VRTX - a private cloud in a box

Today customer satisfaction has become centric focus of every organisation. Responding to customer demands on time, managing IT budgets and performing with efficiency is of the essence. Many IT organizations are missing deadlines or cannot respond fast enough to customer demands, have insufficient IT budgets to deliver against the most critical business initiatives.

To manage shrinking IT budget where spending too much on latest technologies becomes a challenge, Dell has announced the launch of PowerEdge VRTX, a Private Cloud in a Box and the first converged IT solution designed specifically for remote and small office environments, with enterprise-class capabilities in a desk-side, space-saving design. VRTX enables large enterprises and organizations to put data center horsepower out into their remote/branch offices where performance and capacity are needed. With a special emphasis on small and medium businesses the new product enables them to redefine office IT, gaining greater simplicity, efficiency and versatility.

In an interaction with Dataquest, S. Sridhar, Director Enterprise Soultions Business, Dell India talks about how VRTX solution will help build a comprehensive converged infrastructure for remote branch offices of large organisations and also mid market organisations that will help to scale up their IT operations and core computing in a large way.

What kind of organizations need to look for such solutions? Who are your target customers?

The VRTX is suited for any organization regardless of the size or segment. We already have multiple projects lined up and our customers span over various verticals eg: BFSI, ITes, Telecom etc. VRTX can be adopted for:

1.Automation

2.Remote and back office management

3.New projects undertaken that requires a private datacenter

4.Right sized solution basis need

5.Surveillance projects

Application roll outs/supply chain management appliances etc.

The mid market companies prefer VRTX for its unified solutions and hassle free environment. The large organizations benefit from targeted workloads and remote and branch office management. Thus, there are multiple segments that we can cater to with VRTX based on their need.

What is your opinion on VRTX being a direct competition to outsourcing datacenter?

VRTX and outsourcing datacenter are not mutually exclusive. An organization can choose to outsource their datacenter requirement and at the same time can use VRTX for application management or to go into the cloud through their own infrastructure. They would have the computing and networking they need in the VRTX. It is a great opportunity for these customers to use a solution that is not available anywhere else.

What about the cost aspect? Most companies go for outsourcing given that it is more economical, in that case where does VRTX stand?

If spoken in terms of acquisition it may be comparable to getting a rack, storage and a network setting. However, with VRTX you get these three things together in one box and when you compare cost of management and maintenance, VRTX incurs a cost much lower than any other solution.

And there is no other such solutions in the market?

No. VRTX is a unique, first of its kind shared infrastructure solution. It is the first time that Dell is introducing it in the market and no other competitor has a similar product. The VRTX has been designed taking into consideration customer feedback and the specific needs of these customers. Dell has evolved in the way it looks at convergence; we take convergence in 3 parts:

-Convergence at the core - storage, server, networking

-Convergence at management level - management of people and tools

-Convergence at the application and Service level

The PowerEdge VRTX provides the benefit of convergence at all three levels in a compact manner:

-The benefits and functionality of a blade

-Flexibility of rack features

-Allows management from a single interface

-Configured for a certain level of expansion

-Datacenter in a box

-Economical, powerful and a right sized solution

Dell introduced Vstart last year. How is VRTX different from Vstart? How do you position it?

Vstart was the first attempt at providing factory optimised, fully configured solution to customers. It was aimed at some of the mature markets whose needs were higher than emerging markets. Along the way Vstart morphed into the active infrastructure roadmap.

Difference - In the event of purchase, a customer would know how much he wants to scale. So, VRTX is positioned to help organizations at the starting point as it is economical, flexible and right sized solution. If you go by the roadmap, VRTX is at the starting point of the active infrastructure roadmap while Vstart moves into Active Infrastructure basis the customer's needs. They both exist concurrently and will be recommended to the customer basis their needs. But it will empower the customer that much more and is a solution that nobody else will be able to provide.

You have referred to it as a desk side datacenter, however, for a datacenter you will require a basic environment, is there no such requirement for VRTX?

Dell has revolutionised the power and cooling of a datacenter. We raised the thermal envelope through our technology and reduced the power envelope. Our datacenters have been designed to withstand 49 degrees and still for 900 hours. We have done this to reduce the power envelope, as most offices have a certain ambient environment of about 30-32 degrees and our datacenters can last in these temperatures without needing a specific environment. We provide the best cost of acquisition as well as the best cost of running.