Cloud App Management
iTWire | September 27, 2023
Dell Technologies today announced the availability of Dell Apex Cloud Platform for Microsoft, a new fully integrated turnkey system developed in collaboration with Microsoft that extends the Microsoft Azure hybrid cloud experience to data centre and edge environments.
It’s the first offer in the Dell Apex Cloud Platform family and the first available Premier Solution for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI. This new Azure Stack HCI solution category only includes platforms that provide fastest time to value for Azure hybrid cloud through the deepest levels of integration with Microsoft.
Dell Technologies and Microsoft have a long history of hybrid cloud innovation and collaboration to help customers deploy apps and data wherever they need them. Dell Apex Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure is the latest innovation to stem from our long collaboration, said Dell Technologies regional director Apex Asia Pacific and Japan Karolis Macionis.
“This new platform will enable organisations in the region to simplify their Azure management, accelerate application delivery, and offer flexibility to run their workloads across the cloud, edge, and data centre.”
Dell Apex Cloud platforms are next-generation infrastructure that deliver consistent operations and more control over workload placement by extending the choice of cloud ecosystem on-premises.
These platforms offer customers greater flexibility and investment protection over time by combining the best of Dell innovation in automated infrastructure management and orchestration, software-defined storage, and next-generation compute.
Simplifying Azure on-premises
The opportunity to extend Azure cloud services to on-premises environments is significant. According to an ESG study on multicloud application deployment trends, 48% of customers surveyed are expanding on-premises deployments. Dell Apex Cloud Platform for Azure provides an optimal way for customers to bring Microsoft Azure to their data centre and edge locations.
This new platform builds upon decades of Dell and Microsoft collaboration. It combines Dell’s expertise in delivering software-driven management and orchestration and software-defined storage with Microsoft’s leadership in cloud services and container orchestration.
“More of our customers are asking us to bring the power of Azure wherever they need it out in the real world, whether that is in their factories, retail stores, quick service restaurants, or distributed locations. Through our partnership with Dell, we can project just enough Microsoft Azure to those locations at the edge,” said Azure Edge + Platform corporate vice president Douglas Phillips.
“This new solution gives our mutual customers a seamless experience from cloud to edge, wherever their data lives, so they can spend less time managing infrastructure and focus more on transforming their business.”
Enhancing Azure hybrid cloud
The Dell Apex Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure is designed to address several key IT priorities.
Simplify management: This new offer delivers consistent Azure operations across on-premises locations and public cloud via native integration with Azure Arc. Deep integration and extensive automation enabled by Dell’s APEX Cloud Platform Foundation Software would deliver greater benefits to customers compared to past solutions. For example, the automated deployment wizard results in an 88% reduction in deployment steps compared to existing integrated systems, allowing customers to save more time when deploying the platform.
Accelerate application delivery: Through optimised delivery of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) hybrid, and Arc-enabled app and data services, the platform helps accelerate application delivery. Customers will be able to simplify management with deep integration and familiar tools. Users can also enforce consistent security and compliance policies across the Azure landscape through integration with centralised Azure management and governance services.
Fastest time to value: To ensure customers get the fastest time to value and ongoing full stack support, Dell ProSupport Infrastructure Suite provides a single source of solution level-support for Dell hardware, system software, and Azure HCI. Onsite diagnosis, residency, data migration, data disposition, and education services cover tasks commonly required in a multicloud environment, allowing internal staff to focus on other priorities.
Going above and beyond
While the new Premier Solutions for Azure Stack HCI category represents the highest level of required automation, integration, and collaboration with Microsoft, Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure takes this even further.
Lifecycle management: Dell Apex Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure delivers near instantaneous availability of new releases and patches - within just four hours of a Microsoft release. Single-pane, full-stack lifecycle management ensures the complete infrastructure stack always remains compliant.
Unique automation: The platform provides automated cluster expansion, enabling rapid addition of on-premises infrastructure to meet workload requirements.
Edge offerings coming soon: The specialised nodes based on the Dell PowerEdge XR4000 edge-optimised server platform to help customers extend Azure to the edge while minimising cost, footprint, and complexity.
