Dell EMC Introduces the VxBlock System 1000 and Sets a Path for

January 2018, IDC #US43477618

White Paper

Dell EMC Introduces the VxBlock System 1000 and Sets a Path

for the Future of Enterprise Converged Systems

Sponsored by: Dell EMC

Eric Sheppard

January 2018

IN THIS WHITE PAPER

This IDC white paper provides a brief update on the converged systems market and an overview of Dell

EMC's recent VxBlock System 1000 announcement.

SITUATION OVERVIEW

There are many well-known technologies that have driven substantial benefits within the datacenter

over the years. Technologies like server virtualization, for example, have helped drive considerable

savings by enabling better infrastructure utilization rates and higher levels of application resiliency.

Converged systems represent another area of datacenter innovation that has been helping companies

achieve new levels of cost reduction, operational efficiencies, and better alignment of IT processes

with business-centric needs.

Technology suppliers have been offering converged system solutions for nearly a decade. The

adoption of converged systems has grown quickly during this time to become a multibillion-dollar

market. Total spending on converged systems reached $13.1 billion during the 12 months ending June

30, 2017. This represented 4.5% growth over the previous year, which is a striking rate when

compared with the 2.4% decline experienced within the combined external storage and enterprise

server markets during the same period. Clearly, converged systems are driving real benefits within the

datacenter, and the broad shift of infrastructure investments toward converged systems can be seen

as a clear indication of their effectiveness.

While the architecture of converged systems has evolved considerably over the years, the benefits

these solutions offer have remained unchanged. Specifically, converged systems provide a tight

integration between core datacenter infrastructure (storage, compute, and networking) while offering

centralized management and increased levels of automation. Converged systems are driving higher

levels of efficiency, agility, and resiliency for a vast number of companies around the world, which is

solidifying their place as a critical component of a modern datacenter.

Overview of Dell EMC's Converged Systems Business and

Updates to VxBlock

Dell EMC's portfolio of converged solutions goes back to the very early days of the converged systems

market. The company had shown a prescient understanding of a growing need to improve operational

simplicity related to datacenter infrastructure. Dell EMC's early move within the converged systems

market, combined with the status of the company as a trusted global supplier of datacenter

infrastructure, has resulted in a leadership position. Indeed, Dell EMC's converged systems business

accounted for more than 30% of the $13.1 billion in sales during the 12 months ending June 30, 2017.

Dell EMC's current portfolio of converged systems offers a broad set of solutions able to support a

diverse set of datacenter environments. The bulk of this business has traditionally come from the

VxBlock Systems. Each VxBlock is a complete "datacenter" system that enables companies to

procure, deploy, manage, scale, and refresh core datacenter infrastructure as a single system. Dell

EMC designs, tests, and fully integrates each VxBlock System before it ships. All VxBlock solutions

are designed to greatly reduce the time IT staff spend on low-value, high-risk infrastructure

management tasks such as system maintenance, configuration management, change management,

provisioning, and patching.

Dell EMC has traditionally offered VxBlock as distinct systems (examples are the VxBlock System 350,

VxBlock System 540, and VxBlock System 740) and a set of "Converged Technology Extensions,"

which provide additional capabilities to VxBlock environments (an example is adding scale-out NAS

with Dell EMC Isilon). As noted previously, all VxBlock Systems simplify IT by seamlessly integrating

compute, network, storage, and virtualization technologies from Dell EMC (storage), Cisco (compute

and networking), and VMware (virtualization) into one integrated system. The fundamental difference

between the VxBlock models is the unique storage technologies, each with enterprise data services,

performance, and scale for diverse workload and business requirements. The result has been the

following portfolio of VxBlock Systems that support a wide range of all-flash and hybrid flash/HDD

technologies:

 VxBlock System 350: Leverages Dell EMC Unity storage for midmarket requirements of

general-purpose workloads

 VxBlock System 540: Leverages Dell EMC XtremIO storage targeting data reduction and

copy-friendly workflows such as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and DevOps environments

 VxBlock System 740: Leverages Dell EMC VMAX systems to deliver enterprise-grade

availability and data services that are required for large-scale mixed workload consolidation

and mission-critical applications

Dell EMC's ability to fully integrate multiple storage systems into a portfolio of VxBlock solutions has

ensured maximum choice and flexibility for customers of Dell EMC's converged systems and has been

an important part of the company's success within the converged systems market. That said, the

converged systems market is rapidly changing. While IDC Business Value research clearly shows

VxBlock Systems have driven real operational and cost benefits to the customers of Dell EMC, the

company has been working to drive deeper integration of its converged system solutions in a way that

further increases operational simplicity and improves flexibility without a reduction in business agility.

