Dell’s OpenStack Solution Now Available In UK, Germany and China

At World Hosting Day in Germany, Dell revealed plans to expand its distribution of OpenStack-based cloud solutions from the U.S. and Canada to the UK, Germany and China. Dell’s integrated OpenStack offering will target enterprise customers as well as service providers interested in using OpenStack to deliver cloud solutions to third party customers. The solution will run on Ubuntu, OpenStack and Dell’s crowbar software. Dell’s open-sourced crowbar software will manage OpenStack setup from the initial boot of the server to the configuration of the OpenStack software components. Powered by Dell’s PowerEdge C servers, the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution represents an out of the box cloud offering that allows customers to take advantage of Dell’s optimization of OpenStack for the solution’s validated hardware and software configuration.

John Igoe, Dell’s Executive Director of Cloud and Big Data Solutions, spoke to the optimization of OpenStack within Dell’s integrated solution as follows:

“As early supporters of solutions based on open-standards like OpenStack and Hadoop, Dell remains committed to providing open, standards-based solutions that enable customers to integrate new technologies without sacrificing performance or existing IT investments. Utilizing and integrating the efficiencies of the PowerEdge C line with optimized software and tailored services, the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution enables users to take a server out of the box and be up-and-running on an OpenStack cloud in mere hours. With Dell’s tested and validated designs in infrastructure, software, and services, customers can build out their IT presence and lower in-house costs.”

Even though Igoe notes that customers can “take a server out of the box and be up-and running on an OpenStack cloud in mere hours,” Andy Cash, Dell’s Director of Next-Generation Computing Solutions, commented that customers should not think of Dell’s OpenStack solution as an appliance. “We would be concerned about organisations thinking of this as an appliance… because it’s not,” Cash told ZDNet, noting that the costs and final hardware and software specifications would change on a “project-by-project” basis. Dell will provide consultative support in addition to the hardware and software required for OpenStack installations.

Dell’s OpenStack solution represents part of its broader corporate strategy to shift its strategic focus away from hardware sales toward enterprise cloud software and services. Dell announced the availability of an OpenStack solution in the U.S. and Canada at OSCON last summer. Having added the UK, Germany and China to the list of countries that can purchase its OpenStack solution, Dell intends to add more countries to its OpenStack sales base as customer demand grows worldwide.