Dell EMC VxRack FLEX with 14 th Generation PowerEdge Servers

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1 Enterprise Strategy Group Getting to the bigger truth. ESG Economic Value Audit Dell EMC VxRack FLEX with 14 th Generation PowerEdge Servers By Dom Amato, Associate Validation Analyst and Aviv Kaufmann, Senior Validation Analyst August 2018 Executive Summary The adoption of hyperconverged infrastructure has continued to grow at a rapid rate as organizations search for ways to incorporate easy-to-use, scalable technology that will move them closer to a cloud-like experience and save money in the future. The need to optimize entire infrastructures to satisfy particular hyperconverged workloads is driving the change, and customers are looking for tailored solutions that can deploy quickly and achieve cloud-like scale. Dell EMC s VxRack FLEX provides a rack-based hyperconverged system designed to succeed traditional SAN-based hyperconverged offerings. VxRack FLEX is designed specifically to handle hyperconverged workloads at scale with the newest generation of PowerEdge Servers. The purpose of ESG s analysis is to give readers a foundation to evaluate the potential quantitative and qualitative economic benefits associated with modernizing their legacy IT infrastructure with a pre-tested, pre-integrated, fullyengineered hyperconverged system from Dell EMC. ESG examines the economic benefits organizations can expect from Dell EMC across three major areas: CapEx reduction, simplified management, and performance at scale. This paper enables IT organizations to understand the power, cost savings, and flexibility they can realize with VxRack FLEX on 14 th generation PowerEdge Servers. This ESG Economic Analysis was commissioned by Dell EMC and is distributed under license from ESG.

2 Economic Value Audit: Dell EMC VxRack FLEX with 14 th Generation PowerEdge Servers 2 Introduction This ESG Lab Economic Value Audit (EVA) focuses on Dell EMC s hyperconverged VxRack FLEX system with new 14 th generation PowerEdge Servers. ESG Lab focused on how upgrades to VxRack FLEX s hardware and software components bring additional flexibility, performance, and savings to an already-established HCI offering that takes full advantage of Dell EMC s PowerEdge Servers and VxFlex OS. VxFlex OS is the new brand name for ScaleIO software and is a scale-out block storage service that enables VxRack FLEX to create a scale-out Server SAN or hyperconverged infrastructure on x86 server hardware (Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers). ESG Lab conducted quantitative and qualitative evaluations of VxRack FLEX and how it compares to previous generations of VxRack systems. ESG Lab validated VxRack FLEX s current-generation improvements such as time savings of up to 82% on a three-year deployment and 2.5x increased system performance. Challenges Hyperconverged offerings have enabled organizations to modernize their infrastructures and deliver a cloud-like experience on-premises. Reported use of hyperconverged infrastructure more than doubled between 2016 and 2017, and there are no signs of slowing down. 1 Simplified, flexible deployment options that are easily managed and easily scaled are just a few of the factors driving the rapid adoption of hyperconverged technology. In fact, ESG research shows improved TCO, scalability, and simplification are some of the most common benefits realized by organizations that have adopted hyperconverged solutions (see Figure 1). 2 Consolidation and modernization efforts are top of mind for organizations, and hyperconverged offerings allow IT to meet the needs of the business while satisfying existing and future application SLAs related to performance, scalability, reliability, and cost. Figure 1. Top Ten Benefits of Deploying Hyperconverged Technology What have been the most significant benefits your organization has realized by deploying a hyperconverged infrastructure technology solution(s)? (Percent of respondents, N=208, five responses accepted) Improved total cost of ownership (TCO) 28% Improved scalability 28% Improved service and support Simplified management Faster deployment time Less time and resources required for hardware/software integration More predictable costs when scaling Simplified deployment process Reduced CapEx Increased agility of virtual machine provisioning 23% 21% 21% 20% 19% 19% 18% 17% Source: Enterprise Strategy Group 1 Source: ESG Research Report, The Cloud Computing Spectrum: From Private to Hybrid, March 2016; and ESG Master Survey Results, Converged and Hyperconverged Infrastructure Trends, October Source: ESG Master Survey Results, Converged and Hyperconverged Infrastructure Trends, October 2017.

