Following through on a $1 billion investment in cloud computing services this year, Dell has announced its first public cloud-based data storage offering at VMworld 2011 in Las Vegas on Monday.
The aptly and simply-named Dell Cloud is based upon the VMware vCloud Datacenter Services architecture, which is designed for secure enterprise-grade public, private and hybrid clouds.
Basically, Dell and VMware will provide Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions for customer organizations, hosting and outsourcing firms, system integrators and service providers. The IaaS will provide some of what has already been determined as some of the key requirements for cloud computing: scalability, higher security, and automation. Customers will also receive consulting and additional infrastructure services to ease the cloud adoption process.
Customers have three options if they want to utilize the Dell Cloud with VMware vCloud Datacenter Services:
- Public: Hosted in a secure Dell data center with access to vCPUs, memory, storage networks, IP addresses, firewalls, and catalog capabilities
- Private: Dell will build private clouds at either the customer’s data center or Dell data centers using VMware products such as VMware vSphere and vCloud Director as well as Dell’s vStart
- Hybrid: With the VMware vCloud Connector, the hybrid cloud solution provides management of on- or off-premise private cloud and Dell’s Public cloud offering
The Dell Cloud with VMware vCloud Datacenter Service is currently open to a beta pool of customers, and it is expected to open up to the U.S. general public during the fourth quarter of 2011. An international launch is planned for 2012.
Dell and VMware also recently teamed up on Dell’s EqualLogic storage systems for small and mid-size businesses, which will include a deeper integration with VMware’s vSphere 5 cloud management software.
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