Dell announces availability for PowerEdge VRTX

Dell has announced worldwide availability of Dell PowerEdge VRTX, the first converged IT solution designed specifically for remote and small office environments, with enterprise-class capabilities in a desk-side, space-saving design. Overall, PowerEdge VRTX provides a simplified and scalable data center in a box which solves the sprawl of disparate IT devices and multiple management tools.

Dell also introduced its VRTX Solutions Ecosystem, a collection of partners working to further extend the value and capabilities of PowerEdge VRTX by delivering complementary and interoperable best-of-breed services and software designed for specific customer vertical markets and use cases. The VRTX Ecosystem is made up of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), original equipment manufacturers (OEM), global alliances, channel partners, and will leverage various Dell solution portfolio offerings.

“PowerEdge VRTX has already received rave reviews from early evaluation customers and we look forward to more customer feedback now that it’s available worldwide. Designed from the ground up to uniquely address the issues of office IT, we’re proud of customer-inspired innovations PowerEdge VRTX features, such as huge internal shared storage capacity and unified systems management of all resources inside the chassis,” said Sally Stevens, vice president of marketing, Dell Server Solutions. “Additionally, the VRTX Solutions Ecosystem is yet another example of how Dell is taking an omni-channel approach to bring differentiated solutions to market.”

PowerEdge VRTX Solutions Ecosystem
The PowerEdge VRTX Ecosystem initial partners and solutions include:
· Microsoft—Together, Dell and Microsoft are working on solutions for PowerEdge VRTX to enable high levels of efficiency and performance for small and medium-sized businesses; this includes:
o The OpenManage Integration Suite for Microsoft System Center 2012 and OpenManage Cluster Configurator for Windows Server 2012 integrate VRTX embedded management technology, iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller, to drastically simplify the process and time typically required to configure, deploy and manage networking, storage, and compute nodes. Initial tests indicate a time savings from the range of hours to deploy a cluster to just minutes using OpenManage Cluster Configurator. For ongoing management, Dell’s OpenManage Integration Suite for Microsoft System Center provides full lifecycle management.
o Dell tested and qualified PowerEdge VRTX for desktop virtualization workloads, hosting users running Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Remote Desktop Virtualization Hosted (RDVH) on Windows Server 2012. In July, Dell is updating the Dell DVS Enterprise for Windows Server 2012 reference architecture with VRTX sizing guidelines to enable customers in remote and small office environments to deploy RDS and RDVH with confidence.
· VMware—Using Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter™ Server and Dell PowerEdge VRTX with VMware vSphere®, SMBs and remote/branch offices can realise the benefits of virtualization in a way that is simple, automated, agent-free, and efficient. IT administrators can manage virtualized environments e effectively and with fewer tools.
· PowerEdge VRTX solution development is also underway with leading healthcare and retail ISV and OEM partners including Amulet Hotkey, Carestream, Infor, Microsoft Dynamics for Retail and Varian to provide Dell and ISV customers with converged solutions for compute-intensive applications relied upon by healthcare practices and retailers.
· Multiple channel partners recently engaged with the VRTX Solutions Ecosystem, including: Dasher, Dynamic Quest, En Pointe, Fluid Consulting, Information Systems Intelligence, IT Weapons, LANAIR, ProSys, SHI and Veristor.

Customers can benefit from deploying the enhanced and validated solutions developed by the PowerEdge VRTX Solutions Ecosystem, which are optimised for maximum performance and scalability.