From today customers can build their own Converged Infrastructure systems by using Dell EMC Ready Stack blueprints. Previously this option was available for channel partners only.
Dell EMC has also given the VxBlock 1000 CI kit pre-built for customers a makeover.
Once upon a time, customers typically built systems using a large set of components – servers, storage arrays, interface cards, power supplies, network switches and a whole bunch of software. That meant relying on multiple vendors for support and management.
Then CI systems such as EMC’s VBlocks came along. These ready-built systems integrated Cisco servers and networking and EMC storage components into a single system from one manufacturer – VCE. There was a single management scheme and one support throat to choke. These products evolved into the VXBlock line.
NetApp introduced FlexPods combining NetApp storage and Cisco servers and networking products in a reference architecture product. Channel partners could build these and they were seen as a kind of CI-lite system.
Stacked up
Now Dell EMC has launched Ready Stack systems. They are called validated designs instead of reference architectures but the idea is the same: to give a blueprint for building systems by integrating components, all from Dell Technologies, that work together.
The company supplies blueprints for three systems.
- Dell EMC PowerEdge MX servers and PowerMax storage plus VMware software combined into an Infrastructure-as-a-Service system
- PowerEdge gen 4 servers, Unity storage array and vSphere
- Ditto with Hyper-V instead of vSphere
Dell EMC said channel partners and customers can build their own design using any of its server, storage, networking and data protection products – as you have been able to do all along.
Here is a Ready Stack reference architecture guide.
VxBlock 1000 update
New Dell EMC storage and Cisco server and network products join the VxBlock 1000 CI line-ups:
- Unity Hybrid Flash array 300, 400, 500 and 600 products
- Data Domain DD6800, DD9300, and DD9800 high-availability deduplicating backup targets
- Cisco UCS C480 M5 rack server and UCS 6454 gen 4 fabric interconnect
- VMware vSphere v6.7
- VMware vRealize Orchestrator v7.5 for VxBlock Central Orchestration Workflows
- VMware vRealize Operations v7.0 for VxBlock Central Operations analytics.
