Dell upgrades performance, energy efficiency of quad-socket servers; drives enhanced management across PowerEdge line

Dell today enhanced its quad-socket servers with performance-boosting, power-saving 64-bit dual-core Intel Xeon 7100 sequence processors and system management software to simplify data centre operations.

Dell PowerEdge 6800 and PowerEdge 6850 servers featuring the new processors can deliver a performance increase of up to 143% while consuming up to 40% less power.

To reduce data centre complexity, Dell OpenManage now delivers improved hardware deployment, monitoring and management with Dell IT Assistant 8.0. The enhanced systems management capabilities and tight partner integration are designed to give customers greater flexibility, security and control over their server environments.

EMC Navisphere integration in Dell OpenManage IT Assistant 8.0 brings unparalleled management capabilities and reduced complexity to users - allowing customers to monitor system checks and provide status reports through a central console. The secure, easy-to-use Web-based management tool simplifies storage provisioning and meets customers' unrelenting storage needs. As it uses a familiar Microsoft Windows Explorer-style interface that is browser-based, there is no need for extensive training, helping businesses to future-proof their investments effectively.

These powerful, standards-based servers are designed for demanding enterprise applications such as database, server consolidation, virtualisation and migration from costly RISC-based systems.

The combination of scalability, availability, hardware-assisted virtualisation (Intel VT), and Hyper-Threading technology can provide the headroom and optimisation required to handle applications in virtualised environments.

The quad-socket PowerEdge servers can be configured with large 16MB cache processors to efficiently handle large data-blocks typical in database environments. Customers can realise benefits from the quad-socket, dual-core processor speeds, 800MHz Front Side Bus and Hyper-Threading technology available on PowerEdge 6800 and 6850 servers for applications that take advantage of processor-intensive performance.

The Dell OpenManage product family, coupled with tightly integrated partner solutions for enhanced management, provides a comprehensive selection of deployment, monitoring and change-management tools for Dell hardware.

The availability of Dell IT Assistant 8.0 reflects Dell's strategy to improve hardware management capabilities, allowing IT managers to reduce complexity in their data centre environments, while also providing a high degree of flexibility and choice of management tools for Dell servers.

Dell IT Assistant 8.0 provides more comprehensive hardware management capabilities from a centralised console including:

* Agent-less server management using IPMI - Customers can manage Dell servers with IT Assistant 8.0 using the standard IPMI 2.0 management controller provided without loading an agent on the server.
* Performance management - Monitoring, alerting and reporting of server performance statistics such as CPU, pages I/O, disk free space, disk I/O, and NIC traffic.
* Enhanced deployment/change management - Gives customers the ability to push OMSA agents to Windows servers.
* Additional device support - for Dell printers, Dell|EMC storage and PowerVault tape libraries, allows customers to minimise their management tool set while maintaining overall control of a wider variety of IT devices.

Customers buying Dell's newest PowerEdge servers can also benefit from Platinum Plus, Dell's highest level of enterprise support. Platinum Plus provides reliability and global consistency for customers with business-critical needs. It includes the industry's first Operations Performance Benchmarking feature, a patent-pending methodology that allows customers to routinely compare critical IT performance metrics to historical results and similarly configured environments. Platinum Plus also includes the Enterprise Command Centre Real-Time Tracking Window, a Web-enabled feature to provide customers a virtual Enterprise Command Centre to follow ongoing support activities.

Platinum Plus is the culmination of more than a $200 million investment in enterprise support over several years. In addition to Platinum Plus, Dell offers all levels of enterprise support with Gold, Silver and Basic. For more information, visit www.dell.co.za.

"The improvements in performance and power consumption in our PowerEdge 6800 and PowerEdge 6850 are outstanding and represent another great step in delivering our most comprehensive set of enterprise products ever," said Doug Downing, Enterprise Brand Manager, Dell SA. "These servers, combined with our recently announced ninth-generation of PowerEdge products, Services and the enhanced ITA 8.0 - leveraging EMC's Navisphere software - accelerate our drive to deliver technology that customers value when it comes to price-performance, reduced complexity and performance per watt."

The PowerEdge 6800 and PowerEdge 6850 with 64-bit dual-core Intel Xeon 7100 sequence processors are available today worldwide and priced from R38 330 and R41 275 respectively in South Africa. Prices exclude VAT and delivery. Additional information is available at www.dell.co.za.