Applying AI and ML technology to turn data into intelligent insights, drive a faster time to market and achieve better business outcomes

News summary

• Dell EMC PowerEdge, the world’s best-selling servers1, expands portfolio to accelerate AI-driven workloads, analytics, deployment and efficiency
• Deepens relationship with Intel to advance AI community innovation, machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) capabilities with Dell EMC Ready Solutions
• Dell Precision Optimizer 5.0 now enhanced with machine learning algorithms, intelligently tunes the speed and productivity of Dell Precision workstations.
• Dell EMC uses AI, ML and DL to transform support and deployment

Full story

Dell Technologies announces new 14th generation Dell EMC PowerEdge four-socket servers and Dell Precision Optimizer 5.0 to further strengthen AI and ML capabilities. Forges alliance with Intel in AI and ML for Dell EMC Ready Solutions to enable customers harness the power of data. New AI and ML solutions and partnerships drive smarter, better business outcomes by turning data into intelligent insights in real time.

According to the recently released update of the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) 2018 IT Transformation Maturity Curve Index, commissioned by Dell EMC, transformed companies are 18X more likely to make better and faster data-driven decisions than their competition. Additionally, transformed companies are 22X as likely to be ahead of the competition with new products and services to market.

“The Internet of Things is driving an onslaught of data and compute at the edge, requiring organizations to embrace an end-to-end IT infrastructure strategy that can effectively, efficiently and quickly mine all that data into business intelligence gold,” said Jeff Clarke, vice chairman, Products & Operations, Dell. “This is where the power of AI and machine learning becomes real – when organizations can deliver better products, services, solutions and experiences based on data-driven decisions.  And that’s the business we’re in – better business outcomes made possible by end-to-end solutions fueled by data – from the PC workstation, to the data center and applications running in the cloud.”

Delivering performance for ML workloads in the data center

ML workloads require high performance and considerable capacity to rapidly manage and analyze structured and unstructured data, and then deliver consistent, fast results that enable competitive advantage. As a result, Dell EMC today unveiled two new four-socket servers – the PowerEdge R940xa and PowerEdge R840, part of the 14th generation Dell EMC PowerEdge server portfolio.

With exceptional performance density of Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (up to 112 processing cores) and massive memory (up to 6TB of memory and NVDIMM options), these new servers deliver powerful performance  and allow customers to:  

• Rapidly transform data insights into business outcomes with the Dell EMC PowerEdge R940xa, which is designed to accelerate databases for business-critical applications without cloud fees and security risks. It improves application performance by combining up to four CPUs with four graphics processing units (GPUs) in a powerful 1:1 ratio, and it enables low-latency with direct-attached non-volatile memory express (NVMe) drives.
• Drive faster insights to better engage with customers and accelerate innovation with the Dell EMC PowerEdge R840 server, which is designed for in-database analytics. The R840 server minimizes latency with more direct-attached NVMe drives than other market available options2 and speeds data transfers with a fully integrated ultra-path interconnect (UPI). 

Dell EMC is also announcing its next generation PowerMax storage solution, built with a machine learning engine which makes autonomous storage a reality. Leveraging predictive analytics and pattern recognition, a single PowerMax system analyzes and forecasts 40 million data sets in real-time per array4, driving six billion decisions per day5 to automatically maximize efficiency and performance of mixed data storage workloads. PowerMax’s intelligent self-management capabilities allow organizations to refocus IT resources and personnel on more strategic business outcomes.

Driving critical advancements with Dell EMC Ready Solutions 

Dell EMC continues to identify and work with leading innovators to help customers harness the power of the massive amounts of collected data. Integrating partner technologies into Dell EMC Ready Solutions provides customers a simple, reliable path to identify and acquire tested and validated solutions so they can innovate more quickly, help reduce risk and help lower total cost of ownership. 

• The Dell EMC Ready Solution for HPC is a comprehensive hardware platform and software solution built on the PowerEdge R740 server, which now enables faster deployment and performance through the combination of Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and customizable Intel® FPGAs. Dell EMC will also join the Intel AI Builders program, an ecosystem of enterprise-focused technology partners to develop high-quality solutions on Intel AI products. Dell EMC and Intel® have partnered to enable customers to benchmark their Deep Learning and HPC workloads at scale on Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and Intel® FPGAs in the Dell EMC Innovation Lab and the Dell EMC customer Solution Centers.

