Intel’s Jason Waxman on Sandy Bridge, Atom and our new Intel-based Microserver

March 24, 2011

World Hosting Days is going on right now outside of Frankfurt and our group is using this event to debut our new PowerEdge C microservers.  These new microservers, which come in both Intel and AMD flavors, are right-sized for dedicated hosting applications and provide extreme density and efficiency.

Yesterday, we got a shout out during AMD’s session and today Jason Waxman of Intel had kind words for our PowerEdge C5220 microserver during his talk.  Jason is Intel’s General Manager, High Density Computing, Data Center Group and this morning he delivered the session, “Driving efficiency, security and simplicity across next generation cloud data centers.”

In the short segment above from Jason’s talk, he spends the first couple of minutes on Intel’s power efficient processors such as the Sandy Bridge Xeon and Atom chips.  At the 2:20 mark he switches gears and talks about our new PowerEdge C5220 and how it has been designed with hosters in mind.

Jason stops by our booth

After he got through speaking, Jason stopped by the Dell booth and did a quick video talking specifically about the PowerEdge C5220 and what he really likes about it.

Extra-credit reading

Pau for now…

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

Live from World Hosting Days – AMD’s John Freuhe talks about the AMD based PowerEdge C systems

March 23, 2011

This week, outside of Frankfurt, WorldHostingDays is taking place.  A whole delegation of folks from the Data Center Solutions group is there to support the announcement of our new microserver line.   A lot of our key partners are there as well.  One such partner is AMD.

Earlier today, AMD director of product marketing John Fruehe held a session entitled “Core Scalability in a cloud environment.”  Above is a three minute section where John talks about the three AMD-based systems that are part of the PowerEdge C line:

  • The PowerEdge C5125 microserver which we announced yesterday
  • The PowerEdge C6105 optimized for performance per watt per dollar.
  • The PowerEdge C6145 our HPC monster machine

Take a listen as John walks you through the products and their use cases.

Extra-credit reading

Pau for now…

2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

A Walk-thru of our new Hyper-scale inspired Microserver

March 22, 2011

Earlier this morning at WorldHostingDays outside of Frankfurt, we announced our new line of PowerEdge C microservers.  While this is our third generation of microservers, its the first that are available beyond the custom designed systems we’ve been building for a small group of hyperscale web hosters.

If you’re not familiar with microservers, their big appeal is that they are right-sized for many dedicated hosting applications and provide extreme density and efficiency, all of which drive up a data center’s revenue per square foot.  As an example, our first generation allowed one of France’s largest hosters, Online.net to efficiently enter a new market and gain double digit market share.

To see exactly what these systems are all about, check out this short walk thru by Product Manager Deania Davidson.  The system that Deania is showing off is the AMD-based PowerEdge C5125 which will be available next month.  Also announced today is the Intel-based PowerEdge C5220 which will be out in May.

Extra-credit reading

Pau for now…

4 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

DCS Microserver allows French hoster to enter new market (and grab big market share)

March 21, 2011

Online.net, owned by the Iliad group, is the second largest hoster in the French market.  The company had traditionally been focused on the higher end of the dedicated hosting market with services starting at 29.99 euro/month and predominantly based on Dell’s rack mounted servers.  About three years ago they began exploring the possibility of providing a lighter weight entry-level offering targeted at SMBs.

Online engaged Dell’s Data Center Solutions (DCS) group and the two teams began brainstorming around system designs to meet the needs of this new segment.  The design that DCS came up with was the Via processor-based microserver the Dell X511-VX8, code name“Fortuna” (please note I had nothing to do with the official naming of this product :)). The system handles one OS and app per server, has one 1 CPU per server and features 12 servers per chassis.

Online.net's "START" line of offerings, beginning with the microserver enabled, Dedibox SC.

Thanks to these ultra cost-efficient systems, Online was able to provide SMB customers with an entry-level offering at half the price of their next lowest product.  Not only that but this new offering allowed Online to grab significant share in the French market.

Tres tres cool et tres tres (geek) chic

If you want to see the Dell X511-VX8 in action or take a tour of Online’s datacenter and operations, all set to chill house music, check out the video below.  (The rows and rows of X511s appear at the 1:40 mark and go until 2:40.  You can also see a quick overview of one of the microservers themselves at the 4:36 mark).

Beyond the Dell X511-VX8

The success that Online had with the X511 gave DCS insight into the potential of the microserver market.  Based on the concepts that came from the work with Online.net, DCS created a follow-on offering, code-named “Viking,” for our custom accounts.

This too was a big success, so much so that we will soon be taking this experience even broader as we look to announce our third generation microserver.

Stay tuned!

Extra-credit reading

Pau for now…

3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

Intel, Dell and Microservers

March 17, 2011

Microservers are a class of scaled-out systems that Dell’s Data Center Solutions group has been designing for customers for the last several years.  These ultra-dense systems are made up of up to twelve discrete servers within one enclosure and are perfect for dedicated web hosting and telco customers.

With a little help from our friends

Take a listen to Intel’s director of cloud marketing, Raejeanne Skillern as she talks about how Intel’s been involved in this space and how the two companies have worked together in the microserver space in the past and what we may have up our sleeves.

Some of the ground Raejeanne covers

  • How, over the last few years, Intel has been investigating customer requirements in this space and investing in technology.
  • Working on delivering standards
  • How Dell and Intel have worked together
  • Keep your eyes peeled for something coming in the PowerEdge C space

Extra-credit reading:

Pau for now…

2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

And on the other end of the spectrum — Microservers

February 16, 2011

Monday I wrote about the announcement of our mega-beefy, 96-core PowerEdge C6145 server, specifically geared to customers solving big problems involving huge and complex data sets in mapping, visualization, simulations and rendering.

At the other end of the spectrum however are customers, such as those offering low-end dedicated hosting solutions, who are looking for systems with only enough processing and storage to serve up straight-forward, focused applications such as those for serving up webpages, streaming video etc.  These “right-sized” systems are referred to as “micro” or “light weight” servers.

Take a listen to Data Center Solutions marketing director Drew Schulke below as he explains the origin of the microserver and walks you through our second generation offering in this space.

Some of the area Drew covers:

  • How did Dell get into the microserver market 2-3 years ago
  • How the progression of Moore’s law caused processing power to out strip the needs of many applications.
  • A walk through of our second generation microserver which packs 12 single socket servers into one 3Uenclosure.

We will continue to be making noise in this space.  Be sure to tune in next time as our topic will be a mini “case study” on Dell’s first generation microserver deployed at a large hoster in France.

Extra-credit reading:

Pau for now…

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Barton George

%d bloggers like this: