity with flexible networking

options. Intel Ethernet-based networking technologies offer low-

cost, power-efficient 10GbE bandwidth for next-generation server

platforms, while also supporting Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) for elastic

networking environments.

For example, the dual-port Intel® Ethernet Converged Network

Adapter X540-T2 (Intel® Ethernet CNA X540-T2) provides increased

bandwidth and enhanced capabilities for cost-effective 10GbE

deployments. Its Intel Ethernet Controller X540 silicon supports

10 Gbps Ethernet server LOM and Intel Ethernet-based Network

Daughter Card technology designs. Hot-swappable network

daughtercards, such as the Intel Ethernet CNA X540-T2, are included

in the family of Dell PowerEdge Select Network Adapters available for

12th-generation PowerEdge servers. This leading-edge 10GBASE-T

adapter is backward compatible to GbE connectivity, helping IT

organizations ease their transition to a 10GbE infrastructure.

By offering a range of LOM features, the daughtercards are

also designed with the flexibility to meet evolving networking

needs. The 10GBASE-T standard provides the physical interconnect

capability that helps optimize 10GbE networking, while it cost-

effectively enables organizations to use their existing Ethernet cable

infrastructure. And these 10GbE-capable adapters are also designed

to reduce power consumption and cost per port to facilitate a range

of usage models such as unified networking, I/O virtualization, and

Flexible Port Partitioning (FPP).

The Intel Xeon processor E5 product family includes additional

innovations for enhancing I/O in 12th-generation PowerEdge servers.

For example, Intel® Integrated I/O and its key Intel® Data Direct I/O

Technology (Intel® DDIO) feature avoid data traffic bottlenecks

and significantly help to reduce latency. Intel DDIO technology

allows Intel Ethernet-based controllers and adapters to talk directly

with the processor cache to enhance system bandwidth utilization

while minimizing power consumption. These performance

enhancements are designed to avoid the need to move and store

data in memory before transferring it to cache for processing. The

Intel Xeon processor E5 product family provides a large cache of

up to 20 MB, and Intel DDIO can set aside a portion of this cache

for I/O, which allows data to bypass memory and flow from the

network adapter silicon to the cache.

The Dell PowerConnect™ 8024 high-density 10GbE switch is

designed to further augment network performance and throughput in

densely virtualized cloud computing deployments. The PowerConnect

8024 switch also helps IT organizations ease the transition to 10GbE

networking by providing Data Center Bridging (DCB)–supported

78 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Networking

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

10GBASE-T ports that enable reliable, high-

throughput 10GbE connectivity for converged

Ethernet environments. The switch supports

up to 24 ports of 10GbE connectivity along

with four combination ports, and it advances

scalability by managing multiple wire-speed

switches as a single unit. Hot-swappable,

redundant power supplies and convenient

stacking features help further simplify data

center networking. In addition to providing

robust security and enterprise management

capabilities well suited for high-volume data

center environments, the PowerConnect

8024 switch enables IT organizations to

leverage existing LAN infrastructure without

requiring additional components such as

cables, switches, and adapters.

Keeping pace with encryption

demands for 10GbE networks

In addition to requiring high levels of

performance and throughput to help

manage the escalation of large workloads,

private and public cloud computing

deployments also demand robust security

to help ensure that organizational data

is not compromised. Specifically, many

organizations require rock-solid data

encryption and decryption to help

secure the rising volumes of data that

are transmitted outside the data center.

The Intel® Ethernet 10GbE Network

Daughter Card capabilities available with

12th-generation Dell PowerEdge server

platforms powered by the Intel Xeon

processor E5 product family enable

organizations to achieve significant

throughput performance enhancements

without incurring a security trade-off.

Expanding on the existing Advanced

Encryption Standard (AES), the Intel®

Advanced Encryption Standard New

Instructions (Intel® AES-NI) included in the

Intel Xeon processor E5 product family

enables accelerated encryption and

decryption capabilities. AES-NI comprises

a new set of instructions that helps

improve data protection by performing

How a cloud provider boosts throughput without compromising securityLong-standing trade-offs between

performance and security and

advanced approaches to reconcile

them are important considerations

for decision makers in organizations

considering the transition to a cloud

computing environment. Expedient

Communications—a provider of cloud-

based services, data center co-location,

and managed services for enterprise and

commercial organizations—helps

organizations meet this challenge.

