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EqualLogic User Conference: The Virtual Era: Page 2 of 2

Dell defines Intelligent Infrastructure as stateless servers that can be deployed in seconds, workload driven networks with provisioned security, QoS, availability and storage that automatically manages redundancy requirements and provides efficient tiering. Other features are dedupe by preset policies that can expand and contract seamlessly, delivers balanced performance and is application aware...again, all automatically.

The blue print for Intelligent Infrastructure is an architecture Dell calls Peer Scaling. By implementing this architecture, data center resources will never get out of balance because they will have designed into their environment seamless expansion to manage bandwidth, capacity and IOPS. With Peer Scaling, there will never be another forklift upgrade because the intelligent infrastructure is multi-generational--meaning it is designed with the ability to weave new server, storage or networking technology tightly into the old environment. In addition, any standards-based infrastructure designed under the Peer Scaling architecture can be remotely deployed for maximum IT flexibility and control. A prototype for Peer Scaling is the latest generation of EqualLogic iSCSI storage.  These storage systems already offer the ability to automatically manage redundancy; provide tiering by preset policies; plus expand and contract seamlessly.

The last part of the presentation was truly exciting as Darren Thomas showed how technology from recent acquisitions Scalent (now known as Advanced Infrastructure Manager or AIM) and Ocarina embody the Dell vision, and how they will work together to automate much of what makes virtual environments so complex to deploy and manage today. Mr. Thomas demonstrated how AIM sets workload personas and deploys them by assigning each workload to a stateless server that meets the policy "persona."  He showed how simple it is to then redeploy new or additional workloads to the stateless servers in just seconds.

The AIM technology is integrated with EqualLogic storage today and I fully expect that EqualLogic storage will soon respond to workload changes by automatically expanding capacity, bandwidth and IOPS. He then demonstrated how Dell will be able to deliver handhelds, laptops, servers, and storage with Ocarina plug-ins that can automatically compress and decompress data. I believe that minimizing storage for desktop virtualization and stateless servers may be killer apps for Dell's Ocarina technology and the next wave of dedupe technology.

It's clear Dell has been listening to their customers because their vision addresses the problems that need to be solved in order for the IT industry to continue accelerating into the Virtual Era. I'm looking forward to day two of the conference.