December 2007 - Direct2Dell

I will be taking a break from publishing new content for Direct2Dell this week while I spend Christmas with my family and friends. During this time, I will handle comment moderation through a team of folks, and will work to keep up with requests for customer service. I'll get to things that aren't support-related when I return later next week.

Moderators will be checking in on IdeaStorm every day over the break to make sure everything runs smoothly. On December 25 and January 1, idea moderation will be turned on. This means that any ideas submitted on those days will first be checked by a moderator before being published. Comments will not have prior moderation to maintain the free flow of conversations. If you do submit an idea on these days, please be patient, your idea will soon show up on IdeaStorm, it will just take a bit longer than you are used to.

Happy Holidays to Direct2Dell readers and to the IdeaStorm community. We wish you, and all your friends and families well during this time and beyond.

I'm late in sharing this, so I bet many of you have been keeping up with the news, but for those that might have missed it, we recently announced two different retail agreements that will extend our retail reach into several parts of Europe. Earlier in December, we announced an agreement with DSG International plc (DSGi). Starting in next month, customers will be able to buy high-end gaming systems, notebooks and desktops across DSGi's network of stores, including PC World, Currys and Currys.digital stores in the UK, as well as Dixons.co.uk online. Customers will also be able to buy Dell products through the European network of DSGi store brands such as Electro World, PC City, and Elkjop.

In the U.K., services for these Dell products will be handled by DSGi's TechGuys. They will offer a range of customer service options including installation and setup, telephone support and more.

This agreement with DSCi will eventually cover stores in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Greece, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

The other retail agreement is with Tesco, which serves customers in Europe and Asia. Also beginning next month, customers will be able to purchase Inspiron and XPS products mainly in the United Kingdom, but also in stores located in Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Since we launched the XPS M1530, much of the customer feedback has unanimous. Lots of Direct2Dell readers like MVH, Shelby, Steve, Chong and others all asked for higher resolution displays. The IdeaStorm community weighed in specifically on this issue with the XPS 1530 Resolution ?? idea from user avnanda. And it was also on kennywrx's wish list  in his Dell XPS M1530 idea, which he submitted before the official launch. This gets us part of the way there.

Starting today, customers in the United States can order the notebook with two additional display options.

• WXGA+: Supports up to 1440 x 900 resolution
• WSXGA+: Supports up to 1680 x 1050 resolution

Certainly HP offers an optional service for a fee that bundles products to reduce packaging.  But there is no opportunity to order this option when you configure an HP system online, so there is no telling how much they charge for yet another solution that Dell provides standard for free.

What happens after the boxes get unpacked is where the real differences become apparent.  As HP noted in their response, "Things really get interesting if you compare HP and Dell after the systems are turned on."

InfoWorld noted Dell's leadership for deployment in their independent blade comparison ("Battle of the Blades", InfoWorld, March 2007):

"Whereas the other vendors spent six to eight hours of their testing day working to get the SPEChpc benchmarks running properly and with the best results possible, Dell ran the full benchmark suite in their 90-minute preparation period the day before their official testing day - and those 90 minutes included their initial chassis power up and system check procedures."   

An independent study shows that Dell also delivers better performance and lower power use.  In fact, Dell PowerEdge blades delivered better energy efficiency and better performance than HP in every configuration tested.  The previously mentioned InfoWorld report also noted Dell's performance superiority: "The Dell PowerEdge 1955 produced the best SPEChpc numbers by far of any of the blade systems tested." 

Customers concerned with power consumption or capacity challenges, need look no further than the most energy efficient PowerEdge blades from Dell - Energy efficiency and performance per watt that HP can't beat. 

Even though this was an out of box deployment study, HP never skips an opportunity to bring up their proprietary Virtual Connect hardware and software, as they do in their response.  But when you add it all up it's a pretty tall order from a cost perspective: 

• $5,499 per Virtual Connect Ethernet switch x 4 = $21,996
• +$9,499 per Virtual Connect Fibre switch x 2 = $18,998
• +$9,000 for the Virtual Connect enterprise license per chassis = $49,994

So it's not just about boxes, it's about how Dell Simplifies IT by providing blade solutions to help our customers Get IT faster, Run IT better, and Grow IT Smarter.  Better energy efficiency, faster deployment and fewer boxes are just the start.  Now that's green and simplified IT.  Dell provides simple solutions to empower our customers to combat IT complexity, not imprison them with expensive, proprietary technology. 

That's the real story.

More and more customers tell us they're looking for simplified solutions that:

• Are fully tested and certified with software OS and application partners,
• Integrate embedded technologies into the hardware
• Optimize components for various deployments, environments and workloads
• Have all these critical elements integrated into the solution before they even leave the factory

Input from 3^rd party testing services is a key element in measuring that customers use when determining which solution will work best in their environment. Benchmarking provided by industry standard bodies such as the SPEC, BAPCo, TPC and Storage Performance Council help provide objective information that can be used to compare computer platforms, components, operating systems, and specific system configurations.

That is why we are so proud of recent benchmarks that evaluated performance of business applications showing that Dell outperformed HP, IBM, Fujitsu-Siemens, and Sun.

#1 server for database: SPECjAppServer2004 - #1 performance with 1950 III and R900; Top Application Server/Database performance for 2 node with Oracle Application 10G.

#1 server for virtualization: VMmark - #1 performance with 2950 III and R900; Leaders in 2-socket and 4-socket server virtualization performance.

#1 server for Java: SPECJBB2005 - #1 performance with the R200, 2950 III, and R900; Top Java Based Application performance for 1-socket, 2-socket, and 4-socket servers.

#1 server for power efficiency: SPECpower - #1 performance/watt for currently shipping systems with the 2950 III; The first industry-standard benchmark that measures power consumption in relation to performance for servers.

#1 server for price per performance: TPC-E Price/Performance- #1 with the 2900 III; Top performance for on-line transaction processing workloads for database applications.

The results speak for themselves - we've listened to our customers and what they're looking for in server solutions that are designed to simplify and deliver optimal TCO.

This is exactly what Simplify IT is all about - delivering solutions that customers know will help them get IT faster, run IT better, and grow IT smarter. When you have the most highly optimized solution for your environment today, more IT budget dollars can go to innovation tomorrow - something every customer likes to hear. Learn more about simplifying your IT.