Dell Touts Grid Computing Over Proprietary Systems
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Michael Dell has seen the future and it&#39;s a 128-node &quot;MegaGrid&quot; running the Linux operating system on Dell servers at Dell&#39;s lab in Austin, Texas.
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Claiming grid technology continues to expand outside its traditional scientific and research markets, IBM on Friday is announcing that several grid-based commercial projects built on IBM platforms have been launched, including one at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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Dell Inc. chairman Michael Dell announced a long-term partnership between his company and other hardware and software vendors to develop best practices in deploying a grid computing infrastructure.
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(InfoWorld) - Dell Inc. is reaching out to small businesses worldwide with five new servers that it says perform better, consume less power and are easier to set up and manage than their predecessors. The new servers -- Dell PowerEdge 1900, 860, 840, SC1430 and SC440 -- feature dual-core Intel Corp. Xeon processors, which allow them to run multiple applications like file serving, e-mail and databases. They also come pre-installed with software like Microsoft Corp.'s Small Business Server R2 and with management tools to simplify their operation and administration, Dell officials said during a conference call on Wednesday. Small businesses typically lack the in-house IT resources of larger companies, so they prefer hardware that requires minimal tuning and maintenance. "Small business owners want affordable technology products that are easy to deploy, manage and support," said Frank Muehleman, vice president of Dell's U.S. Small Business division. There are about 6.2 million small businesses in the U.S. and they are expected to spend about US$98 billion in IT products and services this year, said Laurie McCabe, an analyst with AMI Research who participated in the call. "They are increasingly relying on IT and the Internet to help them run and manage their businesses," she said. Megan Duckett, owner of theatrical drapery manufacturer Sew What Inc. in Los Angeles, beta tested the PowerEdge 860 and found it to be "impressive in performance" and "very reliable" in supporting the company's 11-PC network, she said during the call. She plans to use it to host her company's Web site in house. The new servers, which are available worldwide, are also aimed at remote offices of large companies. The PowerEdge 1900 is a dual-socket tower server featuring dual-core Intel Xeon 5100 series processors, and is optimized for database, messaging, file and print sharing and remote location deployments, said Jay Parker, director of Dell's PowerEdge servers. It starts at US$1,399. He described the PowerEdge 840 as a "general-purpose tower server" with Intel Xeon 3000 series processors. It is designed for remote offices, retail stores and small businesses, and starts at $749. The PowerEdge 860 is a 1U rack-mountable server with dual-core Intel Xeon 3000 series processors. Starting at $949, it is intended for edge-of-the-network, infrastructure or Web applications. The PowerEdge SC440 is an entry-level tower server with dual-core Intel Xeon 3000 series processors, and can be used for file and print sharing in a small business setting or in a small workgroup, as well as for e-mail, Web or standard applications. It starts at $599. Finally, the PowerEdge SC1430, starting at $1,049, features dual-core Intel Xeon 5100 series processors and is ideal for file and print sharing, e-mail messaging and small Web server applications. Every server ships with the Dell Server Assistant, a CD-ROM for setting up and configuring the PowerEdge system components and software. Dell has been in a slump for months. Its financial results for the first six months of the year have been disappointing. It had to recall millions of defective laptop batteries because they can overheat and catch fire. Moreover, it is being investigated by both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for possible accounting and financial reporting irregularities. Â
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Blog: Dell adds Vostro line to menu of laptops and desktops
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HP has moment of Xen as well Citrix Systems has wrangled Dell as the first Tier 1 server vendor to embed the Xen hypervisor in its x86 servers.â¦
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Network Appliance has brought out the latest version of its Data Ontap software, which imposes a grid storage architecture on NetApp devices by creating an abstraction layer between application servers, storage controllers and disc arrays.
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Dell Inc. , the world's largest personal computer maker, on Tuesday unveiled a range of business computers, with some that meet stringent new environmental regulations and others that take steps to prevent network intrusions and theft of intellectual property.
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Look for more consumer electronics products and services from the PC behemoth. Also: SuSE Linux for Dell servers.
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InfoWorld - Dell began polling customers about their software preferences on Tuesday as part of an effort by the struggling PC vendor to meet a popular request for desktops and notebooks that run on Linux instead of Windows.