Driving speed and productivity in workstations through machine learning

Dell recently announced the new Dell Precision Optimizer 5.0 that uses AI to automatically adjust applications running on Dell Precision workstations to maximize performance by:

• Custom-optimizing applications: Dell Precision Optimizer learns each application’s behavior in the background and uses that data to employ a trained machine learning model that will automatically adjust the system to optimized settings and deliver up to 394% improvement in application performance6. This results in true custom-optimization of any workflow, including standard ISV applications or custom native executable programs.
• Automating systems configuration adjustments: Once activated and a supported application is launched, the software automatically adjusts system configurations such as CPU, memory, storage, graphics and operating system settings. This allows workers to quickly improve workstation performance when switching between applications and projects, like moving from detailed CAD design to high fidelity visualization of the design.

Delivering the future of support
Dell EMC Services is leveraging AI, machine learning and deep learning to transform support and deployment through technology. Through connected technologies, system issues can be proactively resolved faster than ever before. The result is an even better customer experience – deeper customer relationships, actionable insights and more predictive, personalized and effortless services.

Availability

• The Dell Precision Optimizer is available globally now.
• The Dell EMC Ready Solution for HPC is available globally now.
• The Dell EMC PowerEdge R940xa and R840 will be available globally May 22.

Customer quotes:

Richard Feyns, CEO, Brytlyt
“By using GPUs along with CPUs, Brytlyt is able to provide sub-second response on billions of rows of data that previously would have taken 20 minutes. We are thrilled to see Dell EMC PowerEdge R940xa bring together the very latest server technologies, such as a 1:1 CPU to GPU ratio, integrated security and intelligent automation with large internal storage. The R940xa is a powerhouse server for machine learning and other data-intensive workloads.”

Ulrich Fuchs, service manager, CERN
“Our growing business demands require a server that can handle multiple workloads – including the demands of data analytics. We are very excited about the new features that Dell EMC PowerEdge R840 brings to the table with its NVMe drives, GPU support and high capacity. I can’t believe they fit so much in a 2U server! With these PowerEdge servers as the bedrock of our data center, we can consolidate workloads without losing any speed.”

Dugan O’Neil, associate vice president, research, Simon Fraser University
“Our Cedar high-performance computing system enables thousands of researchers across Canada to collect, analyze, share and store immense volumes of data. Through our work with leading vendors like Dell EMC, Cedar enables our researchers to run compute-intensive scientific simulations, as well as data-intensive workloads, such as machine learning applications to work on projects that advance human progress. A case in point – our Integrated Rapid Infectious Disease Analysis Project uses Cedar’s sophisticated compute power to understand disease outbreaks, including how these diseases are spreading and how to better track them.”  
 
Partner quotes:

Lisa Spelman, vice president and general manager of Intel Xeon Products and Data Center Marketing at Intel
“Today’s enterprises are grappling with a constant deluge of data and evolving workloads that requires high-performance computing and advanced AI capabilities that can scale as needed. Dell EMC’s Ready Bundle for HPC meets these needs through the combination of Intel Xeon Scalable processors and Intel FPGAs, which are part of Intel’s leading portfolio of AI solutions, and help provide a highly optimized combination of power and flexibility required to manage the modern data center.”

Additional resources

• Direct2DellEMC blog by Jason Landry – “Engines of Innovation”
• Link to PowerEdge page
• Link to PowerEdge 14th generation server video
• Link to AI and ML page
• Link to HPC page
• Follow the latest news on Twitter from @Dell and @DellEMC
  

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¹ Source: IDC Quarterly Server Tracker, Q4 2017.
² Based on Dell EMC internal analysis, February 2018
³ Based on Dell EMC internal analysis, February 2018, against industry-available four-socket servers from major vendors.
⁴ Based on Dell EMC internal analysis of installed VMAX3/VMAX All Flash capacity, March 2018.
⁵ Based on Dell EMC internal analysis of a single PowerMax 2000 or 8000 array, March 2018.
⁶ Based on Dell internal testing, July 2017, using the SPECapc Creo 3.0 Wireframe Graphics benchmark test comparing a Dell Precision 7920 Rack with Dell Precision Optimizer vs. the same system with factory standard settings. Actual performance will vary based on usage, configuration, and manufacturing variability.