Dell Introduces An Updated VxRail And A Dedicated Artificial Intelligence (AI) Platform With VMware

The first hyper-converged system with complete VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC Manager integration is VxRail. Host and implement both old-school and new-school applications are on the same infrastructure.

Microsoft Explore In addition to improved VxRail HCI systems that support network offloading to DPUs( data processing units), support for VMware’s Tanzu Kubernetes Grid in its Apex subscription platform. Dell has recently unveiled its most recent kit co-developed with VMware, a turnkey platform for running AI workloads.

The VMware Explore event, where the cloud and virtualization industry is announcing vSphere 8.0, the most recent iteration of its platform, was scheduled to coincide with the announcements from VMware’s former parent.

The timing of this release, which adds support for vSphere 8, vSAN 8, and version 4.5 of VMware’s Cloud Foundation (VCF) hybrid cloud stack, is not accidental. The new VxRail is Dell’s hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) technology for managing private clouds.

Support for data processing units, also known as smart NICs, is one of the new features in vSphere 8. DPUs can offload some of the processing activities typically carried out by the host CPU, particularly network-related tasks like firewalls, overlay networks, and security services.

This function is known by VMware as vSphere Distributed Services Engine on DPU.

According to the researcher, vice president of product marketing at Dell, “DPUs are really meant to establish the foundation for the future and will be a game changer for increased workload demands on servers and the requirement for distributed scaled virtualized networking and security services.”

The researcher stated that this would also be supported on Dell PowerEdge systems, but VxRail is the first to operate it and provide it as a fully integrated solution.

DPU support is currently limited to the Pensando DSC-25 and Nvidia Bluefield-2 DPUs based on Arm CPU cores.

A team of researchers describes vSAN Express Storage Architecture, a feature of vSAN 8, as a single-tier HCI storage solution that aims to provide optimal performance, increased efficiency, and resilience. The ability to run more high-speed applications in VxRail environments is made possible by up to 4x better performance and optimizing all NVMe VxRail models for VSAN Express Storage Architecture.

Additionally, Dell revealed VxRail ruggedized modular nodes for edge deployments. They have half-width blades and are scaleable from two to 64 nodes. Still, the most noteworthy aspect, in Champion’s opinion, is an inbuilt hardware witness capability that can store virtual machine metadata.

It is also helpful in high-latency, low-bandwidth regions because the hardware witness eliminates the remote data centre infrastructure power and administration requirement.

According to Dell, these VxRail ruggedized modular nodes will be offered globally between now and the end of 2022, with a focus on industries including manufacturing, retail, and the military.

Additionally, Dell promoted their specific AI and machine learning platform, which uses VxRail as its foundational infrastructure.

According to Dell, the Automatic Machine Learning platform’s automatic machine learning models let companies create AI-powered applications. This platform is known as the Dell Validated Designs for AI.

VMware has confirmed that Carbon Black affects Windows BSODs and boot loops. It provides traditional vCenter customers with a lifeline for cloud upgrades.

Attacks involving malicious deep fakes are increasing by 13% from last year. It combines VxRail with Nvidia GPUs, Dell PowerScale storage, and PowerSwitch networking and is currently available worldwide. The software layer consists of the H20.ai platform and Nvidia’s AI Enterprise Suite.

And this integrated solution is offered on VMware vSpher validated and optimized Dell infrastructure stack, with H20 Ai, a driverless AI to automate machine learning, and Nvidia AI Enterprise Suite for cloud-native AI development and deployment.

The VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid services (TKG), which are managed by Dell, can now be added to Dell’s Apex Cloud Services with VMware Cloud, allowing users to provision and manage Kubernetes clusters through the vSphere user interface and run containerized workloads in addition to virtual machines. This is part of Dell’s expansion of its Apex portfolio of IT-as-a-service infrastructure solutions.

According to a researcher, vice president of product management for Dell Apex, “organizations will be able to speed up development efforts by designing, testing, and operating cloud-native applications alongside traditional applications on the same platform.”

“Researchers frequently observe clients balancing the infrastructure requirements of more contemporary container technology development against more conventional development of VM-based applications. And maintaining that balance between the two can occasionally be challenging.” With greater global availability, this option is now offered in the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.

Reference: https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/30/dell_vxrail_vmware/

Please Don't Forget To Join Our ML Subreddit