Tame the tangles with a desk-side data center

There are ways to keep it neat

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By Esther Shein - Tech Page One December 20 2013 http://techpageone.dell.com/technology/tame-tangles-desk-side-data-center/#.UsmpvbTO3Iy

Messy wiring closets can increase IT maintenance costs. Credit: Spiceworks

Picture this: You’re working in a branch office and the network goes down. You open up a closet door where the computer equipment is stored only to find a tower of boxes stacked precariously and a tangle of computer cables and wires coming at you.
This is a typical scenario in remote and branch offices, workplace settings collectively known as ROBOs. Organizations rarely staff these places with dedicated IT support staff, leaving it up the employees to troubleshoot, taking them away from the tasks they were hired to perform.
Remote offices also commonly have infrastructure that uses disparate, non-standard hardware, multiple systems management tools, lack of space to scale and poor security. While some organizations maintain tight controls to ensure that infrastructure and applications remain consistent across locations, most do not and IT ends up supporting a mishmash of hardware and software.
Poor standardization makes solving offsite problems difficult, time-consuming and expensive. About 75 percent of IT budgets are spent on infrastructure and personnel costs needed to support ongoing operations, according to ATKearney. The most efficient IT departments spend less, freeing up more funding for upgrades and strategic technology that facilitates expansion and greater competitiveness.

175 pounds of data center

The ideal solution is a so-called data center in a box, which combines servers, storage and networking into a single, easy-to-use system. That box must also be designed to fit seamlessly underneath or next to an employee’s desk and not require any special setup, power or cooling. Since IT is always looking to control costs, pricing is yet another consideration.
Dell has addressed this with its high-performance PowerEdge VRTX, which removes the challenges and complexity of managing IT remotely. PowerEdge VRTX provides up to four servers that Dell can customize with Intel Xeon E5-2600v2 processors. It’s virtualization-ready and designed to work with Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware vSphere. It is also easy to deploy, weighs about 175 pounds and stands 19 inches tall by 12 inches wide, so it can be located almost anywhere in the office.
It has simple built-in monitoring and management, including an integrated console with enterprise-class tools for onsite or remote management. There is almost no need to integrate cable servers to networking switches and then to external storage with PowerEdge VRTX. Everything is contained in a 5U tower or rackable chassis to deliver the redundancy and reliability required to meet the demands of today’s always-on environments.
As businesses look to reduce the complexity of IT and better serve their branch and remote offices, they need systems like PowerEdge VRTX that can be quickly deployed, managed with ease and prepared to scale with today’s business requirements.
Tags: Data Center,Technology