Dell's New PowerEdge Generation Brings New Upgrades With It

A network, in the end, is only as strong as the hardware running it. While software is likewise vital—hardware is just a hefty paperweight without software—software would exist only on paper without hardware. Dell recently showed off its newest PowerEdge systems, offering more than enough power to run many of the common jobs that servers undertake today and then some.

Specifically designed for major jobs like analytics and virtualization deployments, the PowerEdge servers focus on delivering power where it's most needed, making PowerEdge systems scalable to meet most needs on the ground. One of Dell's biggest recent releases is the PowerEdge R930 server, with an Intel Xeon E7-8890 V4 processor. Recent reports noted it set three world records, including the standard benchmark for the SAP HANA platform advanced mixed load with both two and four billion records, and the SAP sales and distribution standard application. Impressive enough alone, but the R930 has also delivered value in database performance, as reports note the R930 has delivered both 99.4 percent greater storage throughput and 44 percent faster input / output operations per second (IOPS) than earlier versions.

That wasn't all Dell had to offer, though as the PowerEdge R830—a four-socket rack server—stepped in to deliver a highly scalable option that still delivers power, though in somewhat diminished quantities against the R930. The R830 boasts four processors and as many as 48 dual inline memory modules (DIMMs), allowing it to work well in virtualization or for databasing. Finally, Dell also noted new four-socket servers in the PowerEdge line, offering updates for the PowerEdge FC830, the PowerEdge M1000e, and the PowerEdge M830 blade server line.

There has been quite a bit of demand lately for data center products and similar issues that depend on high-end computer processing to deliver. With cloud-based systems, virtualized offerings, and the growing demand for big data analytics, among others, the right kind of hardware to keep it all up and running has never been so necessary. Dell's lineup not only illustrates what kind of power there is in the market these days, but also what kind of a move it's been making away from consumer PCs and similar hardware. Remember Dell's primary stock in trade was such hardware, and now with powerful servers like the ones just seen, we're seeing Dell reach its full stride as a dealer in high-end servers as well.

Dell is rapidly becoming a market leader in powerhouse hardware, and the PowerEdge line bears that much out well. With Intel Xeon processors and the like to back its play, Dell could have the start of a great and powerful new lineup here to drive the virtualization process forward and get network infrastructure ready for the changes.

Edited by Maurice Nagle