Expedient operates a network

of eight data centers in the United

States that utilizes extensive Ethernet

connectivity designed to deliver

secure and redundant facilities for

comprehensively managing applications.

The company also maintains a significant

focus in cloud computing by providing

infrastructure as a service.

Expedient helps organizations

focus on core business operations by

providing capabilities and technical

innovation, such as cloud computing.

Expedient advances its commitment

to innovation by developing specific

approaches to customer solutions. For

example, Expedient wanted to deliver

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) tunneling

on top of four teamed 10GBASE-T

adapters and offer support for Intel®

Advanced Encryption Standard New

Instructions (Intel® AES-NI), which

accelerates encryption and decryption

on the Intel® Xeon® processor

E5-2600 product family.

To help achieve this goal, Expedient

deployed Dell PowerEdge R710 servers

running a custom version of the Linux®

OS, and then put its approach to the

test by running workloads on three

generations of Intel Xeon processors with

and without Intel AES-NI enabled. The

testing showed Expedient the value of its

platform solution to network throughput.

A significant increase in throughput for

each later generation with corresponding

enhanced processor utilization,

particularly when Intel AES-NI was

enabled, helped provide performance

gains while freeing compute resources

for other important workloads. (For

more information, visit qrs.ly/nh1tx4g.)

Building on this success, Expedient

is now refreshing its PowerEdge R710

servers with 12th-generation Dell

PowerEdge R720 servers designed

to take advantage of enhanced

performance, throughput, and security

capabilities. “Processor capacity is

an important resource in the cloud,”

says Alex Rodriguez, vice president

for systems engineering and product

development at Expedient. “Intel

AES-NI allows us to provide more of

that resource to our customers while

maintaining our encryption standards.”

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 79

Networking

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

compute-intensive parts of the AES algorithm. It

delivers fast data protection and security cost-

effectively through hardware-based encryption

and decryption. (For information on an innovative

approach to balancing performance and security,

see the sidebar, “How a cloud provider boosts

throughput without compromising security.”)

Providers of cloud-based services need

to be particularly vigilant in protecting their

infrastructures from malicious software programs

or malware. The Intel Xeon processor E5

product family includes Intel® Trusted Execution

Technology (Intel® TXT) hardware-based security.

Intel TXT is a highly scalable architecture designed

to insulate systems from the threat of hypervisor,

BIOS, and firmware attacks and software-based

attacks. In addition to addressing evolving security

threats, Intel TXT enables organizations to comply

with government and industry data protection

standards and regulations.

Streamlining systems management

for secure virtual environments

The virtualized environments that facilitate cloud

computing provide IT administrators with a range

of alternatives for effectively managing cloud

computing platforms. The Intel Ethernet Converged

Network Adapter family provides Intel® Virtualization

Technology for Connectivity (Intel® VT-c) that is

designed to deliver high levels of throughput by

offloading network traffic management functions

from the processor to the Ethernet controller.

In VMware® virtualization environments, for

example, Virtual Machine Device Queues (VMDq)

built into these adapters support both Microsoft®

Hyper-V® hypervisor and VMware vSphere®

virtualized environments.

As production workloads and manual

workflows in virtual and cloud environments

rise, so does the likelihood that human error

may cause unexpected delays in the operational

environment. The Dell Management Plug-In

for VMware vCenter provides centralized,

consolidated management of 12th-generation

Dell PowerEdge servers in cloud infrastructures

supporting VMware virtualization environments.

This plug-in enables IT managers to define

and automate server provisioning, automate

BIOS and firmware updates, enhance security

through zero-touch hypervisor deployment,

and perform many other management tasks for

virtualized environments.

