Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/17/oh_those_products_says_dell_sure_well_sell_them_if_you_ask/
Oh THOSE products, says Dell. Sure we'll sell them if you ask
Semi-secret OEM kit can be yours
Posted in Systems, 17th June 2014 01:58 GMT
Dell has unveiled new storage appliances and a server it probably won't try to sell to you.
If that state of affairs seems odd, consider that the new re-privatised concern has a global business making kit for original equipment manufacturers. The resulting products end up in all manner of places where vendors need kit backed by a global company. Medical device manufacturers and telcos, for example, are markets Dell targets. Both need kit like servers and storage arrays as components in more complex products, but have little interest in developing such products themselves.
Enter Dell with a willingness to help with customisation and integration, a “we-tested this in the enterprise” spiel and a global one-throat-to-choke proposition.
Technology transfer goes both ways: the new PowerEdge R420xr being shown off this week at the CommunicAsia trade show in Singapore is a shrunken and ruggedised version of the PowerEdge 12G R420 you or I could order from Dell with a click or three. The xr version adds MIL-STD-810G certification and is aimed at telcos who like the idea of putting intelligence and processing grunt out on the network's edge.
Or at you, if you ask Dell for a a server that can cope with uncommonly high temperatures and gritty environments. But you'll need to ask because the product isn't listed on Dell.com
The storage products revealed at CommunicAsia are more anodyne: The Dell PowerVault MD3400, MD3800 and MD3960 series comprise iSCSI-and-fibre-channel-equipped unified storage devices designed to serve as networked storage for database servers that run out of direct-attached capacity. Dell is at pains to point out that this kit is nowhere near as scalable or interesting as its other storage products. ®