3 Economic Value Audit: Dell EMC VxRack FLEX with 14 th Generation PowerEdge Servers 3 Organizations requirements often dictate supporting enterprise applications and databases of different shapes and sizes, across multiple hypervisors and operating systems, on both physical and virtual infrastructure. All of these configurations and architectures must be taken into consideration when planning and expanding the adoption of hyperconverged infrastructure in the data center. Even if they currently rely on hyperconverged solutions to modernize their IT infrastructures, organizations might find that performance is not always optimized for all workloads. Predictable scalability can be tricky to deliver, and management of the entire stack can quickly become overwhelming. Solution VxRack FLEX is a rack-based hyperconverged solution that leverages Dell EMC s VxFlex OS to deliver flexible, scalable, and performant infrastructure. Dell EMC s VxFlex OS runs on industry-proven Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers to deliver a full hyperconverged stack that enables IT organizations to work with one vendor to supply all the software, hardware, and support required to modernize their data centers. The newest VxRack FLEX pairs 14 th generation PowerEdge Servers with virtualization software, known as VxFlex OS, to create a hyperconverged system capable of producing scalable and flexible capacity and performance as needed. Some of the system s core attributes and services include: Scale-out architecture that offers elasticity to start small and grow based on business needs, cloud-like scale, and on-premises flexibility. Scale-out block storage service built on PowerEdge Servers to deliver a data-center-grade, fully integrated, hyperconverged solution, enabling organizations to save on the large initial investments and high operational costs common with traditional SANs. Purpose-built for HCI workloads by containing 150 custom requirements to offer more consistent performance. Customer-enabled flexibility thanks to hardware options at deployment that include an integrated network fabric, hybrid node combinations, and choice of multiple hypervisors, operating systems, or bare metal configurations. Increased performance at scale made possible with new PowerEdge Servers that result in a 2.5x leap in performance with additional improvements to memory, cores, and VM density. ESG Economic Audit ESG s Economic Validation process is a proven method for understanding, validating, quantifying, and modeling the economic value propositions of a product or solution. The process leverages ESG s core competencies in market and industry analysis, forward-looking research, and technical/economic validation. ESG audited time estimates obtained from deploying VxRack FLEX systems in the field and compared them with modeled estimates. We used these estimates to derive IT costs associated with deploying the VxRack FLEX systems. ESG completed a quantitative economic analysis of the new VxRack FLEX system on 14 th generation PowerEdge Servers to validate the way the improved hardware flexibility, scalability, and efficiency results in cost savings versus DIY componentbased deployments and the previous generation of VxRack Flex. ESG validated the kinds of quantitative and qualitative savings organizations can expect from adopting a new VxRack FLEX system across the following areas: Cost reduction through consolidation made possible with a smaller footprint and increased hardware efficiency. Simplicity and flexibility improvements thanks to more customer-friendly hardware options with a simplified upgrade process that makes managing systems easier. Performance and scalability are unlocked with Dell EMC s systems that are purpose built to work with VxFlex OS, increasing performance per node by 2.5x with the newest generation PowerEdge Servers.