The Dell OpenManage™ systems management

portfolio also provides powerful enhancements

for virtualized environments supporting

complex, cloud-based workloads. This systems

management tool suite includes the embedded

Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7

(iDRAC7) with Lifecycle Controller, which helps

IT administrators manage 12th-generation

PowerEdge servers in physical, virtual, local, and

remote environments with or without a systems

management software agent. Dell OpenManage

integrates with and connects to third-party

systems management offerings, allowing IT

managers to maintain a single point of control

and capitalize on existing investments.

Enhancing performance and security

for the cloud

Traditional server platforms often present

a security and performance trade-off for

organizations striving to deliver secure, cloud-

based applications and services. Increasing

volumes of data traffic in cloud-based workloads

are driving the move toward the expanded

bandwidth available with 10GbE networking.

However, processors in existing server platforms

often cannot encrypt and decrypt data at the

10GbE line rate.

Dell and Intel have worked together to

innovate cost-effective 10GbE throughput-

enhancing capabilities by offering an integrated

10GbE LOM design that works with Category 6

copper cabling. The dual-port Intel Ethernet CNA

X540-T2 supporting Ethernet server LOM—together

with Intel Ethernet-based Network Daughter Card

technology—integrates 10GbE networking with

12th-generation Dell PowerEdge servers. These

features are designed to enable IT organizations

to operate high-performing, flexible data centers

that scale as specific networking needs change. In

addition to avoiding I/O bottlenecks, they facilitate

data encryption and decryption to provide the

heightened security required for delivering cloud-

based applications and services.

Authors

Brian Johnson is a product

marketing engineer at Intel for

10 Gigabit Ethernet products and

virtualization technologies.

Rahul Deshmukh is a senior

technical marketing manager

at Dell specializing in server

peripheral devices.

Learn more

Intel and Dell Ethernet

connectivity:

intelethernet-dell.com

Dell and Intel:

dell.com/intel

80 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Cloud computing

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

The journey to the cloud often begins with consolidation and virtualization as first steps

along an evolutionary path. This approach facilitates expedient migration and deployment

of tier 1 applications including messaging, enterprise resource planning, online transaction

processing (OLTP) databases, and so forth. A virtualized environment for these types of

applications enables IT organizations to efficiently manage operations and workloads, accurately

meet service-level agreements (SLAs), and accelerate business outcomes.

Building out a virtualized infrastructure that is configured to support a production-ready

application, however, may require weeks or even months before the environment is ready for test

and deployment. This process also has the potential to elevate costs if diversified IT expertise is

required or outside consultants are brought in to complete the project. As a result, this path to

virtualization may be at odds with an organization’s timeline for deploying an agile, automated

Many IT decision makers are stepping up virtualization efforts to

cost-effectively pave the way toward a private cloud. Dell™ vStart

virtualization offers a pre-integrated, wired, and ready-to-deploy

infrastructure designed to be up and running quickly.

By Marc Stitt and Deepak Kanwar

Rapid virtualization deployment for private clouds

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Cloud computing

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infrastructure that achieves strategic IT goals to meet business

demands and control costs.

Very often these organizations are also looking to take the next step

in their journey—deploying a private cloud. Private cloud computing

platforms offer an elastic, scalable environment for delivering IT

services quickly, flexibly, and cost-effectively to meet changing

enterprise needs. As IT decision makers around the world consider a

transition to private cloud computing, many organizations are wrestling

with the question of where to begin.

The organizational model to fulfill business demands for

applications and IT service delivery typically involves the following five

recurring needs:

• Leverage the infrastructure already in place to conserve

capital expenditures

• Continue to deploy virtualization as the foundation for

enhanced flexibility

• Preserve existing investments in management solutions

• Endorse vendor-agnostic options for infrastructure components

• Evaluate converged infrastructure approaches to expedite

service delivery

In response to these evolving needs, Dell has put in place a

strategy for deploying virtualization using innovative approaches

designed to address these IT demands and help pave the way to a

private cloud.

Accelerating application and service delivery

For many IT organizations, a virtualized infrastructure provides the

means to support new application workloads and IT projects such as

enabling private cloud computing platforms. However, at the outset IT

organizations may spend weeks evaluating, purchasing, and procuring

the components; additional weeks to rack, stack, and cable them; and

still more weeks to get those components ready for production. Even

well-organized, highly skilled IT teams may require a couple of months

to build the infrastructure to deploy a new application.

