Applications
SHARE
Facebook X Pinterest WhatsApp

Dell Challenges Virtualization ‘Myths’

Dell built its business and, until recently, its reputation by keeping things simple. The strategy worked for years with its direct-to-consumer PC model, and now it wants to bring that same cut-and-dried approach to the much more complex and comparatively mysterious world of server virtualization. Dell (Quote), along with dozens of hardware, software and virtualization […]

Written By
thumbnail Larry Barrett
Larry Barrett
Sep 7, 2007
Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More

Dell built its business and, until recently, its reputation by keeping things simple.

The strategy worked for years with its direct-to-consumer PC model, and now it wants to bring that same cut-and-dried approach to the much more complex and comparatively mysterious world of server virtualization.

Dell (Quote), along with dozens of hardware, software and virtualization services vendors, will be front and center next week at the VMworld Conference in San Francisco, hoping to stake its claim to what’s suddenly become all the rage in datacenters from Fort Lauderdale to Bangalore.

Virtualization, which lets IT managers cram multiple computing environments onto one computer so that one physical server can perform the function of two or more machines, saves time, space, energy and money.

But getting an organization’s datacenter to the point where it can start realizing all that’s promised by virtualization isn’t as easy as it could or should be, according to Glenn Keels, a senior project manager in Dell’s PowerEdge server division.

“The industry, including Dell to a certain degree, is making consolidation and virtualization too complex,” Keels said in an interview with internetnews.com. “There are some myths and misconceptions out there that are confusing customers. We’ve had customers coming to us asking if it’s true that you need blades to virtualize.”

Keels said Dell doesn’t think it’s in customers’ best interests to be automatically steered to blade servers as part of their consolidation and virtualization efforts even though they do take up considerably less physical space and consume less energy in the datacenter.

“We don’t want to drive virtualization into proprietary systems,” he said. “The customers receive the best price and performance by focusing on two- and four-socket systems. Let’s not just blade everything. By whole-hearted adopting that, you can actually increase complexity. Blades should be an option—and we love blades—but not a mandate.”

Charles King, principal research analyst at the Hayward, Calif.-based research firm Pund-IT, said he generally agreed with Dell’s position that blades aren’t always the best or only option for enterprise customers looking to reduce their datacenter footprint.

“It’s a fair point,” he said. “An x86-based server running Wintel or Linux on AMD or Windows on AMD is fully capable of supporting virtualization capabilities. You can still get remarkably strong performance on rack servers. You just don’t create the highly condensed physical environment that you can get with blades.”

This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.

  SEE ALL
APPLICATIONS ARTICLES  
thumbnail Larry Barrett

Larry Barrett is a freelance journalist and blogger who has covered the information technology and business sectors for more than 15 years. Most recently, he served as the online news editor for 1105 Media's Office Technology Group and as the online managing editor for SourceMedia's Investment Advisory Group publications Financial Planning, On Wall Street, and Bank Investment Consultant. He was also a senior writer and editor at Ziff Davis Media's Baseline Magazine, winner of the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award, and ZDNet. In addition, he's served as a senior writer and editor at prominent technology and business websites including CNET, InternetNews.com, Multichannel News, and the San Jose Business Journal.

Recommended for you...

thumbnail 8 Best Data Analytics Tools: Gain Data-Driven Advantage
Big Data
8 Best Data Analytics Tools: Gain Data-Driven Advantage
Kezia Grace Jungco
May 23, 2024
thumbnail Common Data Visualization Examples: Transform Numbers into Narratives
Big Data
Common Data Visualization Examples: Transform Numbers into Narratives
Liz Ticong
May 20, 2024
thumbnail 10 Best Cloud-Based Project Management Software Platforms of 2024
Cloud
10 Best Cloud-Based Project Management Software Platforms of 2024
Leon Yen
May 14, 2024
thumbnail HubSpot CRM vs. Salesforce: Head-To-Head Comparison (2024)
Applications
HubSpot CRM vs. Salesforce: Head-To-Head Comparison (2024)
Kezia Grace Jungco
Apr 30, 2024
Datamation Logo

Datamation is the leading industry resource for B2B data professionals and technology buyers. Datamation's focus is on providing insight into the latest trends and innovation in AI, data security, big data, and more, along with in-depth product recommendations and comparisons. More than 1.7M users gain insight and guidance from Datamation every year.

facebook
youtube
x

Company

About us Contact us Advertise with us

Categories

Trends Big Data Data Center AI Cloud Applications Mobile Open Source Security Storage

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

Terms of Service Privacy Policy California - Do Not Sell My Information