Server Consolidation with Virtualization
The ever-increasing demand for IT processing means data centers are sprawling out of control. With each new server deployed, you incur additional acquisition costs, increase your power and cooling costs, and use more of your data center real estate. Meanwhile, the typical data center server runs at only about 15 percent utilization.
Consolidating your servers through server virtualization can slow (or reverse) the sprawl, reduce costs, improve utilization and help you regain control of your IT. You may even be able to avoid or delay adding additional data centers.
By decoupling your server workloads from your server hardware — by virtualizing your servers — you can move multiple workloads onto fewer, more powerful servers. You can retire unneeded server hardware and gain immense advantages in flexibility, scalability and data center automation.
We can help you get there. Dell PowerEdge™ servers are designed with virtualization in mind, and Dell IT Consulting Services has the experience and expertise to help you successfully take advantage of the virtual era.
Featured Case Studies

Crutchfield
Crutchfield Corp. cuts its heat output by approximately 50 percent, saves six figures and improves its IT agility by using Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V on Dell systems.
Virtualization Consulting Services
Dell provides complete virtualization consulting services that include infrastructure assessment, planning, training and on-site installation and integration.
Recommended Software
Match industry leading hypervisors and management software to your unique needs.

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V
Hyper-V provides partitioning for virtual machines. Hyper-V supports 32-bit and 64-bit Virtual Memory systems running side by side. Dell has certified all three versions of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V, increasing your flexibility.

Dell and VMware: Server Virtualization
Dell and VMware deliver efficient data centers that are fast to deploy, easy to manage and can evolve into more cloud-like virtual infrastructures.

Citrix Essentials for XenServer Dell Edition
Citrix Essentials for XenServer Dell Edition is based on the open source Xen hypervisor, which delivers near-native performance.
Recommended Systems
Dell PowerEdge Servers
Simplify implementation and management, and provide maximum flexibility and performance using Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers designed specifically for virtualization.

PowerEdge M910 Blade Server
The PowerEdge M910 brings a new level of virtualization performance and scalability to Dell blades, allowing up to four Intel Xeon 7500 series processors and up to 512GB of RAM in a Blade server.

PowerEdge R810 Rack Server
Increase memory scalability without cost penalty. FlexMem Bridge technologies allow two processors to access 32 DIMMS delivering the memory scalability for all demanding virtualization workloads.

PowerEdge R710
The Dell virtualization powerhouse, the R710 two-socket, 2U rack server efficiently blends processing technology, memory capacity and I/O (input/output) scalability for virtualization performance.
Dell Storage
Choose from multiple shared storage platforms to enable advanced virtualization capabilities, including workload management, high availability and disaster recovery.

Dell PowerVault MD3200/MD3220 Direct Attached Storage Array
The Dell PowerVault MD3200 storage array is a high-performance 6Gb shared storage solution that provides high-availability data access.
Dell Networking
Maximize throughput and port density with networking products built on open standards.

PowerConnect M6220 Managed Gigabit Ethernet Switch for M-Series Blades
High-performance layer 3, managed gigabit Ethernet switch with resilient stacking and 10 gigabit Ethernet capabilities for the M1000e blade enclosure.

PowerConnect 6224 Ethernet Switch
The Dell PowerConnect 6224 is a high-performance switch offering with advanced core switching capabilities for small- and medium-size enterprises.

PowerConnect 8024 High-Density 10 Gb Ethernet Switch
The PowerConnect 8024 is a high-density 10 Gb Ethernet switch designed for data center, aggregation and unified fabric deployments requiring high output and availability.
Configuration Resources
Business Ready Configurations
Get a pre-engineered, pre-built virtualization configuration that includes server, hypervisor, network, storage and management tools.

Business-Ready Configurations for Small, Medium and Remote Environments
Learn about Dell Business-Ready Configurations with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 featuring Hyper-V for small, medium and remote environments.
Supported Configurations
Dell's reference architectures result from rigorous testing of server, storage and software components to ensure a comprehensive virtualization solution, suited to your business needs.

Business-Ready Configuration Solution Guide: Dell Blades and vSphere
This solution guide for Dell PowerEdge blade servers, Dell EqualLogic storage area network and VMware vSphere 4 provides detailed reference architecture for deploying and using VMware virtualization on Dell blades and Internet SCSI storage environments.

Dell/Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Reference Architecture
This Dell™ Virtualization Reference Architecture (RA) white paper describes Dell validated architectures for Windows Server 2008® Hyper‐V™, and is intended to provide sample virtualization configurations that can be used to consider, evaluate, and select the Dell virtualization solution components that best fit their requirements.

Dell/Citrix XenServer Dell Edition Reference Architecture
This Dell™ Virtualization Reference Architecture (RA) white paper describes validated architectures for Dell|Citrix XenServer™ Dell Edition virtual infrastructures. The Virtualization RA is intended to provide customers with an example basis to consider, evaluate, and select the Dell virtualization solution components that best fit their requirements.
Technical Resources
Get the most out of your investment using our tactical guidance and best practices guides.

Dell TechCenter: Virtualization
Get insight and share best practices for virtualization at this community forum and resource center for IT professionals.

Networking Best Practices: VMware vSphere 4 on Dell Blade Servers
This white paper provides an overview of the networking architecture for VMware vSphere 4 on Dell PowerEdge blade servers, including best practices for deploying and configuring your network in the VMware environment.

Platespin Migrate for Dell: Getting Started Guide
This guide is designed to help you get started with the virtual-to-physical (V2P) and physical-to-virtual (P2V) workload migration features of the software, including server and operating system support matrix.