Dell leverages its extensive global experience and deep expertise

in virtualization and infrastructure design to now offer a pre-integrated

infrastructure that enables IT and business stakeholders to accelerate

application and IT service delivery. Dell vStart racks and cables

servers, storage, networking, management software, and deployment

services. Utilizing either VMware vSphere® virtualization or the

Microsoft® Hyper-V® hypervisor, organizations may rapidly deploy

vStart and gain an infrastructure designed and ready to support their

key IT initiatives. As a result, vStart enables organizations to focus on

strategic priorities for driving enhanced business agility and delivering

IT assets—not on building infrastructure. (For more information, see

the sidebar, “Ready-to-run virtualization.”)

Ready-to-run virtualizationTiming can be an important factor for organizations

moving toward a private cloud. Pennsylvania-based

Brodart Company is one example. The provider of

library solutions from shelf-ready books to electronic

ordering systems and furniture was looking to time a

much-needed refresh of its servers with its migration to

a virtualized server infrastructure.

To help simplify the project and accelerate

deployment, Brodart opted to implement the Dell

vStart 100—racked and cabled with the servers,

storage, networking, management tools, and services

required to successfully deploy virtualization in one

preassembled, validated solution. Working with

Interphase Systems, a Dell Premier and VMware VIP

Enterprise partner, the Brodart IT team deployed vStart

based on VMware vSphere virtualization software.

According to Brad Huyck, manager of IT

operations at Brodart, the organization expected a

six-month phase to complete the deployment. “The

Dell vStart solution came completely racked and

cabled, so all we had to do was plug it in,” Huyck says.

“Just four weeks after we made the purchase, we were

already achieving business value. That’s about six times

faster than I expected.”

The vStart infrastructure also enables virtual

machines to be deployed much faster than having to

first procure, rack, and configure a physical server.

“We can deploy a new server at least 10 times faster

now,” says Huyck.

Brodart is in the final stages of testing virtual

deployments of tier 1 messaging and document

collaboration software on the vStart infrastructure.

“Because we can clone virtual machines and we don’t

have to wait for hardware, we’ve reduced the time it

takes to stage, test, and introduce new applications

into our environment by 50 percent,” says Huyck.

“We’re also able to provide higher availability for

applications and databases once they are virtualized,

because we can move workloads between physical

host servers. I also like the fact that the vStart solution

is modular, so we can scale easily.”

82 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Cloud computing

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

In addition, Dell vStart for Dell Private

Cloud is designed to improve business

agility by enabling organizations to

deploy their own private cloud through

a pre-engineered infrastructure and

automated self-service delivery of

IT assets. Utilizing vStart and Dell VIS

Creator—a component of the Dell Virtual

Integrated System (VIS) portfolio (see

the sidebar, “Optimized delivery across

physical and virtual environments”)—

vStart for Dell Private Cloud offers cloud

management software, servers, storage,

and networking (see Figure 1).

It also offers element-level management

plug-ins—Dell OpenManage™ systems

management, Dell EqualLogic™ Host

Integration Tools, and Dell Management

Plug-In for VMware vCenter (see the

sidebar, “Centralized, end-to-end

management”). This offering helps

eliminate long, drawn-out processes

to architect, build, and integrate virtual

infrastructure—enabling quick, low-risk

delivery of advanced cloud capabilities.

An organization can get its private cloud

up and running in days.

VIS Creator is designed to provide

secure deployment and management of

physical, virtual, and cloud—private, public,

or hybrid—workloads by helping remove

bottlenecks to speed IT service delivery

and enhance business operations. Using

vStart for Dell Private Cloud, which includes

VIS Creator, IT organizations can benefit

from accelerated deployment, enhanced

efficiency, and flexible scalability.

