Dell has created a private cloud that isn’t actually a private cloud – but will let users create private clouds built on software stacks from VMware, Nutanix, and Red Hat.
The subscription service gives users access to “validated blueprints” for private clouds, which we’re told can be deployed to whatever Dell servers and storage are to hand. It’s possible to use a pool of Dell kit to run one or more of the supported stacks. Different private clouds can’t co-exist on a single node, but the tool will let them co-exist across a server and storage fleet – all with central management.
Dell claims creating a new private cloud will require 90 percent fewer steps than doing so with other tools, and that new environments will be up and running in two-and-a-half hours. The “Dell Automation Platform” makes this possible, we’re told.
Michael Dell’s server shop developed this because it believes hyperconverged infrastructure is largely tied to a single hypervisor, while three-tier architectures remain complex. Dell is trying to offer the best of both worlds by speeding deployment of private clouds and offering “full lifecycle management.”
Users can either bring their own licenses or acquire them through Dell. Intriguingly, only VMware vSphere – and not the VMware Cloud Foundation that Broadcom favors – is available on Dell Private Cloud today. Other templates will follow in the second half of the year.
Analyst Keith Townsend saw a preview of the Dell Automation Platform and described it on LinkedIn as “a young vision for modular infrastructure between private cloud stacks,” suggesting it “highlights the journey in decoupling from the VMware stack.”
For what it’s worth, Dell prefers to call this “disaggregated infrastructure.”
Dell has also had a crack at automating the edge, with tools to deliver policy-based load balancing, plus snapshots, backup, and migration capabilities for VMs. Interestingly, the “Dell Native Edge” can be applied to the company’s own hardware, or boxes from rival vendors.
The edgy and private cloud offerings were announced at the company’s annual Dell Technologies World conference, which opened this week with announcements of new AI-focused hardware.
As you’d expect, Dell ensured its servers are ready to run in the most recent configurations required to earn Nvidia’s “AI Factory” seal of approval, and to use the latest accelerators from Nvidia and AMD.
To keep that kit cool, Dell has developed the “PowerCool Enclosed Rear Door Heat Exchanger,” which it claims can reduce cooling energy costs by 60 percent. The company has also cooked up an “integrated rack controller” that offers “real-time thermal monitoring and unified management of all rack-level components.” Among the tool’s tricks is “advanced leak detection” – as liquid cooling gradually grows more popular.
Another tasty announcement is Dell Pro Max Plus, a laptop that packs a Qualcomm AI 100 PC Inference Card that features 32 AI cores. Dell bills it as capable of running 109-billion-parameter models that most users currently run in the cloud. Nvidia makes similar claims about its DGX Spark AI workstations. ®
