On June 23th, Dell EMC will be releasing the newest (and toughest) member to the VxRail Family. The Dell EMC VxRail D Series (D for rugged) is a ruggedized node that delivers the full power of a VxRail system for workloads at the edge, in challenging environments or space-constrained areas. That means you have VxRail automation and orchestration and 24×7 single point of support enabling you to rapidly react to business needs no matter the location and how harsh the conditions.
The D Series offers the same benefits as any other VxRail node (simplicity, agility, lifecycle management) but in a short-depth form factor that is temperature resilient, shock resistant, and easily portable. It’s bulletproof. No seriously, I bet this thing stops bullets…
Now you may ask yourself, “why would I ever need something that tough when I am just going to put it in my cozy temperature controlled data center?” Well, not everyone has that luxury. For example, I see this being an excellent option for a military environment. The military needs equipment that are:
- Certified to withstand extreme heat, sand, dust and vibration
- Light-weight, short depth, durable form factor allows for flexible deployment options where space is at a premium – ex: at a forward operating base
- Rugged build and rigid cover can withstand the sudden shocks experienced in these types of environments
Another use case would be for disaster and relief efforts. You can strap a mini rack of these in the back of a jeep and drive into a hurricane since they have the ability to operate in high humidity environments. Plus, it is light weight and portable for when you need to set up mobile command centers (like if you wanted to support remote communications to coordinate site volunteers).
The VxRail D560 and D560F are designed for remote locations and harsh conditions such as shock, vibration, dust, humidity and EMI. At RTS, the D Series will have MIL-STD-810G certification and come with a VxRail STIG Hardening Package
From a resource perspective, the D series is a bit of an odd duck when compared to the other VxRail nodes in the family. It only supports 640GB of RAM (max) for single socket configs and 1024GB of RAM for dual socket configs. You could have probably guess by it’s rugged nature but the VxRail D Series is based on the PowerEdge XR2 platform. At GA, the VxRail D Series will be released on VxRail 4.7.500.