Ultimate flexibility coming soon: Dell Technologies will support additional storage configurations with Dell software-defined storage, making it the only offer to support linear scaling of storage resources independently from compute resources, helping customers address workloads with diverse performance, and scaling needs.
Meeting customer and partner needs
Dell has heard overwhelming excitement about this solution from customers and partners alike. Kyndryl, a strategic partner of Dell and Microsoft, is expanding its solutions with managed services for this platform.
“In a rapidly changing IT landscape, Kyndryl is helping customers modernise their mission-critical environments to a hybrid cloud operating model. As a strategic alliance partner with Dell and Microsoft, we are excited for the availability of the new Dell Apex Cloud Platform that will provide a consistent Azure operation across on-premises and Azure public cloud,” said Kyndryl vice president private cloud services Kevin Powell. “We are committed to delivering services that help customers utilise the latest industry technology innovations from our ecosystem partners to deliver leading edge hybrid cloud solutions.”
Through customer conversations, Dell is seeing existing customers familiar with the operational outcomes delivered by its automated software are excited to adopt the Apex Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure to extend their Azure deployments on-premises.
“More than 5,000 organisations around the world look to LoopUp to help them bring global communications to the cloud to support flexible work, increase productivity, simplify complexity, and reduce cost,” said LoopUp vice president of network operations Chris Stanley. “Dell Apex Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure’s deep software integration and lifecycle management will help us scale and deliver cloud telephony innovations faster and get the most value from our Azure hybrid deployment.”
Orange Business, another strategic partner for Dell and Microsoft, is also excited about the transformative power Dell Apex Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure could hold for their customers.
“As organisations increasingly turn to hybrid cloud strategies to help power digital experiences for their employees and customers, they need an efficient solution to easily manage it all from edge to core data centres to public cloud,” said Orange business marketing director of digital services Olivier Ménez. “Dell Apex Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure includes deep integrations and automation that will help us easily build and manage our customers’ data and applications in hybrid environments.”
Delivering hybrid cloud innovation
Dell’s customers can now get their hands on Dell Apex Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure to see first-hand how it can help them unleash innovation by simplifying the Azure hybrid experience.
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Cloud App Development
Ericsson | September 25, 2023
Ericsson and Google Cloud join forces to introduce Ericsson Cloud RAN on Google Distributed Cloud, enhancing automation and AI/ML capabilities for CSPs.
The collaboration enables highly efficient and secure distributed cloud solutions, leveraging Google Cloud services like Vertex AI and BigQuery.
Ericsson and Google Cloud's expanded partnership offers CSPs greater flexibility and advanced solutions to meet evolving network demands.
Ericsson has announced an expansion of its partnership with Google Cloud, introducing an Ericsson Cloud RAN solution on Google Distributed Cloud (GDC). This collaboration, utilizing the x86-based accelerator stack, aims to provide integrated automation and orchestration through AI and ML. The solution promises faster service delivery, enhanced efficiency, and increased flexibility for communication service providers (CSPs) in their networks.
GDC offers a fully managed hardware and software portfolio, extending Google Cloud's capabilities to the edge and data centers.
The Ericsson vDU and vCU are successfully running on GDC Edge in the Ericsson Open Lab in Ottawa, Canada. Deploying Ericsson Cloud RAN on GDC Edge enables a highly efficient, secure, and scalable distributed cloud for radio access network infrastructure.
Running Ericsson Cloud RAN on GDC Edge will enable CSPs to leverage Google Cloud services such as Vertex AI and BigQuery to enhance the usability of data sets from Cloud RAN applications, offering opportunities for better control and optimization.
This collaboration allows CSPs to build networks based on open standards and interface with multiple vendors. Ericsson's Cloud RAN solution is infrastructure-agnostic, accommodating various cloud infrastructures.
To enhance cloud-native automation, Ericsson and Google Cloud are collaborating on the open-source project Nephio, aiming to standardize critical functionality.
