In case you missed it, on September 15th we announced the Dell EMC ScaleIO Ready Node. This announcement highlights months of collaboration between Dell and EMC to combine the best of both worlds – Dell PowerEdge servers and Dell EMC ScaleIO. The ScaleIO Ready Node brings All-Flash capabilities to Software-Defined Storage to enable customers to transform their data centers, making the path to the modern data center easier with Dell EMC:
There are tons of specs and details about the ScaleIO Ready Node which I won’t rehash here. You can check out the data sheet, spec sheet, and FAQ to get all the details you need. What I’d like to highlight are two key points regarding this announcement:
- Bringing best of breed EMC software-defined storage and Dell server hardware together
- Optimizing All-Flash with SDS
The first point is really important. There’s a reason why Dell spent 500 gazillion dollars on EMC… oh, it was only $67 billion you say? Peanuts then! But seriously, there are obviously a lot of synergies and opportunities between Dell and EMC, and the ScaleIO Ready Node is one of the first examples. Dell builds best-of-breed servers with its PowerEdge line. EMC is a leader in software-defined storage (SDS), with ScaleIO as its block storage offering. And guess what? ScaleIO runs on x86-based industry standard servers! Bringing PowerEdge servers and ScaleIO together was a no-brainer. It’s like peanut butter and jelly. Or mac and cheese. Or even “peas and carrots”*.
But, it’s not as simple or straightforward as you think. A ton of thought and work went into the planning and R&D processes associated with the ScaleIO Ready Node. Yeah, we’ve loaded ScaleIO onto a variety of Dell PowerEdge servers. But it doesn’t stop there. We’ve introduced a system that is pre-configured, pre-validated, and optimized for running ScaleIO. Plus, it comes with “one throat to choke” for procurement and support: Dell EMC.
I can’t emphasize how important that is. When I talk to customers, they get SDS, they understand there can be significant 3-5-year TCO savings, and they absolutely love the performance, scalability, and flexibility of ScaleIO. But, when the rubber meets the road, a majority of customers are not going to buy ScaleIO software and then procure <insert your favorite brand> servers from another vendor (but if they do, I hear Dell has good stuff). So, we’ve simplified the process and enabled faster time-to market by using Dell EMC’s supply chain and services so customers can hit the ground running – while preserving the flexibility which is a huge differentiator for ScaleIO. See what two ScaleIO veterans have to say about this:
The second point is the formal introduction of ScaleIO into the All-Flash (AF) arena. Yeah I know, every product out there has AF capabilities, and yeah, flash is becoming commoditized, and yeah, you could run AF ScaleIO clusters before the ScaleIO Ready Node. Regardless, AF is the way of the future and one of the foundations of the modern data center. So, we’re combining two key foundations to transform your data center – All-Flash and Software-Defined Storage – into a single platform to make it much easier for customers to start their journey to the modern data center.
What’s important about the AF ScaleIO Ready Node is how we optimize flash with SDS. ScaleIO’s architecture is unique and is the key behind unlocking the power of AF. All of the SSD drives within the All-Flash ScaleIO Ready Node work in parallel, eliminating any and all bottlenecks. Each node 
participates in IOPS and there’s no cache to get in the way – for reads or writes. The ability to take full advantage of the aggregate performance of all SSDs makes it possible for performance to scale linearly as you add more servers.
Customers have the ability to migrate Tier 1 and Tier 2 application workloads with high-performance requirements to All-Flash ScaleIO Ready Nodes without missing a beat! Check out Dell EMC’s All-Flash page for more details, and if you want to see some guy talking about the All-Flash ScaleIO Ready Node, click here.
We’re extremely excited about the release of the ScaleIO Ready Node. It’s awesome to be one of the first products to be released by Dell Technologies that highlights the synergies between Dell and EMC. With this collaboration, we’re able to bring peace of mind to customers and provide unique product capabilities now and in the future. Please visit the Dell EMC ScaleIO Ready Node page to learn more! #GoBigWinBig
*If you’ve never seen Forrest Gump, go watch it. Now!