ROUND ROCK, Texas Businesses and public organizations are increasingly seeking to improve virtualization performance, speed resource consolidation and support mission-critical business and database applications. Dell is ending their quest with four new PowerEdge servers capable of tackling the toughest computing environments while easing the migration from proprietary UNIX deployments. This announcement falls on the heels of Dell refreshing nine PowerEdge blade, rack and tower servers and three Dell Precision™ workstations with Intel Xeon 5600 series Westmere processors.

�With the latest X86 refresh from both Intel and AMD, the performance advantages of RISC-based UNIX servers continues to diminish�

Incredible Performance & Flexibility Dell's Latest PowerEdge Servers

Based on industry standards and the x86 architecture, the latest PowerEdge offerings help customers reap the benefits of the “Virtual Era” in an open, capable and affordable manner. The new PowerEdge servers include:

• PowerEdge R910: The PowerEdge R910 is an ideal platform for RISC/UNIX migrations, large database deployments and server virtualization implementations. This 4U rack server is available with a high-performance four-socket Intel Nehalem-EX processor, up to 64 DIMM slots for memory, redundant power supplies and a failsafe embedded hypervisor to give customers the performance, reliability and memory scalability they need to run mission critical applications.
• PowerEdge M910: A high-performance four-socket Intel Xeon 7500 based blade server, the PowerEdge M910 is best suited for customers looking to maximize the advantages of server virtualization and consolidation or for use as a medium or large database platform. This full-height blade can scale up to 512GB of RAM across 32 DIMM slots.
• PowerEdge R810: The PowerEdge R810 is best suited for customers looking to consolidate server hardware through virtualization and deploy email messaging and database applications. The 2U offering is available in high-density two- or four-socket varieties and is powered by Intel Nehalem-EX processing technology. Through advances in memory management, up to 32 memory DIMM slots can be accessed by just two low cost processors, enabling it to manage four socket workloads.
• PowerEdge R815: Ideal for virtualization, high-performance computing, email messaging, and database workloads, the PowerEdge R815 powered by AMD Opteron processors offers customers an excellent balance of memory scalability of up to 32 DIMMs with the ability to deploy up to 48 processing cores. This four-socket, 2U solution is ideal for customers seeking a capable and affordable computing platform.

Delivering Innovative, Differentiated Server Platforms

Dell PowerEdge servers are designed to drive greater efficiency within IT operations through robust management, virtualization and design advancements. The Dell PowerEdge R910 offers up to 219 percent better SPECjbb2005 performance than the previous generation PowerEdge R900, and the Dell PowerEdge R815 performs up to 75 percent better SPECjbb2005 than the previous generation PowerEdge R905¹.

• FlexMemory Bridge Technology: Dell’s FlexMemory Bridge technology is designed to give users the added flexibility to select 2-socket PowerEdge blade and rack servers while accessing to up to 32 DIMM slots for outstanding memory scalability. The end result is that customers can receive expanded memory capacity without paying a premium price.
• “Fail-Safe” Virtualization: Dell was one of the first companies to offer an embedded hypervisor, helping speed the deployment and operation of virtualization. Now Dell has taken an extra step to offer dual embedded hypervisors to help give customers the added security of a redundant hypervisor. This feature can provide customers peace of mind as they expand and increase the number of virtual machines running on an individual server.
• Intelligent Infrastructure: Dell is driving intelligence into its server platforms with the availability of Lifecycle Controller, an embedded systems management application. Lifecycle Controller provides IT administrators with a single console view of their entire IT infrastructure while performing a comprehensive set of provisioning functions including system deployment, system updates, hardware configuration and diagnostics.

Dell Helps Customers Migrate from Proprietary UNIX Deployments

The latest Dell PowerEdge servers provide an ideal platform for RISC/UNIX server migration, and Dell is helping customers move to an x86 architecture in a flexible and affordable manner. The Dell PowerEdge R810 server² for example, can delivers up to 74 percent lower Total Cost of Ownership TCO than the SUN SPARC Enterprise T5240 servers³.

In addition, recent research from IDC indicates that customers are adopting x86 computing architectures at the expense of RISC/UNIX server platforms. According to IDC, UNIX servers experienced an 18.1 percent revenue decline year over year when compared with 4Q 2008. Additionally, IDC’s Server Workload Analysis from 2000 to 2008 showed x86 server growth for Business Processing Mission Critical and Decision Support Mission Critical applications, two traditional areas for UNIX implementations, have grown 595 percent and 203 percent respectively⁴. As a result Dell is focusing on providing customers with a seamless transition path to an x86 architecture.

“With the latest X86 refresh from both Intel and AMD, the performance advantages of RISC-based UNIX servers continues to diminish,” said Matthew Eastwood, group vice president, Enterprise Platforms Group for IDC. “Dell, like other server vendors, is poised to take advantage of this trend by offering not only a compelling price/performance ratio but by also providing a robust portfolio of RISC migration services.”

New RISC Migration Services

Dell is also providing customers with a wide range of a la carte RISC migration services including workshops, readiness assessment, design, transition and implementation. These services can help customers obtain a better ROI by examining ways to reduce system maintenance, software licensing, staffing and energy usage costs with a migration from RISC/UNIX to Dell’s PowerEdge solutions.

Customer Quotes:

“The Dell PowerEdge R810 and R910 servers allow Tata Communications to offer our Managed Hosting Services customers the compute performance of the leading RISC platforms at a mainstream x86 cost of ownership. Our customers, particularly those using computer virtualization for server consolidation, will be pleased with the dramatically improved cost and performance per watt and per dollar.”—Thomas Davies, Director of Datacenter Services, Tata Communications

“With the Dell PowerEdge R910 server, we got both energy efficiency and performance. Our server infrastructure has to be powerful enough to run 3D computer-aided design CAD and engineering software, and with 32 cores, the R910 handles it with ease.”—Mahesh Neelekanta, IT Manager, College of Science and Engineering, Florida Atlantic University

About Dell

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Intel and Xeon are registered trademarks for Intel Corp. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document 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.

¹Source: Based on SPECjbb2005 performance testing by Dell Labs in March 2010. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability. For latest SPECjbb2005 benchmark results, visit www.spec.org.

²Assumes a 42u rack filled with 21 Dell PowerEdge R810 rack servers, which are each 2u tall operated over 3 years, compared with a performance-equivalent configuration of 46 Sun SPARC Enterprise T5240 servers.

³Source: Principled Technologies, Inc., TCO Comparison: 2 Processor Dell and SUN Servers;” a March 2010 report commissioned by Dell. Actual performance will vary with configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.