Mårten Lerner, Head of Product Line Cloud RAN at Ericsson, emphasizes the partnership's benefits for cloud-native solutions and automation, providing flexibility and choice for CSPs.
Gabriele Di Piazza, Senior Director of Telecom Products at Google Cloud, acknowledges Ericsson as a distinguished Google Cloud Partner, highlighting their support for mutual customers.
This expansion of the Ericsson-Google Cloud partnership aims to empower CSPs with advanced solutions for their evolving networks.
The integration of Ericsson Cloud RAN with Google Distributed Cloud may add complexity to network management and require additional investment in personnel training for CSPs.
The partnership between Ericsson and Google Cloud offers CSP automation and AI/ML capabilities for faster service delivery and greater network efficiency. Google Distributed Cloud ensures secure infrastructure, and CSPs can optimize data management with services like Vertex AI and BigQuery while maintaining vendor diversity through open standards and interfaces. This collaboration equips CSPs to meet evolving network demands effectively.
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Cloud Infrastructure Management
GlobeNewswire | September 27, 2023
VAST Data, the AI data platform company and CoreWeave, a specialized cloud provider powering many of the world’s leading generative AI efforts, today announced a strategic partnership that will further CoreWeave’s mission to deliver highly scalable and performant cloud infrastructure for AI and accelerated compute workloads. CoreWeave has selected the VAST Data Platform, the world’s first data platform designed for the AI era, to build a global, NVIDIA-powered accelerated computing cloud for deploying, managing and securing hundreds of petabytes of data for generative AI, high performance computing (HPC) and visual effects (VFX) workloads.
CoreWeave did extensive research and testing before selecting VAST Data to power all of its data centers. The VAST Data Platform has the necessary scale, performance, and multi-tenant enterprise AI cloud capabilities required to power the massive AI and LLM training and inference applications that are now transforming everything from business, to science, to society itself.
CoreWeave’s customers demand the most secure and scalable solutions on top of the industry’s fastest and most flexible infrastructure to keep their data safe," said Michael Intrator, CEO and co-founder of CoreWeave. We’re delighted to partner with VAST Data to deliver a multi-tenant and zero-trust environment purpose-built for accelerated compute use cases like machine learning, VFX and rendering, Pixel Streaming and batch processing that’s up to 35 times faster and 80 percent less expensive than legacy cloud providers. This partnership is rooted in a deep technical collaboration that will push the boundaries of data-driven accelerated computing to deliver the world’s most optimized AI cloud platform.
Through their joint partnership CoreWeave and VAST Data are leveraging NVIDIA technology to engineer a new data platform architecture for large-scale, end-to-end data pipelines and deliver next-generation data services for AI workloads. To support this, the VAST Data Platform boasts an enterprise network attached data store that is certified for use with NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD and eliminates tiers and infrastructure silos to make large scale AI simpler, faster and easier to manage at virtually limitless levels of scale and performance.
“Since our earliest days, VAST Data has had a single vision of building an architecture that could power the needs of the most demanding cloud-scale AI applications," said Renen Hallak, Founder and CEO of VAST Data. "We could not imagine a better cloud platform to realize this vision than what we’re creating with CoreWeave. We are humbled and honored to partner with the CoreWeave team to push the boundaries of modern AI computing and to build the infrastructure that will serve as the foundation of tomorrow’s AI-powered discoveries.”
About VAST Data
VAST Data is the data platform software company for the AI era. Accelerating time-to-insight for workload-intensive applications, the VAST data platform delivers scalable performance, radically simple data management and enhanced productivity. Launched in 2019, VAST is the fastest-growing data infrastructure company in history. For more information, please visit https://vastdata.com and follow VAST Data on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About CoreWeave
Founded in 2017, CoreWeave is a specialized cloud provider, delivering a massive scale of GPU compute resources on top of the industry's fastest and most flexible infrastructure. CoreWeave builds cloud solutions for compute-intensive use cases — machine learning and AI, VFX and rendering, life sciences, the Metaverse, and real-time streaming — that are up to 35 times faster and 80% less expensive than the large, generalized public clouds. Learn more at www.coreweave.com.
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