Dell Moves Up the IT Value Chain with vStart

A recurrent theme at the inaugural DellWorld event last week was the transformation of Dell from a volume-based PC and x86 server seller into an enterprise-focused company with a much broader portfolio of products, services, and solutions. IDEAS believes that one of Dell’s new products, vStart, is good evidence that Dell is maturing as an enterprise solution provider.

Much like VCE Vblock, vStart is a preassembled bundle of x86 servers, storage, and network gear that hosts virtual machines. Included with the purchase of this infrastructure "chunk" are installation services and upgraded warranty support. While integrated blocks for virtualization won’t appeal to tech-savvy end users who assemble systems with best-of-breed components, we believe that virtualization newcomers will use them to fill in gaps in in-house IT expertise. We expect that vStart is likely to be followed by other such bundled offerings as Dell moves into an integration phase of bringing together recently acquired technologies from companies like Perot Systems, Force10 Networks and Compellent Technologies. 

The vStart hardware is all Dell: PowerEdge servers are coupled with iSCSI-based EqualLogic storage and PowerConnect Ethernet switches.  Dell launched two different models of vStart earlier this year, and this fall added a third. Models are distinguished by their infrastructure capacity

vStart Models

	vStart 50	vStart 100	vStart 200
Rough estimate of number of VMs supported	50 VMs	100 VMs	200 VMs
Servers	2xPowerEdge R610 (12 Cores, 64GB RAM each)	3xPowerEdge R710 (12 cores, 96GB RAM each)	6xPowerEdge R710 (12 cores, 96GB RAM each)
Storage	7.2TB raw capacity with 1xEqualLogic PS4100XV	9.6TB raw capacity with 1xEqualLogic PS6000XV (iSCSI)	19.2TB raw capacity with 2xEqualLogic PS6000XV (iSCSI)
Networking	4xPowerConnect 6024 Layer-3 1Gb switch (2 for LAN, 2 for SAN)	4xPowerConnect 6248 Layer-3 1Gb switch (2 for LAN, 2 for SAN)
Infrastructure	24U Rack with PDU	42U Rack with 2xPDU, 1xUPS, KVM	42U Rack with 4xPDU, 2xUPS, KVM
Hypervisor	VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V	VMware vSphere
Management	Dell Management Plug-in for vCenter or Hyper-V; VMware vCenter 60-day trial license	1 Management Server running VMware vCenter (with Dell Management Plug-In); VMware vCenter 60-day trial license; EqualLogic SANHQ
Services	Deployment of hardware and hypervisors (including site readiness review and deployment project management, SAN configuration); orientation session
Competitors	VCE Vblock, Cisco/NetApp/VMware FlexPod, HP VirtualSystem, HP Smartbundles, IBM BladeCenter Foundation for Cloud

It's Not about the Hardware
The specific hardware components aren't what drive interest in bundled blocks like vStart, according to Andy Rhodes, Dell's executive director for virtualization solutions. Customers are drawn to preassembled solutions because they eliminate the time and manpower investments normally needed to learn and construct their own virtualization infrastructure.

One key target user for a vStart includes relatively small companies with few IT staffers – or perhaps no dedicated IT person at all. Setting up an in-house virtual infrastructure can be hard for organizations with limited IT resources because it requires skill sets from multiple IT disciplines, like shared-storage configuration and network architecture.  To gain the convenience of pre-assembled solutions, customers must be comfortable with infrastructure as a “black box”; vendors deliver and support the capacity for their VMs, but customers don’t get to choose (for example) whether the infrastructure uses fibre channel or iSCSI-based storage.

Another part of vStart’s value comes from its speed of installation. According to Rhodes, customers can actually be running VMs on their vStart within 2-3 days of its on-site arrival.  This speed in installation and configuration also appeals to some do-it-yourself divisions within large organizations who often find that Dell can get things running faster than their own internal IT departments.

Other good-fit usage scenarios for vStart include on-site infrastructure for branch offices of mid-to-large organizations, as a dedicated system to host a stand-alone application, and as a disaster recovery platform.

Sizing by Virtual Machines
Ultimately, vStart isn't as much a product customers buy as a process they follow to acquire a solution. Planning the vStart installation involves a consultation between the end user and Dell, and it's a long-term relationship. A key to this process – as with all such bundled solutions – is determining what size bundle is appropriate for a customer.

The vStart model names are often treated as an indicator of the number of VMs that the infrastructure can support.  The actual number of VMs a user can achieve comes down the size of the workload, and there’s no industry standard definition for a typical workload.  However, customers gravitate toward the "number of VMs" metric because they haven't found anything better.  ("A better measure might actually be cost-per-U of your data center," Rhodes added.)

Approximate VM sizes used for vStart model naming
CPU	3:1 ratio of vCPU to physical cores
Memory	2.5 GB/VM
Storage	30 GB/VM

Even if you have a detailed history of workloads, sizing and tuning a vStart-style system is "more of an art than a science." So, Dell uses a staff of trained specialists who dig through the customer's needs and use their experience to size a vStart replacement.

The Downsides of Integrated Systems
Virtualization blocks like vStart leave some problems on the table for the end user and pose some new challenges to vendors.

Vblock, vStart, and other sold-by-the-pound converged infrastructures are priced at a premium versus buying the components individually and assembling them yourself.  Trusting the vendor to size a solution they also sell can be risky. The issue of “VM sprawl” (in which the ease of creating new VMs causes their number to spiral out of control) also isn’t addressed by vStart.

Vendors of integrated systems also risk losing the customer's loyalty as the hardware becomes less important than the tools used to manage it. vStart depends on VMware vCenter or Microsoft System Center. However, Dell believes its own higher-level management tools such as Virtual Integrated System (VIS) will keep customers with Dell. According to Rhodes, customers want simultaneous physical and virtual server management, something Dell's VIS provides. "They also want multi-hypervisor deployments, because they're not willing to go with just VMware or just Microsoft."

A challenge to vendor channel partners and Value-Added Resellers (VARs) is that pre-assembled bundles can cut them out of offering their own integration services.   However, just as Dell is moving higher in the IT value chain with vStart, VARs may deploy them in order to move themselves into higher-value areas like consulting and application solutions.

(Edited 24 October 2011: Corrected memory amount in vStart 50 server configuration) 

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Comments

[Nettie Olsen]

This article does a great job of explaining the VStart offering, the benefits as well as the challenges.