As most virtualization.info readers know by now, Cisco is leading a new trend in computing architectures by pushing for datacenter-in-a-box solutions, where the entire computing stack is designed and integrated to work as a whole.
It is the Apple philosophy applied to the data center. Or a modern interpretation of mainframes, if you prefer.
Oracle, thanks to the acquisition of Sun, announced its plan to do the same. In some ways HP is already going in the same direction, and may release more interesting solutions in the near future now that it has 3Com.
IBM seems more interested in POWER architecture than in these x86 computing blocks.
What about Dell?
Today PC World published an article revealing that the computer manufacturer will launch a new line of computers, CloudEdge, designed by its Data Center Solutions division, for “cloud computing” infrastructures.
Dell is moving from custom designed hardware to standardized products that plans to sell to a wider audience, from public cloud computing providers to large enterprises.
Dell also plans to bundle these systems with Microsoft and VMware hypervisors, plus the orchestration framework provided by Scalent.
The whole thing is quite surprising considering that Dell already has an OEM agreement with Egenera, the US startup that offers a datacenter-in-a-box product since much earlier than Cisco and others.
Egenera already supports hypervisors, and includes the orchestration layer needed to control the whole computing stack.
Why Dell prefers to develop a new class of machines rather than using something that is already selling and that is tailored for fabric computing?