A closer comparison with the VxRail would be Dell's XC line running Nutanix. The FX architecture is more a Converged (rather than Hyper-Converged) solution, allowing for greater flexibility in terms of node selection, storage, and IO expansion.
We too had a demo of the VxRail solution and I'm definitely intrigued. Coupled with the recent announcement of the next version of VSAN (with dedupe, compression, and erasure encoding), I'm starting to be convinced that HCI can serve specific use cases within the Data Center. We've started looking at HCI as part of a VDI strategy. My previous hesitation was the inflexibility in expansion, and associated costs (i.e. need more storage capacity, but you're forced to purchase compute and memory along with). We received a pre-release market brochure for the VxRail which listed maximum raw disk capacity per-node at 6TB. In addition, they indicated you had to grow the cluster in 4-node increments. It was nice to see that the raw capacity per node was increased to 10TB for the hybrid, and 19TB for the all flash version (available Q2). You're also able to expand in single-node increments after deploying the initial 4-node config. The wide range of node configurations and ability to mix and match is a nice feature as well. My biggest concern is the unknown future of any of Dell's or EMC's solutions with the looming acquisition. Back on the topic of traditional servers, I'm surprised to see some of the negative comments regarding Dell. We switched from Compaq to Dell shortly after the HP acquisition many moons ago. I was not a fan of the switch because I felt Compaq had a much better management framework at the time. However, Dell has made positive improvements over the years and we've had nothing but positive experiences with their support. I don't recall ever having an issue with replacement parts in the past several PowerEdge server generations. At this point, I see servers as a commodity. As long as they're easy to support and have moderate reliability, it all boils down to cost for me. Dell has always been very good at staying competitive. Now with the server landscape changing with the introduction of CI and HCI solutions, there's a lot more to consider when spec'ing the appropriate hardware. - Sean On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 5:15 AM, Gavin Wilby <[email protected]> wrote: > If its virtual systems you’re after, just to throw it out there check out > EMC VXRail. > > > > http://www.vce.com/products/hyper-converged/vxrail > > > > We had a demo on these the other week and they are very impressive. > > > > Dell also do an similar FX2. > > > > *Gavin Wilby* > > *IT Support Engineer* > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Heaton, Joseph@Wildlife > *Sent:* 22 February 2016 14:06 > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [NTSysADM] RE: Server Hardware > > > > I would bump up the cores to 8 per proc, since that’s the minimum > licensing you will be able to get from Microsoft, starting in July. > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Ryan Finnesey > *Sent:* Friday, February 19, 2016 7:31 PM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [NTSysADM] Server Hardware > > > > It has been almost 7 years since I selected server hardware. > > > > What are peoples preference? I used to be a big HP fan mostly because I > used Compaq servers back in the day. I had a lot of clients use Dell > mostly because of the price but I found there support poor. How are Lenovo > Servers? I am a big ThinkPad fan. > > > > I am building a product where I need to deploy a large amount of servers > at remote locations. Each server will need to run 4 VMs Microsoft’s > recommended specs are: > > > > > > o 64-bit dual processor, six core (12 real cores), 2.50 gigahertz > (GHz) or higher > > o 64 gigabytes (GB) ECC RAM > > o Four 600 GB (or better) 10K RPM 128M Cache SAS 6Gbps disks, > configured in a RAID 5 configuration > > o Three 1 Gbps RJ45 high throughput network adapters > > > > Remote monitoring and management will be key. I will most likely be > deploying Operations Manager but I need to confirm if I can install > software on the Guest OS . > > > > Cheers > > Ryan > > > > > > > > SMP Partners Limited, SMP Trustees Limited and SMP Fund Services Limited > are licensed by the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority. SMP > Accounting & Tax Limited is a member of the ICAEW Practice Assurance Scheme. > > SMP Partners Limited registered in the Isle of Man, Company Registration > No: 000908V > Directors: M.W. Denton, M.J. Derbyshire, S.E McGowan, O. Peck, J.J. Scott, > S.J. Turner > > SMP Trustees Limited registered in the Isle of Man, Company Registration > No: 068396C > Directors: A.C. Baggesen, J.M. Cubbon, M.W. Denton, K.M. Goldie, O Peck, > J. Watterson > > SMP Fund Services Limited registered in the Isle of Man, Company > Registration No: 120288C > Directors: V. Campbell, R.K. Corkill, M.W. Denton, D.A. Manser, S.E > McGowan, J.J. Scott > > SMP Accounting & Tax Limited registered in the Isle of Man, Company > Registration No: 001316V > Directors: I.F. Begley, A.J. Dowling, P. Duchars, J.J. Scott, S.J. Turner > > SMP Capital Markets Limited registered in the Isle of Man, Company > Registration No: 002438V > Directors: M.W. Denton, M.J. Derbyshire, D.F Hudson, S.E McGowan, O. Peck, > S. J. Turner > > SMP Partners Limited, SMP Trustees Limited, SMP Fund Services Limited, SMP > Accounting & Tax Limited and SMP Capital Markets Limited are members of the > SMP Partners Group of Companies. > > <http://www.smppartners.com/disclaimer.html> > This email is confidential and is subject to disclaimers. Details can be > found at: http://www.smppartners.com/disclaimer.html > ______________________________________________________________________ > This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. > For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com > ______________________________________________________________________ >
