Software

There are lots of conversations going on in the media about the customer concerns related to upgrading to a Microsoft Windows 7/Server 2008 R2. 

And rightly so, as it is at the top of many customers minds.  However, there are many other ways customers are looking at to better holistically optimize their Microsoft applications and environments.  Recently, Burk Buechler reflected on the conversations that he is having with customers related to their Microsoft environments and how Dell is helping those customers to better holistically optimize them.

Listen as Burk describes how Dell ProConsult provides best practice and in-depth expertise to ensure optimal integration of Microsoft’s core technologies to address customer needs.

If you want to be the first on the block to do live migration using Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008 R2, Dell can help you get there. Dell now offers support for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, the newest release in the Windows family of enterprise operating systems. This includes the release of Dell drivers, systems management capability and supporting documents to help you get up and running quickly.

Any software migration can be nerve wracking, so Dell has done the heavy lifting to take the risk out of implementing Windows Server 2008 R2.  

• Our engineers have missed countless dinners, piano recitals and episodes of American Idol while spending thousands of hours of testing and validation to make sure Dell products running Windows Server 2008 R2 are business-ready.
• We have complete driver support for Windows Server 2008 R2 for Dell hardware so you can deploy it, run it and manage easily. You can go here to download drivers.
• You are not in it alone. We offer a comprehensive suite of Dell ProConsult, Dell ProSupport and Dell ProManage services to help you get the most out of your Microsoft environment. In fact, if you already have a Dell ProSupport contract, you have existing support for Windows Server 2008 R2 and for Microsoft Windows 7.

We're ready to help you make the upgrade to R2 today and we will also have Windows Server 2008 R2 factory installed on all available new Dell PowerEdge servers in the third quarter of 2009. You can get the version you want. Dell will offer Standard, Enterprise, Web, Datacenter and Academic editions of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 Foundation R2, designed for organizations with up to 15 users, on select PowerEdge systems.

The increasing sophistication and the ever-growing amounts of industry-standard information technology devices (servers, storage, clients) has created an imbalance in the cost structure for IT. Companies spend an inordinate amount of time on the management of IT assets and money for other people just to run the infrastructure. This leaves precious little for what keeps their businesses competitive and growing. It doesn’t have to be that way. Dell and Microsoft are helping companies of all sizes simplify their IT with an extensive portfolio of integrated management solutions that streamline IT processes, increase operational efficiencies, and reduce cost.

For years, Dell and Microsoft have been partnering to ensure that our combined solution offering works the best for our customers. Recently, we’ve announced their participation in the Dell Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Partner Program. In this program both Dell and Microsoft engineers have co-developed, tested and certified the integration of Dell hardware management functionality in Microsoft System Center. Microsoft has been awarded Dell ISV Advanced Certification.

Last week Bob Kelly, Vice President of Microsoft Infrastructure Server Marketing, demonstrated Dell’s server power management capabilities on-stage during his keynote presentations at the Microsoft Management Summit 2009 (MMS 2009). He showed how Dell’s 11^th generation PowerEdge server instrumentation accesses advanced system knowledge for a variety of partner solutions including the new MS Power Management Pack for Systems Center Operation Manager for greater control of the IT environment and power consumption budget.

One important feature he demonstrated is that Dell’s and Microsoft’s Management Packs have complementary power management functionality to get the best energy efficiency from hardware and software. Dell PRO-enabled Management Pack integrates Dell PowerEdge server knowledge to provide extensive insight into the health status of multiple physical hardware components that enable optimal manageability of virtual IT resources. The Dell Server Deployment Pack integrates with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 to configure and deploy Dell blades and servers as an automated task. It allows for customized configurations through a simple graphical user interface for bare metal systems provisioning.

In addition to the server integration with Microsoft System Center, Dell last year expanded support for Dell Business Client integration to automate system updates for Dell Precision Workstations, OptiPlex Desktops, and Latitude E-Family laptops. We now offer 17 points of integration with System Center and Dell server, blades, storage array, business client, and printer hardware management functionality. This is all available at no additional charge to all customers.

Also at the MMS 2009, Brad Anderson, general manager of Microsoft's Management and Services Division, demonstrated System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) deployment of Windows 7 on 20 Dell Latitude laptops. He described advantages of the product with Intel vPro, including upgrading to Windows 7 with user data while the machine is powered down.

