Dell extends data center line for virtualization

LAS VEGAS -- At the Interop trade show this week, Dell will expand its networking, server and storage product lines to help users migrate from legacy data centers to those more heavily reliant on virtualization.

For networks, Dell will unveil a blade switch, standalone switches, wireless controllers and access points.

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The blade switch is the PowerConnect M8024-k. The switch allows users to provision multiple vNICs with a server, each with a different service level. The M8024-k supports up to 24 ports of 10 Gigabit Ethernet with backward compatibility to Gigabit Ethernet networks, Dell says.

Standalone switches include a series of data center edge devices OEMed from Brocade. Included is the PowerConnect B-TI24x, a 10G Ethernet switch featuring 24 dual-speed ports to allow customers to migrate from 1G to 10G.

The PowerConnect B-FCX and B-FCXs series are top-of-rack Gigabit Ethernet switches featuring auto-configuration to reduce deployment time and effort. The switches support stacking of up to eight switches, manageable as a single, logical unit, Dell says.

The PowerConnect B-FCoE 1024 blade delivers 24 ports of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connectivity for the PowerConnect B-DCX 4S Director Chassis, enabling SAN and LAN traffic over a converged fabric. FCoE is an ANSI standard for converging FibreChannel storage traffic over a lossless Ethernet fabric.

For wireless, Dell rolled out a controller and access point OEMed from Aruba. The PowerConnect W-6000 chassis and controller module are designed to deliver centralized management for large campus environments of up to 2,048 access points and more than 30,000 mobile users.

The PowerConnect W-AP175P access point is designed to withstand harsh environments, such as outdoors, and in warehouses, container and transportation facilities.

New servers include the PowerEdge M915, a full-height four- or two-socket AMD-based blade for I/O scalability and performance. The blade server features up to 512GB of RAM deployable in 32 DIMM slots, and up to 48 cores of processing for virtual machines.

It features redundant memory capacity with two SAS or SSD hot-swappable hard drives, and an optional Dell PowerEdge Failsafe Hypervisor. The server sports up to two dual-port adapter cards and up to four additional mezzanine-card options.

Dell is also unveiling a "switch-independent" NIC partitioning technology, designed to allow users to partition a 10G Ethernet port into as many as four NICs totaling 10G.

For storage, Dell rolled out the DX Object Storage Platform. This system is designed to help customers access, store, protect and distribute fixed digital content.

A key component of the DX platforms is the DX6000G, a protocol gateway for applications that utilize common file-based networking protocols to interact and archive content with the DX OSP.

The Dell PowerConnect M8024-k Ethernet switch, B-series and W-series are shipping now, with pricing starting at $11,259, $4,945 and $4,463, respectively. The Dell PowerEdge M915 blade server costs $3,500 and will be available May 24.

The Dell DX Object Storage Platform pricing starts at $20,882 and is available immediately in Europe and North America.

Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.