IT Services

Welcome to Inside IT. It's a blog about a range of information technology topics that matter to today's large business customers: all kinds of hardware from corporate laptops, desktops and workstations through servers and storage and blades, software and systems management, IT services and more. Take a look at the category listings on the right to get a better idea of the scope of this blog.

You can access Inside IT directly by going here: www.direct2dell.com/insideit.

If you're an RSS reader type, you can subscribe the Inside IT RSS feed here.

One person you'll be hearing a lot from is Inside IT Lead Blogger Marc Farley, who's been running the EqualLogic Storage@Work blog for over a year now. Besides being a great blogger, he's pretty passionate about customers. And that's why I'm pumped that Marc has recently become part of the Dell team since we finalized the EqualLogic acquisition. You can expect him to blog about about storage hardware and software, plus other IT-related things that are driving conversation in the blogosphere like the S3 outage. And heck, if I know him, chances are good that you can catch him doing video from his car.

Beyond Marc, you'll have a chance to converse directly with Dell employees who are dedicated to addressing the IT problems that make your life difficult. In the process, we'll work to give you an inside look at things in this part of our business. We also want to give you a chance to shape what kind of products and services Dell offers you in the future. Our ultimate goal is to make this a place where you can connect with our Dell employees who are focused on simplifying the Information Technology issues you (and other customers like you) face on a daily basis.

To prepare for the Inside IT introduction, I've made some changes to a couple of categories on Direct2Dell: Services and Simplify IT. I intend to pull all the enterprise-focused services posts into a new category here called IT Services. I also removed the Simplify IT category from Direct2Dell to place those posts in the Inside IT categories that better represented the subject matter. Still working through the migration on both fronts. In the posts that we'll carry over to Inside IT, I'll close the comments on Direct2Dell and re-open them here in the Inside IT blog. Hope to have all that finished soon.

We look forward to many more conversations here. Now, I'll turn it over to Marc.

This was originally posted here, on the EqualLogic Storage@Work blog 

KR asked:

"What is the difference between cloud computing and software as a service?"

This is a really good question. Let’s explore this space for a bit and hopefully we can come to a good answer. (I am going to attempt to be brief here so please forgive me it this is not an exhaustive study and lacks some appropriate reference.)

If we look back far enough, we find most of the popular and modern terms describing advanced multi-computing are actually forms of distributed computing, which has been around since the early 1980s. (See A primer on distributed computing) There has been significant hype/spin as well as real advancements that have “clouded” :o) the whole concept (In fact, I am fond of asking; “Please tell me what you mean when you refer to one of these terms, because I can’t figure them out any more!”). There are many facets that have evolved in distinct ways which represent real value and when I get a chance, I am going to create some type of figure showing these interrelationships. For now, we’ll stick with the more recent concepts and I will give you my opinion. (I will say that If you want to know more now, there is a good reference all-be-it a couple of years old from the GGF I would send you to: The Different Faces of IT as a Service)

Most discussion these days involves grid, utility, and cloud computing to which we will add software as a service (SaaS).

• Grid computing is a fairly all encompassing concept and as you probably know, can be generally defined as: “a system that uses open, general purpose protocols to federate distributed resources and to deliver nontrivial qualities of service.” Or in other words, it uses standard “stuff” to make many distinct systems work together in a way that makes them useful.

• Utility computing or on-demand computing is the idea of taking a set of resources (that may be in a grid) and providing them in a way in which they can be metered. This idea is much the same as we buy electricity or a common utility today. It usually involves a computing or storage virtualization strategy.

• Cloud computing is a subset of grid computing (can include utility computing) and as I mentioned in my opening post, is the idea that computing (or storage) is done elsewhere or in the clouds. In this model many machines (Grid) are orchestrated to work together on a common problem. Resources are applied and managed by the cloud as needed. (In fact this is a key characteristic of cloud computing. If manual intervention is required for management or operations, then it probably doesn’t qualify as a cloud.) Cloud computing provides access to applications written using Web Services and run on these Cloud Services.

