Dell issues virtualization wonder box despite AMD

When the PAN Man Testifies

Surrounding this virtualization gala are a couple more bits and pieces.

For one, Dell has reconfirmed its love for Egenera's PAN Manager software. It's going to ship re-branded Dell PAN software on the PowerEdge 1950 and 2950 servers sometime this summer. We're told that similar PAN support will arrive "shortly thereafter" for blades. The PAN code will be tied to XenServer initially, and VMware support will follow. "There's an Egnera port that's going on," Dell VP Rick Becker, told us.

Dell also just loves the idea of customers tying its new EqualLogic storage gear to virtualization servers, so it has offered up "SAN-aware integration with VMware Site Recovery Manager." Basically the EqualLogic iSCSI gear now recognizes VMware's disaster recovery application. Dell continues to argue that iSCSI is better suited to virtualization than Fibre Channel because it lets you take advantage of abstractions between servers and storage systems rather than requiring physical mapping between virtual machines and LUNs. It's also proud of the way that the EqualLogic arrays spread data evenly across disk drives, since this improves performance in a virtualized world.

With regard to services, Dell will do just about anything you could ever dream - or fear. It's got virtualization workshops, assessments and healthchecks. As we read it, that means Dell can teach you about virtualization, decide where you can use it and then come back a couple months later to describe all the ways you've screwed up the initial plan. It's also got services around processing area networks, remote advisory and higher-end virtualization tools.

The underlying message with the appliance, software, storage and services pieces - if you haven't caught it - is that Dell is not just a box shifter. You're supposed to see all of these announcements and have that notion seep into your brain.

Dell is the first Tier 1 server vendor in a very long while to bring four people to an interview with us about a new system. All of the major food groups mentioned were represented, and, quite frankly, we appreciated the effort, as Dell did tell a rather complete story.

Customers will likely find Dell's total virtualization package more attractive than just the Veso on its own had the box shipped back in November as planned. But, you know, it would have been glitzier to knock HP, IBM and Sun around with a first of its kind unit. We're guessing the Veso will be Dell's last "let's lead with Opteron" design for awhile. ®