The increasing sophistication and the ever-growing amounts of industry-standard information technology devices (servers, storage, clients) has created an imbalance in the cost structure for IT. Companies spend an inordinate amount of time on the management of IT assets and money for other people just to run the infrastructure. This leaves precious little for what keeps their businesses competitive and growing. It doesn’t have to be that way. Dell and Microsoft are helping companies of all sizes simplify their IT with an extensive portfolio of integrated management solutions that streamline IT processes, increase operational efficiencies, and reduce cost.
For years, Dell and Microsoft have been partnering to ensure that our combined solution offering works the best for our customers. Recently, we’ve announced their participation in the Dell Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Partner Program. In this program both Dell and Microsoft engineers have co-developed, tested and certified the integration of Dell hardware management functionality in Microsoft System Center. Microsoft has been awarded Dell ISV Advanced Certification.
Last week Bob Kelly, Vice President of Microsoft Infrastructure Server Marketing, demonstrated Dell’s server power management capabilities on-stage during his keynote presentations at the Microsoft Management Summit 2009 (MMS 2009). He showed how Dell’s 11th generation PowerEdge server instrumentation accesses advanced system knowledge for a variety of partner solutions including the new MS Power Management Pack for Systems Center Operation Manager for greater control of the IT environment and power consumption budget.
One important feature he demonstrated is that Dell’s and Microsoft’s Management Packs have complementary power management functionality to get the best energy efficiency from hardware and software. Dell PRO-enabled Management Pack integrates Dell PowerEdge server knowledge to provide extensive insight into the health status of multiple physical hardware components that enable optimal manageability of virtual IT resources. The Dell Server Deployment Pack integrates with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 to configure and deploy Dell blades and servers as an automated task. It allows for customized configurations through a simple graphical user interface for bare metal systems provisioning.
In addition to the server integration with Microsoft System Center, Dell last year expanded support for Dell Business Client integration to automate system updates for Dell Precision Workstations, OptiPlex Desktops, and Latitude E-Family laptops. We now offer 17 points of integration with System Center and Dell server, blades, storage array, business client, and printer hardware management functionality. This is all available at no additional charge to all customers.
Also at the MMS 2009, Brad Anderson, general manager of Microsoft’s Management and Services Division, demonstrated System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) deployment of Windows 7 on 20 Dell Latitude laptops. He described advantages of the product with Intel vPro, including upgrading to Windows 7 with user data while the machine is powered down.
Enrico Bracalente, senior strategist in Dell’s Product Marketing organization, was at MMS 2009 and shares more about Dell and Microsoft’s integrated systems management capabilities in this video. Take a look.