Now let’s add to this discussion the idea of Software as a Service (SaaS). Usually this means a model where diverse applications are hosted by a provider and users pay to use them. So I would say the key distinction of SaaS and cloud computing is the service and business model provided as opposed to the architectural mechanism used to deliver it. In fact, I think it is also fair to say that a cloud computing architecture may be the key/best mechanism for delivering Software as a Service. Let’s look at a couple of today’s trends and see if this all fits. Probably the best known examples are of course search and mail. There are several companies that offer both freely, they are available via the web, and they are written using web services. (There is a growing set of additional capabilities that are becoming available.)

For the most part, these are all free (fee based versions exist). Based on the scale and ubiquitous service they are able to deliver, it is fair to say that there is a cloud behind them. The Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud is noteworthy here. It is a virtual farm, allowing folks to host and run “their” diverse applications on Amazon's web services platform. It represents an excellent example of a business model where a company is providing “Cloud Services” to those who can and are willing to take advantage of them. Software as a Service is the logical next step in evolution. It is going to be very interesting to see how this motion will emerge. Ideally users will be able to “rent” the application and everything needed to apply them to their business in the form of Software as a Service.At some point, we should explore SaaS as it relates Application Service Providers (ASP) and On-Demand computing, but enough for now. I welcome your thoughts or comments...

Our customers will be dealing with an enormous increase in data over the next few years.  To put this in perspective, the world generated about 161 exabytes of data last year and we expect this to go up six-fold in the next  four years.   

This increases the importance of providing our customers with the best range of storage solutions, which is why we announced today that Dell has entered into an agreement to acquire EqualLogic, a leading provider of high-performance iSCSI storage area network (SAN) solutions uniquely optimized for virtualization.  The acquisition will strengthen Dell's product and channel leadership in simplifying and virtualizing IT for customers globally.

Michael Dell said in the release this morning that ""Leading the iSCSI revolution will help Dell accelerate IT simplification and virtualization, and will be a foundational element for us to further drive the Dell value proposition into more areas of the enterprise storage market."

We can't answer all of your questions on the announcement, since the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, which we expect to be complete by the end of our fiscal fourth quarter, 2008 or early in the first quarter, 2009.  However, we thought we would provide a few key facts. 

1. EqualLogic is based in Nashua, New Hampshire.  The company was founded in 2001 and it has 384 employees, who serve customers in over 30 countries.  They have a great management team whom we are looking forward to working with.
2. EqualLogic is a leading provider of iSCSI storage solutions sold exclusively by the channel through 480+ partners
3. Dell is committed to growing EqualLogic's successful channel-partner programs with current and future EqualLogic-branded products.  Dell also will incorporate EqualLogic technology into future generations of our PowerVault storage line products available through the channel and direct from Dell.
4. We believe EqualLogic is a strong complement to our current Dell PowerVault and Dell/EMC storage product lines.
5. The Dell and EMC global partnership remains strong as we continue to rapidly grow our Fibre Channel SAN storage business together.  Last year, Dell and EMC extended their global alliance to 2011 and expanded the products offered.  
6. EqualLogic's  iSCSI SAN technology represents the fastest-growing segment of the storage business.  Dell was named the fastest growing storage vendor by IDC in 2Q07 and Dell's storage business is the fastest-growing category of our overall company.  EqualLogic's iSCSI SAN technology will give Dell leadership technology in the fastest-growing storage markets (iSCSI storage and SMB storage).
7. We know that all of our customers will be dealing with an enormous increase in data over the next few years.  Our decision was driven by our desire to provide our customers with the best storage options for the short and long-term and to provide the best solutions for IT simplification and server virtualization.

Once the acquisition is complete we will share more information with you.  In the meantime, we look forward to your thoughts and comments.

I've made some changes to the category list on Direct2Dell. First off, I consolidated Servers, Storage and Enterprise into one new category called Simplify IT. The new category will serve as the home for the group blog that covers everything from corporate desktops, notebooks and workstations to server and storage.

You will hear from M. Lee Sellers, Glenn Keels and others from our corporate client and server and storage product teams. As the category name suggests, our folks will try to emphasize how our corporate products and services take some of the complexity out of computing for companies of all sizes. For a bit more context on where this fits, take a look at the content on www.dell.com/simplify.

We've also created a Simplify IT category on IdeaStorm as well. We welcome any ideas you have that you think will make your life easier—whether you are a small business owner, a CIO, or an employee in the IT group of your organization.

Update 10/8: I forgot to mention an important point. Anyone interested in following updates in the Simplify IT category can get the RSS feed here.