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“Our modern infrastructure solutions are a game changer in today's digital economy. With our cyber-resilient architecture and performance innovations, we will enable our customers to unleash their business potential.” So said Ashley Gorakhpurwalla, president, Server Solutions Division at Dell EMC when general availability of the PowerEdge server line was announced in July 2017.
That sounds like an impressive statement. So what’s so special about the new servers? Well, not everyone is rushing off to join the pure cloud party; there’s still a place for good, high-performance servers to address the needs of the general market, whether on-premises or in a hybrid configuration.
In fact, keeping your own data centre and going for tight technology refresh cycles can have cost benefits in itself, as we’ll see. And then there’s hyper convergence to consider.
Key takeaways
Dell EMC is keen to highlight the scalable business architecture of PowerEdge 14G servers. It claims this helps customers efficiently meet their changing business needs with enhanced performance capabilities for traditional, virtualised and cloud-native workloads in a software-defined data centre.
The portfolio is highly optimised for non-volatile memory express (NVMe), and helps customers accelerate deployment of software-defined data storage and hyper-converged infrastructure stacks with:
- Accelerated database performance and lower latency with up to 12 times more database IOPS and up to 98% less database latency in a VMware vSAN cluster.
- Faster and seamless live migration of virtual machines now up to 58% faster with up to 75% less CPU usage when using 25GbE with Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA).
- Faster storage performance in compute to maximise application performance with up to six times more NVMe drives, up to five times total flash storage, 30% more input/output slots and 25% density improvement.
Dell EMC says life cycle management is easier with PowerEdge 14G and any problems will be resolved nearly twice as fast as previously through Dell EMC's ProSupport and Support Assist programmes.
Security is one of the major selling points of these servers. PowerEdge 14G’s features include Intel Boot Guard protection, signed firmware and automatic BIOS recovery, as well as System Lockdown which helps secure system configuration from malicious or unintended changes. There’s also System Erase, which allows repurposing by quickly wiping data from storage devices and embedded memory.
What’s in the PowerEdge 14G line?
Dell EMC’s announcements include:
- R640: This is the workhorse server, striking a balance between dense, scale-out data centre computing and storage in a 1U, two-socket platform.
- R740XD: A 2U, two-socket server designed for optimum storage performance and density for software-defined storage, cloud service providers, big data and co-location hosting.
- R940: A mission-critical solution using a 3U, four-socket platform designed for demanding workloads like large databases and ERP. Dell EMC claims the R940 can create significant Oracle licensing cost savings and offers significantly increased performance in SAP environments.
- M640, FC640 and C6420: The M640 and FC640 are blade and modular servers designed for high-performance computing in dense, scalable environments. The C6420 comes in a 2U, eight-socket form factor and is aimed at high-performance computing by maximizing density, scalability and energy efficiency.
Hyper convergence
Dell EMC is refreshing its hyper converged and hybrid cloud offerings to use the latest VMware and Dell EMC server technologies. It points out the hyper converged infrastructures (HCI) are increasingly in demand, with IDC research data showing that, for the first quarter of 2017, this was the fastest growing converged systems segment. It accounted for 25% of overall converged systems market sales with a growth rate of 64.7% year-on-year.
The full Dell EMC hyperconverged portfolio will transition to Dell PowerEdge 14G servers by the end of 2017.
The business case for PowerEdge 14G
In a recent ESG 2017 IT Transformation Maturity Curve study, organisations furthest along in their IT transformation initiatives are seven times more likely to view IT as a competitive differentiator.
The priority for many IT transformation initiatives is consequently a modern infrastructure that can securely deliver improved efficiencies while driving innovation that enables new business models. That’s where PowerEdge 14G comes in. With its scalable business architecture, intelligent automation, and integrated security, the portfolio enables customers to push innovation further and faster to achieve their IT transformation goals.
But that’s not the only advantage of 14G servers. They’re ideal for technology refresh to drive opex cost savings.
Refreshing existing server infrastructures is often more cost-effective than maintaining old technology. A recent IDC study highlights that operating costs increase significantly in years 4-6 of a server’s life, substantially outweighing the initial cost of buying a new server. Upgrading your server results in improved performance and agility, and IDC reports that this can also lower three-year cost of operations by nearly 60%.
Financing deals
Financing avoids the need for capital investment, allowing you to preserve cash for core business needs, reduce TCO, and to choose from a range of options at the end of the lease. At Vohkus we have two special deals in partnership with Dell EMC on PowerEdge 14G until 2 February 2018:
- Fair market lease lowers TCO with the lowest monthly rental for financing hardware. At the end of the lease the customer can choose to extend or return.
- 87% TCO with 12 quarterly payments.
- Example: £10,000 system with 12 quarterly payments of £725 = total rental cost of £8,700 and TCO of just 87%.
- Low rate finance lease provides hardware intended to be used for a fixed period. At the end of the lease the equipment can be purchased.
- Exceptionally low rate of 1.75%.
- 12 quarterly payments over three years.
What’s not to like?
If you’re considering a server infrastructure refresh or looking at your options for your future IT state, we think Dell EMC PowerEdge 14G should be on your shortlist. Depending on what your priorities are, it could be exactly what you’re looking for.
Talk to a Vohkus specialist today to discover more.