4 Economic Value Audit: Dell EMC VxRack FLEX with 14 th Generation PowerEdge Servers 4 Cost Reduction through Consolidation VxRack FLEX s improvements in hardware choice and footprint density make it easier for customers to save money, even when compared with the previous generation system (13 th generation). The 14 th generation PowerEdge Servers make it possible to do more with less, opening potential cost savings in a few areas: Lower capital expenses: VxRack FLEX offers increased performance to traditional SAN infrastructures at a reduced price. Flexible configurations: Configurations include storage only, compute only, and HCI-geared hybrid nodes that can easily be added to in the future. VxRack FLEX is half the cost of traditional SAN over a three-year lifecycle. Smaller footprint: The newest PowerEdge Servers boost IOPS, storage, and memory per node. VxRack FLEX customers can now achieve more with their current footprint or achieve the same performance with a smaller one. ESG Lab started by testing how customers would save with VxRack FLEX against the cost of other hyperconverged offerings using a traditional SAN approach. Storage costs alone were twice as high for a traditional SAN system, and when considering utilities and the expertise required over a three-year lifecycle, VxRack FLEX proved to be approximately half the price. We validated that the initial cost of entry for a new VxRack FLEX system may already come at a reduced cost versus buying individual components, leaving customers an option to spend on upgrades and other priorities. Aside from core pricing, VxRack FLEX offers a range of HCI node configurations that separate it from other offerings. ESG Lab looked at variations of storage only, compute only, hybrid nodes, and even GPU-supplemented configurations, all of which could easily be tuned to specific HCI workloads and scaled out in the future. Traditional HCI systems are not always optimized in this way and often force customers to spend their IT budget on upgrades or entire stacks to keep performance afloat. The newest iteration of VxRack FLEX s PowerEdge Servers offers sharp increases in a few categories. ESG Lab validated that the 14 th generation delivers 2.5x more IOPS, 60% more flash capacity, and 4x more memory per node than the previous generation. Improvements we saw in drive cooling also translated directly to system reliability and longevity. These improvements allowed infrastructures to boost performance without increasing in size. As an alternative, customers could achieve the same performance with an even smaller footprint.

5 Economic Value Audit: Dell EMC VxRack FLEX with 14 th Generation PowerEdge Servers 5 Simplicity and Flexibility VxRack FLEX on 14 th generation PowerEdge Servers offers a more simplified approach to system management than its predecessors. The newest iteration of VxRack FLEX not only cuts down the time it takes to deploy the system, but also offers tighter controls and a more streamlined upgrading process to help make strides in the following areas: Reduced time to deploy: VxRack FLEX offers a faster time to value than a traditional SAN infrastructure and further extends that benefit over a three-year lifecycle. Less to manage: Simplified management controls and easily scalable configurations allow IT administrators to spend time more time on value-added activities. VxRack can reduce time to deploy by as much as 6x. Easier upgrade process: The Release Certification Matrix (RCM) process wraps all upgrades for any VxRack FLEX configuration in a single process to reduce downtime. ESG Lab predicts significant operational savings can be achieved through faster deployment and simplified system maintenance. Dell EMC is well known for the pre-tested, pre-integrated value of its converged and hyperconverged portfolio, which contributes significantly in VxRack FLEX s ability to begin achieving value for customers up to 6x faster than traditional HCI offerings. ESG Lab validated this benefit for previous generations of VxRack FLEX, but it may be more important this time around considering the amount of customization buyers have with the newest generation of servers to quickly deploy systems to support new business initiatives. The sizeable reduction in deployment time is a benefit at initial deployment, but also covers faster deployment of new nodes to grow the system over three years. Since customers would need to deploy fewer racks and upgrades with a more tailored system, VxRack FLEX would be able to produce more value for a longer period. To help quantify this, we assumed the initial deployment of a traditional HCI system takes five days, and the workload it runs generates revenues of $1,500 per hour. A new VxRack FLEX that takes less than one day to deploy can provide an additional $150,000 of revenue to the organization, further increasing the value of the investment. ESG Lab noted that system configurations were flexible and gave the user the ability to deploy a custom system designed with specific HCI workloads in mind. This is an improvement when compared with a one-size-fits-most traditional SAN HCI system. Dell EMC s pre-integration process optimizes BIOS and settings for the customer s environment before ever actually reaching the data center, giving administrators back valuable man-hours that may otherwise be spent tweaking firmware and storage settings. Apart from first-time setup, the upgrade and update process proves much quicker and more painless than a traditional system. The downloadable Release Certification Matrix (RCM) approach makes updates for each custom configuration possible with a single download, easily saving hours of system downtime. Additional components are easily added to the new servers to scale performance seamlessly as a result of VxRack FLEX s subcomponent field replaceable units (FRU). The seamless upgrades will become fully available to organizations in 2019.

