How “Fast” Is Fast? Redefining Speed with PowerEdge FX2 and OpenManage

From deployment to management, Principled Technologies put Dell EMC PowerEdge with OpenManage to the test versus HPE Synergy with OneView

Like a bullet train, the term “fast” implies high speed and performance. The term also applies to how quickly a task can be accomplished – helping you stay ahead of your deadlines to meet your goals.

The metrics that contribute to whether or not something is ”fast” can vary according to the end results. In business, it is all about expanding in the context of a competitive landscape. Delivering results and improving time-to-market applies to services and products. The engine delivering these metrics for the business is IT.

Getting to “fast” IT often means expanding in order to serve existing and new business needs. For IT, speed is critical when buying new products to run business workloads. “Fast” also means managing the ever-growing infrastructure and data center. And now, IT has to get the most out of each resource for the next job, the next application, the next need, and so on. Lastly, ”fast” also helps you integrate new equipment into your specific environment without downtime, hassles, or losing time configuring and waiting.

The end result is “fast”-er time-to-business.

Principled Technologies performed a detailed look at “fast” in a few virtual environments using Dell EMC PowerEdge servers, Dell EMC Integrations and OpenManage suites. Testing with specific and popular environments was key, so Principled Technologies chose to test with Microsoft System Center and VMware vCenter.

These environments are deployed globally across thousands of customers. While hardware can be easily deployed and placed into the infrastructure, without a complete solution that allows IT to configure, deploy and manage within those environments, you could easily waste significant time and effort trying to make it all work – and the premise of “fast” is lost.

Getting to “fast” in your environments

Principled Technologies put Dell EMC PowerEdge with OpenManage to the test against HPE Synergy with OneView, and showcased that ”fast” can profoundly impact your time-to-business results: Up to 97% faster and 20 fewer steps than HPE deploying three Microsoft Windows servers with Dell EMC PowerEdge and OpenManage Essentials!

When they tested with Microsoft System Center[1], the results were still impressive:

  • Up to 87% faster and 24 fewer steps than HPE deploying multiple servers with the Dell EMC PowerEdge FX2 with OpenManage Integration for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
  • Up to 46% faster than HPE deploying a single host with Dell EMC PowerEdge FX2 with OpenManage Integration for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Leveraging the Dell EMC OpenManage Integration for Microsoft System Center enabled faster deployments for the business compared to a solution using HPE Synergy with OneView. Furthermore, no additional hardware such as a dedicated PXE server or deployment network was required, resulting in no lost time or additional expense. OpenManage integrates readily with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager to quickly expand a virtual infrastructure.

Testing also revealed that configuring, deploying and maintaining Microsoft Windows servers with Dell EMC OpenManage Essentials made standard operations faster[2]:

  • OpenManage Essentials saved over 22 minutes (up to 91% less time) to deploy a single Windows server
  • Dell EMC PowerEdge FX2 with OpenManage Essentials can update firmware for three Windows Servers up to 27% faster than HPE Synergy solution with OneView
  • 6 fewer steps than HPE updating firmware for three Windows Servers

Similarly, OpenManage Integrations for VMware vCenter allows IT admins to manage servers directly from within vCenter. Tasks like creating profiles, templates to deploy and firmware updates can easily be done without leaving vCenter. Doing similar tasks with HPE Synergy requires users to exit from the vCenter console. This raises the risk of more user errors with extra steps and time to complete. With vCenter integration, typical tasks take less than 10 steps and under four minutes. Savings like these could shrink time and effort for IT admins compared to using HPE OneView for VMware vCenter with HPE Synergy.

Along with Dell EMC Integrations, IT can scale management further with the Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise suite. The powerful suite helps you simplify, automate and unify management tasks, across a data center with up to thousands of PowerEdge servers.

Further, setting up the Dell EMC PowerEdge FX with 14th gen FC640 blades for this environment saved up to 36% on costs including deployment, or a savings of more than $140,000.

With time and cost savings, IT can be “fast” and get much more done in Microsoft and VMware environments using Dell EMC FX2 servers, Integrations and OpenManage.

The result is “fast” can really work to a company’s advantage, and get you the results you want.

“Fast” time-to-business can be an overused term and hard to scope in terms of ROI, but ‘fast” can be achieved. Principled Technologies results show how systems, solutions, and suites that work all together can easily fit into your environment. And this combo can yield great gains. IT gets better control of management. Doing so lets IT quickly turn idle resources and newly installed equipment into working and managed workhorses for your business

While your IT and infrastructure may not be bullet-train fast, working with the right systems and solutions can enable your business to get “fast-er” results.

To learn more, visit DellEMC.com/Choose-PowerEdge

[1] Principled Technologies (PT) report commissioned by Dell EMC, “Get flexible, feature-rich datacenter management at a lower cost” March 2018, comparing Dell EMC FX2 with OpenManage vs. HPE Synergy with OneView.

[2] Ibid

Robert Hartman

About the Author: Robert Hartman

Robert Hartman is a Senior Product Marketing Manager for Dell EMC PowerEdge servers and other products in the PowerEdge family. He has always had a fascination with technology and how it can add value to people, businesses and ongoing trends to improve productivity. His perspective is to communicate how customers and business can leverage, maximize their investments and increase their results. This is Robert’s second time with Dell Technologies following his passion in marketing, after joining in 2010 in the Networking business unit. He has over 20 years of marketing experience in semiconductors, networking, servers, and cloud, with many more years in technology.