Accruing large amounts of data and the need for streamlined examination of that data -- in terms of efficiency, analysis/recovery speeds, and accuracy, etc. -- are on a collision course. The move from process-centric to data- and memory-centric computing is already having an impact on current computing trends. This change bodes a completely new approach to understanding data sets and will require new capabilities to perform fast, efficient data analysis. It will also require new hardware and software resources.

To that end, Dell (News - Alert) has announced new product introductions are intended to address the growing demands on networks to handle mountains of data. These include a new line of servers, storage hardware and a new network virtualization architecture framework.

Dell cited industry research that more than half the servers shipped today are deployed as virtual servers. Also, by 2015, 80 percent of the cloud environments deployed will be hybrids of private and public cloud resources. In addition, by that same year, server rack bandwidth capacity will have grown by a factor of 25-fold. The new servers are designed to address that demand and they include the PowerEdge 9 series hardware.

In terms of storage, Dell bases its newest storage arrays on the EqualLogic design, which Dell acquired in 2007. The EqualLogic PS6110 for mid-sized deployment and PS4110 Series for smaller deployments represent new directions for efficient storage, including a storage virtualization development framework called Dell Virtual Network Architecture (VNA) based on Force10 technology, another recent Dell acquisition. 

According to Dell’s Arpit Joshipura (News - Alert), who was chief marketing officer for Force 10 Networks before it was acquired by Dell, "What virtualization was to servers VNA is to networks. A number of companies have introduced products that they say can help virtualize networks, but those controllers are just some of the components of a network infrastructure. A lot of people have tried doing [SDN] but have not succeeded with a full stack and that is what's different about Dell."

Along those same lines, Dell also introduced new arrivals in the Ethernet switching market. These comprise 10 GbE switches with 40 GbE switches not far behind. The 40GbE standard is on the horizon but most likely to be deployed at the network core than on the network edge, explained Tam Dell'Oro, founder, president and senior analyst at the research firm that studies the networking space.

"Dell has been very innovative at trying to allow flexibility at the customer end on the server side so that folks can do combo cards, a combination of 1Gig and 10 Gig, because the price of 10 gig when you look at it is still pretty expensive, and 40 Gig in the network core is just rolling out now."

According to James Stock, assistant vice president of network services at Grow Financial, a federal credit union based in Tampa, Fla., the latest Dell offerings would integrate well with its current mix of Dell storage, servers and networking equipment. He stated that he was prepared to replace the older Dell 2950 series servers with PowerEdge 9 series hardware, but was impressed with the coming PowerEdge M620, which he believed would provide better performance than what he has now but for less money than the PowerEdge 9.

The new product introductions are intended to address the growing demands on today’s datacenters. As part of the introductions kick-off, Michael Dell, Dell CEO and chairman, touted features in many of Dell’s previous products that are only just now being copied by other current manufacturers. "The pace of innovation [at Dell] is different for some companies than for others," he said during a three-hour long presentation by various Dell executives, partners and customers at a site near the Moscone Center where the annual RSA (News - Alert) Conference 2012 is taking place this week.