IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2018: Dell EMC Storage Perspectives

As we wrap up the year of 2018, it’s always nice to squeeze in one more conference to talk about Dell EMC storage products. For us, this was Gartner’s IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies show in Vegas. This conference traditionally gets C-level executives, storage administrators, industry analysts and decision makers together for four days to hear thought-leadership and strategies regarding technology solutions. This year was no different.

According to Gartner’s numbers, the show pulled in over 2500 attendees and 120 + exhibitors with Dell EMC being one of them. As I staffed the booth to talk to customers, analysts, and professionals alike, I kept hearing, “Dell EMC, I love you guys” and “I just bought one of these,” as the attendees looked at our equipment in the booth. Simply put, people are excited about our technology and that is exactly what you want to hear at a show like this one.

A lot of the conversations I had were with individuals who simply wanted to know more about our products. Most of them were pre-existing customers that are looking forward to the future and wanted to make sure they were looking at the best storage products for their data centers.

One customer I spoke with, from a financial institution, really wanted to see a Dell EMC PowerMax as they had recently purchased a PowerMax 8000. They are beyond excited to take delivery and start moving their data to the world’s fastest storage array!

Another customer that came by the booth was getting ready to make the move to Dell EMC Isilon. This customer works for a healthcare institution and needed the perfect solution for medical imaging storage. The hospital had used EMC products in the past and was looking forward to getting their hands on Isilon.

Of course, what also makes this show so valuable is the thought-leadership presentations that are given to the attendees. Dell EMC’s Varun Chhabra presented on Data Capital. This is the idea that a company’s data is a capital asset that offers extreme value. We offer solutions that allow customers to unlock their Data Capital. Dell EMC’s Brian Payne spoke about the future and today’s emerging trends of IoT, AI, AR/VR, and Blockchain. He focused on the importance of data-driven decision making and how we can use AI to drive change that keeps customers ahead of their competition. With today’s digital economy, these were both extremely valuable presentations to attend.

Our time at the Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference was time well spent. It is always great to get out there and speak with our customers and potential new ones about our storage products and the value and performance they can bring to their data centers. Dell EMC is a valuable partner in a customer’s journey in IT transformation and from what I heard, a partner is exactly what many customers are looking for.

Success Secrets: How you can Pass Dell EMC Certification Exams in first attempt

How Digital Transformation Helps Us Get There First - Dell EMC Certifications

We are engaged in a war of algorithms; a battle fought in cyber space that also plays out across air, land, and sea every day. Digital transformation is the key to winning because it gives us a critical advantage: the ability to execute before the adversary can.

This “decision advantage” comes, in part, from embedding technology into the mission at the service of the warfighter. Technology transformation at the kinetic level, for example, makes efforts at the tip of the spear more successful. Imagine real-time AI-processed reconnaissance information optimizing ordinance activity on-target. Or turning our ships at sea into floating data centers: optimizing communication, battlefield insights, ship defenses, onboard maintenance, and medical care for our wounded warriors.

Today, across the department and in all branches of the U.S. military, IT leaders are looking for solutions to turn their legacy IT footprint into a modern multi-cloud environment.  This transformation will also bring sweeping changes to our workforce.  Tomorrow’s pilot will need to be as good at multi-mode IT systems management as actually flying an aircraft.

Technology transformation with the Department of Defense (DoD) means looking at where computer activity needs to take place. This could include activity in a data center, or on a sensor, drone, mobile device, aircraft, and even an office-based workstation. Where this processing activity, called a ‘workload’ takes place should be optimized for the mission – and not optimized for the convenience of the IT purchasing process. Mission-optimized IT includes Domestic DOD-managed cloud environments and data centers, ad hoc IT networks in forward operating positions with disadvantaged communication, or on the battlefield itself.

In support of this transformation, a multi-cloud approach allows the military to deploy infrastructure that is secure and flexible for mission-critical projects. One such example is a recent Defense Department effort to build out a secure, on-premise cloud solution within its existing data center footprint. Outdated and unsupported legacy IT systems were eating up already-scarce funding and leaving our warfighters and their mission exposed to the adversary.

Dell EMC is honored to have partnered with DoD in this effort, known as the On-Site Managed Services (OMS) program. It provides high-availability, high-performance, mission-critical compute services. This cutting-edge IT transformation program allows the DoD to manage their most sensitive workloads and provide compute and processing wherever the mission requires.

OMS illustrates the point that mission success is all about operation and accessibility, requiring different approaches for each unique workload. With a complex map of challenges and mission-critical considerations, the DoD must continue to approach cloud on a workload-by-workload basis for IT modernization success, appreciating cloud as an operating model.

