Ask the Expert: Enterprise Hybrid Cloud on VxRail

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Hi experts, congratulations for providing additional options for our customers. In the introduction of this event it says that 2016 has been the year that "changed hyper-converged infrastructure for the better", could you please elaborate how this announcement represents an improvement and what are some of the features that are now available?

Well from the VxRail Platform level, this provides just another great use case for which hyper-converged infrastructure appliances can be leveraged. It goes to prove the maturity of hyper-converged infrastructure as being ready for business critical workloads and transformational IT use cases like IaaS which EHC provides.

It also brings the ability to transform IT using a smaller and more cost effective entry point for the EHC Hybrid Cloud Platform.

Enterprise Hybrid Cloud on VxRail expands to a broader market by providing an on-premises, turnkey solution for hybrid cloud deployments at price points that work for the mid-market. It is built on a foundation of VMware Validated Designs using VMware SDDC components. The new release (4.1.1) provides an automated installation process that reduces the time and cost of delivery.  A new subscription-based support model includes all professional services to support an annual upgrade. This makes it easier for customers to take advantage of the latest enhancements to the vRealize Suite and the VMware stack, by building the cost of services into the annual contract. Enterprise Hybrid Cloud on VxRail further extends the value of the VMware SDDC by offering a rich set of workflows such as backup, encryption and Databases as-a-Service integration. It is built and sustained as a single hardware and software entity, with simplified lifecycle management. In summary, we are working hard at Dell EMC making complex infrastructure simple in a service oriented era!

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2017/02/happy-birthday-vxrail-what-a-year-one.html The above blog post by Chad Sakac describes in depth much of our successes over the past year for VxRail.

I just wanted to call out a question that got a lot of attention during the Crowdchat.  Hoping the whole panel could weigh in on this one. 

"What are the reasons for customers to look at Hybrid Cloud? Why not just go Public Cloud?"

I would add to that: How does this announcement impact the hybrid vs public cloud comparison?

Great question Paul.

There are several reasons why customers, especially enterprises look at Hybrid Cloud, not just Public Cloud. For instance, according to the latest study from IDC (Source: Dell EMC Hybrid Cloud Market Survey - NHC/EHC Survey, IDC, December, 2016) - which should be published soon - cost, performance, security and IP concerns are the top challenges reported by the customers adopting the Public Cloud model. According to the same study, the majority of surveyed customers have an exit migration plan, with security and IP concerns as the top drivers for repatriation to Private Cloud. They also reported, that cost and security are the biggest drivers to use Private Cloud.

Dell EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud helps to overcome these challenges, reducing the risk and combining the benefits of Private and Public Cloud. It gives the possibility to better control and reduce the cost. We predict that especially the new EHC on VxRail offering will help to start small and grow the environment over time. With the full governance, cost transparency and lack of hidden costs for data transfers, costs are much more predictable. Performance shouldn’t be an issue with the use flash of technology, you can define different service levels both from the performance, but also data protection / availability perspective. When it comes to security, we’re leveraging VMware NSX SDN, which includes microsegmentation on a hypervisor level, increasing security in such environment when compared to the traditional / legacy network architectures. If you need to encrypt sensitive data, you have the option for that with CloudLink SecureVM.

In summary, with this announcement, we’re making Enterprise Hybrid Cloud more affordable and competitive when compared to “pure" Public Cloud options.

As part of the EHC on VxRail automated install process, and leveraging the existing vCenter configuration, Platform Services Controller and VSAN provided storage it will deploy NSX Manager and Load Balancer, then will deploy and configure all EHC components (vRealize Orchestrator, vR Automation, vR Operations, vR Business for Cloud, vR Log Insight). After this, it will configure the EHC Foundation packages, that contain all engineered workflows to integrate all the components and provide the self-service portal cloud services.

EHC on VxBlock comes with vSphere+vCenter+EHC components loaded and configured at the factory while EHC components are configured at the customer site. With EHC on VxRail, while vSphere+vCenter are preloaded at the factory, EHC components are loaded and configured at the customer site.

Rob,

the EHC platform stack will be deployed on-site (not in the factory), by a trained personnel. The deployment process is automated, and requires completion of the logical configuration sheet prior deployment. Inigo described in his answer what is done by this automated deployment tool.

Does it answer your question?

Thanks guys! Good to know !

Is there any indication when vSphere 6 Update 3 will be the standard on RAIL or RAIL-EHC and on the same vein 6.5a?

I understand on the standard RAIL, Vision and vRaealize suite are software options. If chosen do they come pre-installed or is this done onsite?