Dell introduced its deployment-ready NFV platform, which consists of its new Intel Xeon-powered 13th generation PowerEdge servers, Dell Open Networking, and software from open ecosystem partners and open source distributions. The platform also includes foundational software and open interfaces for Management and Orchestration (MANO) for simple operation and ease of integration.
Key marketing points:
- Open and Standard: The Dell NFV platform is built on Dell PowerEdge servers with the latest Intel Xeon E5-2600v3 processors combined with the innovative open networking platforms and a rich set of open interfaces ensuring maximum interoperability, manageability, and investment protection.
- Scalable in Any Direction: The Dell NFV platform can scale easily—up, down, or out—to accommodate a wide range of design goals, service capabilities and environmental conditions from small, unstaffed points-of-presences, to central office environments, and to hyperscale data centers. This includes options for Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS) platforms, Fresh-Air systems and modular/containerized solutions.
- Driving Open Source Innovation: The Dell NFV platform aims to provide a choice of software stack to complement Dell’s infrastructure and management software. This announcement extends Dell’s collaboration with Red Hat to co-engineer OpenStack-based NFV and SDN solutions specifically for the telecommunications industry.
- Open Partner Ecosystem: Dell will foster an open partner ecosystem and welcomes participation and engagement without exclusivity across all functional areas.
- Dell is making contributions to the Open Compute Project for disaggregating server elements
- Dell is backing the Linux Foundation’s Open Platform NFV Project (OPNFV) enabling open source reference implementations.
- Dell and Red Hat will make NFV test equipment available in their respective customer labs to demonstrate their joint offering.
As part of this announcement, Dell will begin shipping starter kits for early adopter proof-of-concepts (PoCs) and trials. The starter kits are smaller footprint Dell NFV platform implementations designed to jumpstart development and PoC efforts. Two different starter kit configurations are available now; one based around the new PowerEdge R630 1RU compute nodes the other based around the Dell M1000e blade chassis and the new M630 compute blades.
“NFV marks a momentous technology shift – and opportunity – for telecommunications providers. In the past, they had to rely on both highly-proprietary and complex arrangements of dedicated appliances for service delivery. Now, in an increasingly disaggregated world, the technology options can be overwhelming. Dell wants to simplify this and cut through the clutter,” said Marius Haas, Chief Commercial Officer and President, Dell Enterprise Solutions. “Our goal is to deliver the most open, flexible and practical NFV platform by combining our technology with a strong partner ecosystem to help service providers streamline service creation and delivery.”http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/press-releases/2014-10-14-dell-software-open-networking-network-functions-virtualization