Advancing private cloud capabilities

Faced with the prospect of architecting,

designing, and configuring their

infrastructure and then finding a suitable

cloud computing platform, IT organizations

can opt for a fast-track alternative. Dell

vStart enables organizations to begin

realizing the benefits of virtualization for

a private cloud platform within days. By

leveraging extensive Dell experience in

Figure 1. Dell vStart for Dell Private Cloud architecture and VMware virtualization

Authorized user Infrastructure services

MicrosoftActive Directory®

directory service

Simple Mail TransferProtocol (SMTP) server

Workloadvirtualmachines

VIS Creator servervirtual machine

Dell VIS Creator core components Portal Web site Reports Web site Manager service

VIS Creator database

Distributed ExecutionManager

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) agent

VMware vSphere agent

Managed nodes

VMware vCenter Server

Dell vStart

Optimized delivery across physical and virtual environments The Dell Virtual Integrated System (VIS) portfolio provides software enabling

organizations to leverage existing infrastructure to improve the delivery of applications

and IT services across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. Organizations

may deploy VIS to help improve business agility and deliver IT as a service, increase

automation to enable rapid workload deployment, and optimize converged

infrastructure and operations across physical and virtual environments. A VIS

deployment helps organizations balance the need for enhanced agility with heightened

efficiency and cost controls for internal private clouds and external public clouds.

dell.com/powersolutions | 2012 Issue 02 83

Cloud computing

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virtualization, organizations can deploy

vStart for Dell Private Cloud, a pre-

engineered and tested infrastructure

designed to provide immediate access

to advanced private cloud capabilities.

In addition, the integrated Dell

management plug-ins help simplify

managing hardware and facilitating

rapid assimilation.

Dell VIS Creator and vStart for Dell

Private Cloud enable advanced cloud

capabilities that accelerate agility and

efficiency gains. These capabilities include

multitenancy, self-service provisioning of

assets, built-in auditing, and minimizing

virtual machine sprawl.

Different groups within an organization

often have diverse needs and varying skill

sets, and as a result they interact with

IT in different ways. Some groups may

reach out to IT for desktop or application

support, while others may issue requests

for additional assets. VIS Creator provides

multitenancy capabilities that allow IT

organizations to easily set different levels

of user interfaces. Using this capability,

administrators can provide a separate portal

for each department—for example, sales,

accounting, human resources, and IT.

One significant challenge these and

other departments may face is the delay

associated with IT asset acquisition. For

example, suppose human resources needs

to run a new application—an application

the organization has been requesting for a

long time—and needs to provision a server

to run it. The SLA from IT, however, may

specify two weeks for this acquisition. As a

result, a two-week delay is required before

the application can be mounted, tested,

and released. Dell vStart for Dell Private

Cloud avoids this kind of delay by enabling

an authorized user to select IT assets and

services from an authorized service catalog

for expedient availability. Not only does

this approach help eliminate the waiting

period specified by the SLA, but it also

helps ensure that access to the IT assets

is in line with the existing governance

rules (see Figure 2).

Organizations increasingly run IT

as a business; therefore, IT decision

makers need a way to identify end

users and address usage patterns.

This information helps ensure that

SLAs are being met cost-effectively,

without overprovisioning capacity.

Of course, external customers need to

be billed for the services they are

provided. Built-in auditing capabilities

allow authorized users of vStart for

Dell Private Cloud to quickly and easily

create reports such as those for IT

chargeback and IT showback.

As authorized end users continue to

activate virtual machine sessions to meet

their needs, there is often a tendency to

forget to end the session after the work

is done. Over time this tendency can

create life-cycle management problems,

such as virtual machine sprawl that

unnecessarily consumes resources

and affects service quality. vStart for

Dell Private Cloud can be used to

actively monitor the environment and

Figure 2. Dell vStart for Dell Private Cloud and self-service IT asset provisioning

Requisition

Provision

Manage

Retire

Businessgroups

Authorizedusers

Authentication and role-based authorization

A B C

End users

A

ABC

ResourcereservationsService

blueprints

Cost profile Cost profile

Approved

A A

Shared infrastructure

Public

Physical

Virtual

A

A

A B

B

C

B

B C

84 2012 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions

Cloud computing

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2012 Issue 2. Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

automatically shut down inactive sessions based

on preconfigured rules.