Enrico Bracalente, senior strategist in Dell's Product Marketing organization, was at MMS 2009 and shares more about Dell and Microsoft’s integrated systems management capabilities in this video. Take a look.

In most cases, electronics and liquids do not mix. We’ve all had incidents that prove this. I’ve knocked over a glass of wine on my keyboard. It died, but I like to think it died happy with a belly full of Bordeaux. When my toddler ran into a pool I dove after him with my smart phone in my pocket. I wasn’t able to call home to complain about that one. I’ve clung to my digital camera with a death grip for fear that one unexpected toss of the boat would cast thousands of memories in the form of digital images from the palm of my hand to the bottom of the ocean floor.

But, sometimes putting electronics out to sea is the best thing you can do for your business. Geotrace, a leading seismic processing and imaging company based in Houston, packed the power of a data center into the hull of a ship to speed oil and gas exploration. The Geowave Endeavor, the ship that Geotrace deploys for 3D Seismic production, has a Dell PowerEdge M-series blade server high performance computing cluster on board. They have sixteen a fully-loaded Dell M1000e blade chassis that house a total of 256 Dell M600 blade servers networked with Dell PowerConnect M6220 Ethernet switches. Now that’s a boat load of servers.

I had a chance to catch up with Matt Gaskamp, Geotrace’s data center operations manager, briefly last week. He explained that having the ability to analyze and process information while off shore has given his company a significant edge over the competition. Previously, data collected while at sea could not be processed until the ship returned to shore. Now, Dell blade servers and workstations, software, and services allow Geotrace engineers to analyze the data as soon as it is gathered offshore, which has eliminated at minimum two months of wait time for its customers.

Energy efficiency is a concern with any data center, but it is especially important when it’s all housed on a ship. Geotrace uses Dell Remote Access Controllers and Dell OpenManage software to manage the blades remotely. It has power management tools that let their administrators easily configure maximum power thresholds by server or server group. To increase the energy efficiency of the servers while at sea Geotrace administrators can reset peak observed watts/amps and cumulative power, regulate and manage the fixed power supply aboard the ship.

The folks at Geotrace were kind enough to supply us with images of the Geowave Endeavor and the HPC cluster aboard the Endeavor, which is currently off the coast of Libya. You can view other images of the installation at Dell's Flickr pool. We also have a full case study on the Geotrace HPCC implementation if you'd like to read more.

Several weeks ago, Dell introduced new Dell Precision workstations based on Intel's new Xeon 5500 (Nehalem) processors to much industry discussion here, here and here. We were recently at the Game Developers' Conference in San Francisco and talked to one of the many Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) that have certified the systems for their software.

Mark Schoennagel, Autodesk's Senior 3D Evangelist, discussed how game developers can use Autodesk's Softimage to speed the development of their games. Autodesk is a leader in 3D rendering and other fields with more than nine million professionals from 185 different countries using their products to save time and money, gain a competitive advantage and change the way ideas are brought to life. In the gaming space, their customers include Insomniac Games (creator of Resistance 2), Tecmo Games (creator of Ninja Gaiden 2), Konami Digital Entertainment (creator of Metal Gear Solid 4), and many others.

Mark got his hands on the new Dell Precision T5500 system a couple of months ago and quickly certified Autodesk Softimage for the system. Upon receipt of the new system, Mark says he was struck by Dell's design to provide for improved thermals and the system ran their software "flawless out of the box."

In this video, he shows an example of a particle effect created entirely with Softimage software's new multi-threaded node based programming environment — ICE. Each node represents a low-level function or a group of nodes can be collapsed into a single node called a compound. These compounds are similar to "functions" in programming and can be re-used at anytime, in any scene or project.  In the video, Mark shows a "fire" that can be built once, but can be re-used many times.

Mark was impressed with the performance of the Dell Precision T5500 workstation, which delivers up to 90 percent better multi-threaded digital content creation application performance versus previous generation systems (see required legal for this claim below :)).

Enough from me. Take it away, Mark.

(Based on the SPEC apc 3D Studio Max 9 and Cinebench R10 benchmark tests performed by Dell Labs in January 2009 comparing the Dell Precision T7400 with Intel® Xeon® X5482 processor and 4GB memory with the Dell Precision T7500 with Intel® Xeon® W5580 processor and 6GB memory, which has the same architecture, processor and memory speed as the T5500.)