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Today Dell announced a full portfolio of new blade, rack and tower PowerEdge 12^th Generation servers that cover the range of computing options from small businesses to hyper-scale data centers and which are optimized to run mission critical business applications.  Dell designed and built its 12th generation of servers with input from more than 7,700 customers in 17 countries.

Of those customers, many are original equipment manufacturers (OEM) including Teradata, fabbriccadigitale, Utimaco, Teleste from among hundreds of other OEMs that are standardized on Dell for their platforms. Since the launch of our last generation of Dell PowerEdge servers, Dell has engaged directly with our key OEM customers to build this next generation of PowerEdge servers with specific features to support the diverse markets they serve. The result is a new line of servers built specifically for OEMs with accelerated performance and expandability, managed stability, increased productivity, enhanced customization features and simplified support.  In sum, Dell continues to offer the best compromise between standards and customization – enabling OEMs to transform Dell hardware into their own solution.

Dell-Designed Carrier-Grade Servers

Based on feedback from our telecommunications (telco) customers, we are introducing Dell-designed carrier-grade NEBS Level 3 and ETSI-compliant servers. This is Dell’s first time to enter the carrier-grade hardware business, helping to bring innovation and excellent stability and cost to the telco market. Dell has been a telco market participant for some time, usually by way of partnerships, but this is the first time Dell resources including services, support, design, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics are being committed to the industry.

Unlike our competitors, our carrier-grade servers are compatible with our standard PowerEdge 12^th Generation servers, enabling customers to move from costly customized, proprietary carrier-grade solutions to reliable, tier-1 standards based technology. And, with greater global availability and capability, emerging and rural markets can drive innovation in a way previously not possible because the cost of doing business was so prohibitive.  This is an opportunity for Dell to bring its proven PowerEdge success and capabilities to a market clambering for this type of technology.

Utimaco, a German based provider of lawful interception and data retention for network providers, is switching from a proprietary based solution to Dell OEM’s standards based solutions and has already seen improvements in time to market and service capabilities for its customers.  René Nitzinger, Product Manager, Utimaco said, “As a supplier to telecom operators, we’re excited about Dell’s new NEBS level-3 certified servers and look forward to continuing our partnership in this space with Dell OEM Solutions. Our lawful interception management systems require carrier-grade hardware that is operational 24×7 with zero downtime, even in harsh environments.”

XL Program for PowerEdge Servers

In addition to carrier-grade hardware, we are continuing the Dell OEM XL program on a wider range of the PowerEdge server line. The program is designed to provide additional control and planning support for OEM customers with business exposure to rapid technology transitions and changes. The program helps OEMs better manage the lifecycles of their products through stability of core components and longer platform transition periods, enabling them to lower recertification costs and avoid service-strategy updates that would be required to handle unexpected component changes.

Many of Dell OEM’s customers are already utilizing the OEM XL program to seamlessly transition to their next-generation platforms at their own pace. Jani Rautaneva of Teleste Corporation told us, “Understanding how the hardware platform might change in the future is critical for our product planning and decision making. We have regular technology road map meetings with our Dell OEM Solutions contacts so we know what’s coming. Since engaging Dell a year ago, we haven’t yet gone through a full life cycle change, but the level of communication we’ve enjoyed makes us confident that the Dell OEM Solutions team will help facilitate a seamless transition.”

NEI also relies on Dell’s XL program to serve their OEM customer-base. According to Austin Hipes, Vice President of Technology, NEI, “Even minor hardware changes can have major implications for our OEM customers. The life cycle management services provided by Dell OEM Solutions help prepare us and our customers for changes ahead. We rely on Dell PowerEdge XL servers for many customers to help extend the product life cycle well beyond what other tier 1 hardware vendors offer. Our customers can avoid the costly and time-consuming work of modifying their solution for small platform changes.”

Management and Expandability Features for OEMs

Other innovations built into the new PowerEdge servers for OEMs include an Identity Module, which simplifies the distribution and maintenance of customized BIOS, helping OEMs get updates to market faster and stay focused on innovation; an LCD Access Control Panel that provides bezel-front interaction and full control of the operating system; and Agentless System Management, which is an OS-agnostic tool that streamlines processes and offers a systems management service that is nonthreatening to software stack.

In addition, the expandability options of the servers have been significantly enhanced with more storage capacity including facing PCIe flash storage, DIMM slots, PCIe slots, and hard drive bays; more PCIe slots and lanes per chassis, giving networking and co-processor options with twice the performance of the preceding generation; and higher performance graphics processing unit and add-in card support in rack dense 2U Server.

Accelerating Innovation with Dell OEM & PowerEdge Servers

Many of our OEM customers have already realized benefits by leveraging Dell OEM Solutions and our PowerEdge Servers to bring their products to market. For example,Andrea Acquaroni, Head of Unified Communications, fabbriccadigitale, said “By working with Dell OEM Solutions, we’ve reduced customer deployment time of our Unified Communications solution based on Dell PowerEdge servers by about 80 per cent – from approximately twenty days to four days.  We chose Dell PowerEdge servers due to its best in class performance and reliable uptime and expect a seamless transition and even better experience on Dell’s 12^th generation servers.”

We are also working Teradata to help them bring to market their data warehousing solutions. According to Scott Gnau, president, Teradata Labs, “We have worked with Dell OEM Solutions for more than 10 years and look forward to their continued innovation. Dell OEM’s detailed knowledge of our engineering organization and requirements, knowledge of advanced technical and roadmap information and early engineering development systems was what differentiated Dell OEM from the competition.”

We are excited to work with these customers and our 2,000+ others to help them bring to market their unique solution based on Dell PowerEdge servers along with our customized services, including design, manufacturing, fulfillment and global support. Let us know if you’re interested in moving your resources away from tactical maintenance and toward innovation so you can increase your competitive advantage and speed up time to profit.  Dell is committed to enabling OEMs to “Do More”.