VxBlock Updates: New Levels of Operational Simplicity and Flexibility

Dell EMC has worked with thousands of converged systems customers over the years and has

become well attuned to the needs of IT teams leveraging solutions like its portfolio of VxBlock

Systems. The company has made use of this knowledge to rethink how its VxBlock converged

systems are designed and packaged. Dell EMC has announced updates to its VxBlock product family

with the following goals in mind:

 Simplify the portfolio of VxBlock Systems by moving from multiple models to a single VxBlock

System capable of supporting all workloads and business requirements.

 Support efficient scaling of performance and capacity by allowing customers to mix multiple

types of enterprise servers and storage within a single VxBlock System that can start small

and scale independently as needed.

 Improve agility by providing adaptive pools of resources that can be apportioned to a diverse

set of workload profiles and adjusted to meet changing workload and business requirements.

 Simplify life-cycle management–related tasks through a single upgrade and patching process

for all technologies within the system.

Dell EMC VxBlock 1000: Further Reducing Complexity While Adding Flexibility

Dell EMC's newly announced VxBlock System 1000 consolidates and expands on the capabilities of

the three separate VxBlock Systems and Converged Technology Extensions highlighted previously in

this white paper. Previously, Dell EMC converged infrastructure relied on a portfolio of VxBlock

Systems, each tuned for specific sets of workload requirements; now, a single VxBlock 1000 supports

pools of heterogeneous resources capable of addressing a wide range of performance, capacity, and

resiliency requirements.

It's important to note that the VxBlock 1000 will continue to leverage the same proven enterprise

servers, storage, and networking as its predecessors, including next-generation versions of those

technologies. The current technologies include (the VxBlock 1000 supports a mix/combination of

technologies within one system):

 Dell EMC VMAX Storage Systems: VMAX 250F and 950F

 Dell EMC XtremIO: XtremIO X2S and X2R

 Dell EMC Unity Storage Systems: Dell EMC Unity 350F, 450F, 550F, and 650F

 Dell EMC Isilon Storage Systems: Isilon F800 all flash; H600, H500, and H400 hybrid flash;

and the A200 and A2000 archival arrays

 Cisco UCS generation 3 servers: A mix of M4, M5 blade, and rackmount servers that

customers can deploy

 Cisco Nexus and MDS SAN switches: High-performance, high-density, and high-capacity

9000 series LAN and SAN switches and related fiber interconnect and extender components

 Dell EMC Data Protection: Integrated data protection options that include Dell EMC

NetWorker, Avamar, Data Domain, RecoverPoint, and VPLEX

New System Architecture for Expanded Use Cases and Operational Simplicity

The VxBlock 1000 architecture, combined with denser storage technologies and higher-performance

network bandwidth, yields higher overall capacity and datacenter efficiencies than previous VxBlock

Systems.

For example, with further room to grow, a single 14-cabinet VxBlock 1000 can provide the equivalent

of a previous-generation 6-system, 34-cabinet solution consisting of 264 servers and

33.1 PB of mixed

storage technologies for production and archiving.

In this example, the new single system reduces:

 Datacenter footprint by 59%

 Power costs by 33%



Network switch inventory by 70%



Management hardware and software by 83%

 Time for life cycle management (release upgrades) by 75%

Previously, when a VxBlock System's storage reached capacity, users have deployed one or more

additional VxBlock Systems and split workloads between them. While this met business requirements,

this essentially doubled system administration and may have left some resources (such as servers) in

the first VxBlock underutilized.

To mix different types of storage technologies for mixed data services within the same previous-

generation VxBlock System, users would add a Converged Technology Extension cabinet with the

new type of storage. The Converged Technology Extension cabinet would have included additional

LAN and or SAN switches, plus the storage components.

The VxBlock 1000 further reduces infrastructure cost and administrative complexity with its native

support for mixed technologies and by eliminating the requirements for additional LAN and SAN

switches.

Next-Generation Management Platform for Efficient Scaling and Embedded

Data Protection

All VxBlock Systems include a management infrastructure called the advanced management platform

(AMP). The AMP is where core VxBlock virtualization, management, and monitoring software (e.g.,

VMware vCenter, Dell EMC Vision Intelligent Operations, and Cisco UCS Manager) and optional

software like data protection, security, and other system management tools run.

The VxBlock 1000 leverages a completely refreshed advanced management platform, referred to as

the AMP-VX. The new AMP-VX runs the same virtualization, management, and monitoring software as

previously stated but now supports far greater VxBlock scaling than previous generations. Previously,

each VxBlock System required a dedicated AMP. Thus multiple VxBlock Systems were managed

through multiple VxBlock AMPs. The new scale-out AMP-VX architecture can manage up to eight

systems using the same centralized software, including management for compute, storage, network,

and virtualization components; Dell EMC Vision software for a holistic view of the entire system and for

simplifying release upgrades and patches; and VMware vRealize Log Analytics for supporting incident

and problem resolution. AMP-VX is also easily scaled to support optional third-party tools for

orchestration and automation, such as

Cisco UCS Central, Cisco UCS Director and VMware vRealize

Automation.