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(InfoWorld) - Dell Inc. has stepped away from long-time supplier Intel Corp., launching one desktop that spurns the chipmaker's vPro business bundle and two others that use processors from chipmaking competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD). Dell will still build its new Dimension E520 and XPS 210 desktop PCs with a choice of Intel's Pentium D or Core 2 Duo processors, the company said Tuesday. But for the first time, Dell will offer a choice of AMD's Athlon and Sempron chips in the new Dimension E521 and C521 models. For its new OptiPlex 745 business desktop, Dell said it developed its own bundle of business-friendly technologies instead of using Intel's vPro platform. Intel has seen strong sales in recent years for bundles of software and hardware such as its Centrino package for wireless notebook PCs. The company launched vPro in September as an effort to extend that strategy to business desktops. The company did not rule out the chance that it might add Intel's bundle to future desktops, but said vPro had to mature first. "We'll continue to work with Intel to help them refine the technology," said Dell's chief technology officer, Kevin Kettler. He spoke during the company's annual Technology Day meeting in New York. "There's still work to be done to drive that technology as a fundamental, strong value for our end customers." He compared the current vPro bundle to early iterations of hardware-based security in Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chips. "Dell was a slow adopter of TPM, and that's not because we didn't know about them or forgot to ask about them. There are some cases where we've ultimately used a technology but waited for it to mature a little bit before adopting it," Kettler said. Dell competitors Hewlett-Packard Co. and Gateway Inc. both launched vPro-enabled desktops last week, prompting some analysts to ask why Dell was lagging despite its close relationship to Intel. The answer is that Dell was assembling its own business bundle. The company's OptiPlex 745 boosts security and eases IT management while reducing power draw. Those are the same selling points as vPro, and the Dell system even uses similar components, like Intel's new Core 2 Duo processor and a TPM security chip. The difference is that Dell chooses and integrates the remaining pieces, retaining more control over the final product. In October, Dell will add its own Client Manager module to the system, allowing IT managers to remotely boot and troubleshoot thousands of client systems from a single site. Intel does that trick with its Active Management Technology (AMT). Likewise, Dell chose its own partner for security and password protection, using Wave Systems Corp.'s Embassy Trust Suite. Dell sells the OptiPlex 745 with a Core 2 Duo E6300 processor for US$899. The XPS 210 costs $1,190 for a premium entertainment package. The Dimension E520 and E521 will go on sale Wednesday for $719 and $329, both with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP Media Center OS, dual-core processors and multimedia options. The Dimension C521 will cost $359 but take up just half the space compared to the E520 and E521. In another announcement Tuesday, Dell is extending its relationship with EMC Corp., adding another five years to their partnership in selling storage products such as the Dell/EMC AX100 and CX3 UltraScale networked storage systems. Together, the two companies have sold 34,000 networked storage systems to 10,000 customers since founding their alliance in 2001.
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(InfoWorld) - Dell has announced the availability of virtualisation services that aim to help enterprises draw up and implement their virtualisation plans -- and it'll help you choose from its own hardware and software portfolio too of course. The process starts with Dell's Virtualisation Readiness Assessment (VRA). The VRA provides companies with a way to evaluate the impact a virtual infrastructure will have on its data center, according to the company. Dell reckoned that the service indicates the potential financial savings of a virtual infrastructure and explains how a virtualized environment could improve server management, maximize uptime and streamline deployment, and enable a company to simplify and scale operations to meet present and future demands. Dell's partners in the initiative include VMware, Microsoft, Red Hat, and Novell/SuSE. Dell said it provides a number of other virtualisation services including 'health checks', infrastructure and migration workshops, as well as design and implementation services that include proof of concept testing prior to deployment. The aim, said Dell is to provide a single source for a tested and vendor-validated virtualized solution. The Texas company said its services division aims to provide an end-to end virtualisation solution that simplifies IT and helps its customers design, configure, test, migrate, and maintain their systems, as well as reap the benefits of virtualisation. Dell quoted four reference sites for its services. The first is Deelgemeente Ijsselmonde, a local authority in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The system Dell helped set up helps to deliver key community services to its surrounding population, via a consolidated server environment. The second reference site, said Dell, is Belgian consultancy ARCADIS which has implemented a SAN with a virtualized system that makes disaster recovery simpler and represents a step towards an efficient disaster recovery plan. Third, AZ Vesalius, a hospital in Belgium, is using a virtual server infrastructure to improve scalability to support the hospital's growth, according to Dell. And lastly, when the Marienhaus Klinikum Hospital in Germany needed a dependable IT Infrastructure for its 24/7 medical services, incorporating a back-up strategy for business continuity, it did so with the help of Dell's virtualisation services. "Increasingly, companies are looking for ways to make themselves more agile and competitive as well as create the most efficient IT infrastructure within the organization," said Dell's infrastructure consulting director Francois Argouges. "By managing and scaling resources as needed, organizations can continually refresh their IT infrastructure to support their dynamic business needs. Dell is committed to working with its customers and partners in order to deliver the most enhanced virtualisation solution on the market, backed up by industry leading support and services." The company also announced that it'll be unveiling a Vista migration service in autumn 2007.
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A forthcoming version of Windows Server is designed for building supercomputers from clusters of PCs.
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Dell has introduced its new PowerEdge 1855 blade servers, which it says combine enterprise-class features with increased density and lower cost than traditional Dell 1U rack servers to deliver an advantaged platform for data center computing.
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Novell's SuSE software joins Red Hat as server option. Also: Is AMD in Dell's future?
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A startup company is rolling out a family of workstations aimed at the technical computing space that offer clusterlike capabilities inside a single box.
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The researchers who spawned the idea of grid computing will launch a company Monday to commercialize what so far has been a very academic software project for sharing computing resources.