6 Economic Value Audit: Dell EMC VxRack FLEX with 14 th Generation PowerEdge Servers 6 Performance and Scalability With the introduction of the 14 th generation PowerEdge Servers, VxRack FLEX provides improved node performance that is predictable at any scale with its VxFlex OS-centered approach. ESG Lab validated improvements from the newest VxRack FLEX in the following areas: Increased server performance: New 14 th generation PowerEdge Servers boost VxRack FLEX performance by 2.5x more than previous generations. Higher VM density: More VMs per node allows customers to do more at their current size, or achieve equal performance while reducing their footprint. New PowerEdge Servers driving node improvements yielded a 2.5x increase in performance at scale. Tuning for HCI workloads: VxRack FLEX 14 th generation hardware is optimized for VxFlex OS to assure that infrastructure can scale alongside business needs without sacrificing any performance or wasting resources, as other scale-out architectures could. ESG validated that VxRack FLEX is able to provide performance at scale nearly linearly with the 14 th generation of PowerEdge Servers. Having previously validated the impressive performance of VxRack FLEX, ESG Lab was impressed with the results, as the newest VxRack FLEX release provides 2.5x higher performance per node compared with the previous generation, yet also provides near-linear scalability as nodes are added. This was the end result at multiple sizes, once again showing the versatility of VxRack FLEX to handle mixed workloads. Perhaps more important than the impressive performance increase we observed was the higher VM density achievable by each VxRack FLEX node. At a 34% increase in density over the previous generation, more VMs in the same space give the system the ability to scale user workloads more effectively. This is particularly important given that VxRack FLEX leverages VxFlex OS to provide the optimal scalable platform for HCI workloads. We validated that at one-third greater density and 2.5x performance per node, customers can better consolidate and scale workloads to meet the needs of the business. A traditional high-end scale-up SAN may have limitations at or below 6 million IOPS, and attempting to scale past this point often results in a performance scaling degradation or limitation. VxRack FLEX s newest iteration of PowerEdge Servers were designed for scale, scaling nearly linearly as nodes are added, and reaching above 31 million IOPS at 128 nodes during a 100% read workload. We also saw that linear scaling held true with mixed and 100% write workloads.

7 Economic Value Audit: Dell EMC VxRack FLEX with 14 th Generation PowerEdge Servers 7 The Bigger Truth To support ever changing business demands, IT organizations need to provide an agile solution that is capable of quickly scaling to meet the demands of enterprise applications and workloads. Traditional hyperconverged solutions may scale with the business and are simple to manage, yet often lack flexibility beyond the offered building block. These hyperconverged systems are not always optimized for the workloads they need, and can be difficult to reconfigure when business initiatives change at the top. Most hyperconverged offerings preach scalability and customization as pillars of the technology, but struggle to deliver performance and density that meets the needs of the business or become quite expensive when additional blocks are needed to keep performance on target. Dell EMC s VxRack FLEX with 14 th generation PowerEdge Servers delivers a fully integrated scale-out approach to hyperconverged architecture. VxRack FLEX with 14 th generation PowerEdge Servers was purpose-built for hyperconverged workloads and boasts over 150 custom requirements built into the hardware that give customers the option to avoid a large initial investment and scale the system efficiently to satisfy the demands of mixed workloads. ESG Lab has validated past releases of VxRack FLEX, but the newest generation built upon 14 th generation PowerEdge Servers and VxFlex OS software unlocks the system s potential to scale to meet the demands of modern workloads with optimized configuration options and an increase in per-node density and performance. ESG recommends VxRack FLEX on 14 th generation PowerEdge Servers to IT organizations looking to deliver the performance and scalability of a nextgeneration hyperconverged system while saving valuable time and expense in the process. All trademark names are property of their respective companies. Information contained in this publication has been obtained by sources The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) considers to be reliable but is not warranted by ESG. This publication may contain opinions of ESG, which are subject to change from time to time. This publication is copyrighted by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. Any reproduction or redistribution of this publication, in whole or in part, whether in hard-copy format, electronically, or otherwise to persons not authorized to receive it, without the express consent of The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc., is in violation of U.S. copyright law and will be subject to an action for civil damages and, if applicable, criminal prosecution. Should you have any questions, please contact ESG Client Relations at Enterprise Strategy Group is an IT analyst, research, validation, and strategy firm that provides market intelligence and actionable insight to the global IT community by by The The Enterprise Enterprise Strategy Strategy Group, Group, Inc. Inc. All All Rights Rights Reserved. Reserved. contact@esg-global.com P