Dell EMC is also leveraging the powerful scale-out resources of VxBlock AMP-VX to host data

protection software for VxBlock environments, providing customers with a singular platform to manage

their converged systems data protection environments. The base AMP-VX configuration includes Dell

EMC Avamar Virtual Edition software, while the Data Domain 2200 (24TB) appliance is optional for

backing up the management software workloads themselves. The AMP-VX can also host Dell EMC

Data Protection for Converged Infrastructure to address production workloads.

Simplified Life-Cycle Management with a Single Upgrade Process

One of the most important benefits of Dell EMC's converged systems comes from the company's

commitment to "life-cycle assurance" by providing fully tested software updates that cover a

customer's entire VxBlock System. This requires compliance with Dell EMC's Release Certification

Matrix (RCM), which constitutes a full matrix of approved components and configurations.

Dell EMC consistently tests all components' firmware and hypervisor upgrades and patches together

to ensure interoperability and system integrity before issuing the components to customers throughout

the life of VxBlock Systems. While the RCM eliminates much of the traditional risks of making changes

in infrastructure, the number of component and configuration permutations can make updates and

patches complex without the proper support. As such, customers of Dell EMC's converged solutions

have always placed a very high value on the company's promise of "life-cycle assurance" through Dell

EMC's RCM documentation, Vision software for life-cycle management, and customer support and

services.

In the past, customers often had to manage multiple RCMs, each related to a specific VxBlock model’s

unique set of technologies, each optimized for different workloads’ data services requirements. A

variety of new technologies could be directly added to an individual VxBlock System via Converged

Technology Extensions, but these introduced additional RCMs to the system. With the VxBlock 1000

supporting multiple storage and compute technologies all in one system, only one unified RCM

(upgrade process) is required. The benefit is clear: One upgrade process to manage versus multiple

processes means managing upgrades is simpler and faster and requires less resources.

Last, IDC notes that Dell EMC is also improving how customers can access their specific RCM. The

RCM from Dell EMC is going from a static document to a dynamic online searchable database. This

will further simplify the whole life-cycle management approach.

CHALLENGES

Companies around the world have invested a total of $49.9 billion on converged systems over the past

five-and-a-half years. The driving forces behind the adoption of enterprise converged systems have

changed several times since these solutions first surfaced nearly a decade ago. Very early adoption of

converged systems was driven by companies looking for a platform to consolidate virtual environments

that expanded to take up vast amounts of datacenter space. Demand for converged systems then

shifted to environments looking for a solution that could provide new levels of operational simplicity

and agility while helping reduce risk related to life-cycle management. This remains a critical driver of

adoption today, but we now see a sharp increase in the use of converged systems as a platform for

digital transformation and on-premise private clouds. These most recent sources of demand for

converged systems represent a new challenge for industry stakeholders. While digital transformation

and private cloud implementations look set to drive the next wave of datacenter convergence, such

projects are likely to be far more complex and challenging than past market drivers. Technology

suppliers that want to help customers through this shift will need to show that they understand the

changes driving the need for foundational transformation and intend to be a true partner throughout the

journey.

CONCLUSION

It's difficult to overstate the amount of effort Dell EMC has put into the design and continued support of

enterprise converged systems. Converged systems like VxBlock 1000 offload the complexity and risk

associated with managing enterprise-grade datacenter infrastructure so that IT teams can confidently

focus on higher-value projects/tasks. The company does this, in part, by taking on the considerable

burden of fully integrating all aspects of datacenter infrastructure (compute, storage, networking,

virtualization and management software, and applications). The enormous resources and ongoing

efforts required to bring enterprise-grade converged systems to market need a true commitment to the

technology and a deep belief in the benefits convergence brings to the datacenter. IDC believes that

Dell EMC has demonstrated such commitment since helping launch this market nearly a decade ago.

As proof, we point to the fact that a very large percentage of Dell EMC's converged systems customers

have been running mission-critical applications for many years. Many industry stakeholders simply

assume this is true because the core infrastructure of a VxBlock (e.g., Dell EMC Unity, VMAX,

XtremIO, Cisco UCS, and Cisco networking) is a proven platform for the most demanding

environments in the world. While such an assumption is certainly true, it overlooks the faith Dell EMC

customers have in the company's commitment to converged systems. Over the years, IDC has talked

with countless customers of Dell EMC converged systems. A common theme within almost all these

conversations is a view of Dell EMC as a trusted partner that will support their datacenter environment

for many years to come. Most would simply not have chosen to run their most important and mission-

critical applications on Dell EMC's converged systems if they weren't 100% sure that the company was

fully committed to datacenter convergence and to committing the considerable resource needed to

support these systems for years to come.

If the striking market share of Dell EMC within the converged systems market points to the trust

datacenters around the world have placed in the company's converged solutions to date, its recent

VxBlock 1000 announcements highlighted previously should stand as proof that it remains fully

committed to datacenter convergence.

About IDC

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