Dell Brings Self-Service to the Cloud

Dell took a step forward today in its efforts to deliver a unified server platform with the release of a new self-service portal and an update to systems management software the company recently added via its acquisition of Scalent. In addition, Dell plans to release management tools to help IT organizations dynamically manage capacity and more easily identify system dependencies.

According to Matt Baker, director for enterprise strategy for Dell, the self-service portal is a key element of Dell’s Virtual Integrated System (VIS) architecture because it allows IT administrators to set up a cloud computing service that lets end users directly request IT resources with little to no intervention from the internal IT department.

Baker said the Dell VIS Self-Service Creator is designed to strike the right balance between allowing IT organizations to maintain control of their IT infrastructure while getting out of the way of the people inside the organization that need to consume those resources.

Dell is also releasing the Dell Advanced Infrastructure Manager, which is based on technology from Scalent, and the Dell VIS Director, a set of management tools that will be rolled as a series of modules in the next few quarters.

The Dell Advanced Infrastructure Manager update adds support for Fiber Channel over Ethernet and gives virtual machine administrators more direct control over physical servers and storage. It also includes an enhanced set of Web services APIs to integrate the Dell management platform with products from third-party vendors.

The Dell VIS Director management tools will allow IT organizations to chargeback for usage of systems, analyze trends and better allocate costs.

Baker said that the overall VIS architecture is specifically designed to be a more modular approach to convergence in the data center. Rather than requiring customers to commit to a forklift upgrade to a specific set of systems, Dell is allowing customers to take a more evolutionary approach to convergence and cloud computing, he said.

In fact, Baker said that the idea that the next generation of cloud computing in the enterprise requires upgrading to an entirely new set of IT infrastructure is a “popular fallacy” promoted in the market by rival vendors such as Cisco.

Dell is looking to provide customers with an approach that allows them to strike a balance in acquiring next-generation systems while finding ways to more efficiently manage existing IT assets, he said.