Success Secrets: How you can Pass Dell EMC Certification Exams in first attempt

DES-3611 Specialist – Technology Architect, Data Protection Exam

Overview

This exam is a qualifying exam for the Specialist – Technology Architect, DataProtection (DECS-TA) track. This exam focuses on recommending and designing data protection solutions using

the latest Dell EMC Data Protection products. Dell EMC provides free practice tests to assess your knowledge in preparation for the exam. Practice tests allow you to become familiar with the topics and question types you will find on the proctored exam. Your results on a practice test offer one indication of how prepared you are for the proctored exam and can highlight topics on which you need to study and train further. A passing score on the practice test does not guarantee a passing score on the certification exam.

Products

Products likely to be referred to on this exam include but are not limited to:

• Data Domain 6.1

• Avamar 18.1

• Data Protection Suite for

  Applications 4.6

• IDPA 2.2/2.3

• RecoverPoint for VMs 5.1

• NetWorker Virtual Edition 18.1

• Avamar Virtual Edition 18.1

• Isolated Recovery Solution 1.0

• NetWorker 18.1

• DPA 18.1

• Enterprise Copy Data Management

  2.1

• RecoverPoint 5.1

• Data Domain Cloud Disaster

   Recovery 18.1

• Cloud Snapshot Manager July/2018

• Data Domain Virtual Edition 4.0

Exam Topics

Topics likely to be covered on this exam include:

Dell EMC Data Protection Product Features, Functions, Software-based

Architectures and/or Components (31%)

• Identify and describe the available tools and services to assess a customer's

  environment for a data protection solution

• Describe the Dell EMC Cloud Data Protection Solutions features, functions,

   and/or architecture/components

• Describe the Dell EMC Data Domain features, functions, and/or

  architecture/components

• Describe the Dell EMC NetWorker features, functions, and/or

  architecture/components

• Describe the Dell EMC RecoverPoint and RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines

  (VMs) features, functions, and/or architecture/components

• Describe the Dell EMC Integrated Data Protection Appliances (IDPA)

  features, functions, and/or architecture/components

• Describe the Dell EMC Data Protection Suite for Applications (DPS) features,

  functions, and/or architecture/components

• Describe the Dell EMC Isolated Recovery Solutions features, functions,

  and/or architecture/components

  Dell EMC Data Domain Solutions Design (8%)

• Identify and describe the best practices for capacity planning, performance

  tuning, sizing, and designing a Dell EMC Data Domain data protection

  solution

Dell EMC NetWorker Solutions Design (8%)

• Explain Dell EMC NetWorker capacity planning and performance tuning

• Identify and describe the best practices for sizing and designing a Dell EMC

  NetWorker data protection solution

Dell EMC Avamar Solutions Design (7%)

• Explain Dell EMC Avamar capacity planning and performance tuning for a

  data protection solution

• Identify and describe the features, functions, and the best practices for sizing

  and designing a Dell EMC Avamar data protection solution

Dell EMC RecoverPoint and RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines (VMs) Solutions
Design (17%)

• Explain the replication concepts and replication planning for a Dell EMC

  RecoverPoint and Dell EMC RecoverPoint for VMs data protection solution

• Explain Dell EMC RecoverPoint and Dell EMC RecoverPoint for VMs capacity

  planning for a data protection solution

• Identify and describe the best practices for designing a Dell EMC

  RecoverPoint and Dell EMC RecoverPoint for VMs data protection solution

Dell EMC is leading the field in Distributed File Systems and Object Storage

Digital transformation is often discussed in terms of processes, services and applications. But what’s really driving it is data: management of it, access to it, and the ability to analyse it and put it to use. And of course, it’s growing at a phenomenal rate – especially when it’s unstructured. According to Gartner, by 2022, more than 80% of enterprise data will be stored in scale-out storage systems in enterprise and cloud data centers, up from 40% in 2018¹.

Organizations need to make the most of their data capital, and they need the tools to achieve it. Here at Dell EMC, we’re proud to be among the market leaders. Indeed, for the third year in a row, we have been recognised as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Distributed File Systems and Object Storage (DFOS).

In the 2018 report, Gartner highlights both Isilon and ECS as one of the strongest performers in the market, which should come as no surprise, given our strong market leadership over the last years. And now, with the recent launch of the ECS EX-Series this past August, the announcement last year of the Isilon Generation 6 hardware platform, and more to come early next year, that leading position is something on which we’re sure to build.

What customers seek

Your customers need a flexible solution that allows them to make the most of all the information they hold. With the powerful data analytics functions of Dell EMC Unstructured Solutions, they can unlock that data capital.

With Dell EMC Isilon Scale-out Network Attached Storage (NAS), your customers can store, manage and protect unstructured data with efficiency and massive scalability. Dell EMC Isilon is the industry’s #1 family of scale-out network-attached storage systems, and is designed for demanding enterprise file workloads. Your customers can choose from all-flash, hybrid and archive NAS platforms powered by Intel® Xeon® processors.

With Dell EMC ECS Object Storage, they can capitalize on their traditional data assets through modernization. With ECS, they can store and manage unstructured data with public cloud-like scalability and flexibility, while retaining complete control over the information they hold, as well as reducing their security and compliance risks.