EMC today announced VSPEX Proven Infrastructure, bringing the one-stop shopping paradigm to private clouds. With a healthy slate of hardware, software and channel partners in tow, EMC is bringing together storage, servers and virtualization for businesses seeking a shortcut to cloud-enabled infrastructures.
If this all sounds familiar, it should.
The converged cloud systems approached has been embraced by the likes of Cisco and NetApp, both of which launched new entry-level FlexPods for private clouds this week. FlexPod debuted in late 2010 when NetApp partnered with Cisco and VMware for interoperable, virtualization-friendly compute, storage and network bundles.
Opting for a purely channel-driven approach, EMC VSPEX configurations will be available exclusively through members of the Velocity Partners program. Channel partners in the program will be able to re-brand VSPEX bundles. EMC is also providing labs for testing and validation, as well as VSPEX demos.
It’s a sales strategy that allows EMC’s reseller ecosystem to enjoy the spoils of the booming cloud market, said Gregg Ambulos, senior vice president of Global Channel Sales for EMC.
“With VSPEX, we’re giving our channel partners the tools to address the fast growing market in virtual infrastructure and private cloud computing,” said Ambulos in a company statement. “VSPEX will accelerate customers journey to the cloud as it enables our partners to build value and differentiation.”
That differentiation stems from the 14 VSPEX configurations that the company will make available initially. According to EMC, they represent the most popular use cases for organizations that are itching to cloud-ify their computing infrastructures. EMC’s strategy entails dipping into its portfolio of storage systems and backup products, and cobbling together pre-configured, end-to-end solutions.
VSPEX employs EMC’s VNX and VNXe unified (NAS and SAN) storage systems, and backup and data deduplication from its Avamar and Data Domain divisions. These are then matched with technologies from Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, Intel, Microsoft and VMware.
The driving force behind VSPEX is flexibility, with the added assurances of a pre-validated setup to help IT shops get up and running fast. According to EMC’s executive vice president and Chief Marketing Officer, Jeremy Burton, “VSPEX provides a balance of simplicity and flexibility, while maximizing efficiency.”
For example, EMC sees customers opting for either VMware vSphere 5.0 or Microsoft Windows Hyper-V for VSPEX-powered environments ranging from 50 to 250 virtual machines. For VDI setups of 50 to 2000 seats, there’s the choice of VMware View or Citrix XenDesktop.
