Dell today announced the general availability of Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL Horizon Edition, and updates to the Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL appliance. Both of these workload-optimized technology solutions provide customers with faster time-to-value, elasticity and greater ease of use. 

With Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL Horizon Edition (HE), Dell is the first vendor to offer a hyper-converged end-to-end virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) appliance for VMware EVO:RAIL. Using Dell servers and storage with VMware EVO:RAIL software, this new offering enables customers of all sizes to quickly and easily deploy and scale infrastructure for virtual desktops to end users based on business demand, and is optimized for consistent performance across all virtual desktops.

The updated Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL, infrastructure edition 1.2, introduces enhanced features for new and existing customers, including serviceability automation and increased scalability. Serviceability automation enables one button replacement of hard drives and network interface cards, allowing customers to spend less time on IT management tasks and more on strategic, forward-looking projects. Increased scalability allows customers to purchase the capacity they need today, with the ability to scale in the future as their business requires.

Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL are designed to power virtual infrastructure general-purpose workloads, and virtual desktop infrastructure. The solutions offer customers:

• Reduced TCO: With a reduction in power consumption and operating costs, the Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 63.9 percent over three years compared to a do-it-yourself solution.
• Greater ease of use: With a single-pane-of-glass management experience, Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL provide zero downtime, easier upgrades, patch management and out-of-the-box integrations with existing VMware management tooling. Updating Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL takes 88 percent fewer steps compared to a do-it-yourself solution.
• Rapid deployment, reduced risk: Deploying Dell Engineered Solutions for EVO:RAIL is dramatically simplified compared with a do-it-yourself solution. EVO:RAIL reduces the steps required to stand up a new private cloud from 683 to 50. This speeds up the deployment process but also greatly reduces the possibility for human error, reducing risk of delays and downtime.

Dell and VMware have a long-standing alliance and strong history of working together to offer efficient virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that are fast to deploy and easy to manage. The two companies are continuing to collaborate to provide customers with the flexibility to adapt their cloud and virtual infrastructures based on their needs today and in the future. 

Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL Horizon Edition: easy to deploy and scalable VDI

Dell marks another significant milestone in making desktop virtualization easier than ever to plan, deploy and run with the general availability of Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL Horizon Edition. With Dell Wyse PCoIP zero clients and all-in-one thin clients for VMware, a full suite of management tools, as well as Dell software and services, Dell offers a truly holistic VMware-verified VDI solution based on EVO:RAIL HE.

Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL HE is a high value EVO:RAIL appliance for customers deploying desktop virtualization today, and is designed to help organizations deploy applications faster, scale easier, and better manage infrastructure and workload delivery. It is the first EVO-based, hyper-converged end-to-end VDI solution that reduces the traditional ordering cycle by one third, shrinking implementation from multiple weeks to hours and pilot time from months to weeks. Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL Horizon Edition eases complexity by reducing the number of steps to deploy by up to 92 percent compared to a do-it-yourself solution. Each appliance scales to approximately 250 virtual desktop VMs, and the current maximum of eight appliances allows for approximately 2,000 persistent virtual desktop VMs.

Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL 1.2 enhances scalability and serviceability

Today's announcement of the Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL Infrastructure Edition 1.2 offers customers an even simpler path to a future-ready IT environment. As the first infrastructure update since the Dell EVO:RAIL solution was announced, it offers new and existing customers a simplified user experience with greater capacity for future growth.

With a focus on customers' business needs, the update offers:

• Improved linear scale-out capabilities: The Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL allows customers to easily scale performance, bandwidth and capacity by adding appliances as their business needs increase, reducing the number of steps to bring on more servers from 329 to 17. The update increases the maximum scalability of a single cluster from four appliances to eight, with each appliance designed for approximately 100 general purpose virtual machines (VMs). With each appliance containing four server nodes, the new maximum cluster size is increased from 16 to 32 nodes, supporting approximately 800 general purpose VMs.

• Automated serviceability: VMware EVO:RAIL 1.2 edition reduces time consuming management tasks by automating serviceability. In the event of a failed drive, a customer can now replace it with a simple click of a button which automates backend tasks to add the host back to the cluster. This frees up time spent on maintenance, and allowing for more time to be spent on strategic projects.

• Reduced licensing costs: The adoption of the VMware EVO:RAIL vSphere Loyalty Program allows eligible customers to apply existing VMware licenses to the purchase of Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL, preserving their existing investment in VMware software while reducing the overall cost of the appliance purchase.
  

Steve Lalla, VP, Commercial Client Software and Solutions, Dell

"Desktop virtualization is an essential tool for providing today's workers with secure access to the data and applications they need from anywhere. VMware and Dell are jointly committed to make it as easy as possible for organizations to implement VDI and scale as their business grows. We're thrilled to be introducing the first EVO:RAIL hyper-converged end-to-end VDI solution in the industry, providing our customers with a truly scalable, holistic solution."

Jim Ganthier, VP and General Manager, Engineered Solutions and Cloud, Dell

"IT professionals today are faced with too many time-consuming deployment and maintenance tasks, which take them away from the operational and business results they want to focus on. As the first and only company to offer a VDI-focused edition of VMware EVO:RAIL, Dell and VMware are collaborating to take the time, difficulty and costs out of private cloud or virtual infrastructure deployment and operations so our customers can shift their focus to projects that have a positive impact on the future of their business."

Erik Frieberg, Vice President, Marketing, End-User Computing, VMware

"The availability of the Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL Horizon Edition reaffirms the strength of the Dell and VMware partnership. The combined power of our desktop virtualization solutions underlines both companies' commitment to solving our customers' critical business and IT needs, while making virtual desktop infrastructure easier to deploy, scale and manage."

Pricing and Availability

Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL Horizon Edition and Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware Infrastructure Edition 1.2 are available starting today from Dell and through Dell PartnerDirect Partners globally.