In addition, vStart for Dell Private Cloud is

designed to scale to accommodate growing

organizational needs. The infrastructure can

scale vertically—by adding server or storage

capacity—or simply by connecting additional

vStart racks. The racks connect seamlessly, and

the multirack infrastructure can be managed

through a single console. Because vStart for

Dell Private Cloud is built and supported by Dell,

organizations have a single point of contact

and accountability.

As organizations continue to evolve their

cloud strategies, a hybrid cloud computing

platform can provide other advantages. For

example, a retailer may require a dramatic rise

in capacity during the holiday season compared

to its capacity needs during the rest of the year.

Instead of carrying additional capacity year-

round, it can choose to provision capacity

for the other months and only utilize the cloud

during the holiday season for on-demand

additional capacity. A hybrid cloud provides

a combination of on-premises private cloud

and off-premises public cloud computing.

Utilizing a hybrid cloud platform can present

different challenges, particularly for managing

the off-premises public cloud. To address these

challenges, the management layer within vStart

for Dell Private Cloud enables global cloud

management. Using the same interface, an IT

administrator can manage both the on-premises

private cloud and the off-premises public cloud.

Streamlining private cloud transformation

As IT and business needs grow, increasing

numbers of organizations are gravitating

to private clouds for enhanced agility and

cost-efficiency. Effective private cloud

deployments require virtualized environments

that facilitate easy management of workloads,

efficient creation and migration of virtual

machines, and rapid delivery of enhanced

business outcomes.

Having gained considerable experience

with virtualization deployment, Dell now

offers organizations the modular Dell vStart

infrastructure prebuilt with servers, storage,

networking, cabling, management software, and

deployment services. In addition, organizations

taking the next step on their journey to the cloud

can deploy Dell vStart for Dell Private Cloud.

This racked and cabled virtualized infrastructure

is designed to deliver advanced private cloud

capabilities including automated, self-service

delivery of IT assets. vStart for Dell Private

Cloud includes Dell VIS Creator and enables

organizations to quickly and easily transform data

center operations to private clouds that offer

their employees and customers advanced IT

asset and service delivery.

Authors

Marc Stitt is senior manager,

product marketing at Dell and

leads go-to-market strategies

for virtualization and private

cloud solutions.

Deepak Kanwar is a senior

manager at Dell and supports

the Dell vStart virtualization

solution line.

Learn more

Converged infrastructure:

dell.com/vis

Dell vStart:

dell.com/vstart

Centralized, end-to-end managementRunning data centers effectively and efficiently today requires

managing both the virtual and physical infrastructures.

However, managing both infrastructures can be complex

because it typically requires using multiple, disconnected

tools and processes. Time-consuming management can also

take away valuable time IT professionals could otherwise be

devoting to projects that advance the strategic business and

organizational agenda.

The Dell Management Plug-In for VMware vCenter offers

a native plug-in for the VMware® vCenter™ management

platform. It streamlines access to the tools and the tasks

associated with managing and deploying Dell PowerEdge™

servers in a VMware virtualization environment. The Dell

Management Plug-In for VMware vCenter is designed to

reduce complexity, speed deployment, and minimize the

risk of introducing errors or not keeping system BIOS and

firmware up to date.

Dell vStart for Dell Private Cloud includes the Dell

Management Plug-In for VMware vCenter, which provides

management capabilities for vStart components through a

single vCenter console. To learn more about the plug-in, visit

dell.com/vcenterplugin.

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>> Scan the QR code or visit http://qrs.ly/761q34l to read the article.

#1Data Warehouse

Copyright © 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Source: IDC, “Worldwide Data Warehouse Platform Software 2010 Vendor Shares,” IDC #229498, July 2011; Table 5, (Data Warehouse Management Software). Vendor share based on software license and maintenance revenue.

oracle.com/datawarehouseor call 1.800.ORACLE.1

0 10 20 30 40 50

Oracle 40.5%

IBM 22.5%

Microsoft 16.5%

Teradata 11.8%

Worldwide Vendor Share