First fully integrated Software-Defined Data Center Solution now available from EMC Federation of Businesses

Issued by FCB Redline for EMC Southern Africa
Johannesburg, 23 Oct 2014

Servaas Venter.

Story highlights

* First of five key solutions from the EMC Federation of strategically aligned businesses instantiates the vision of the software-defined enterprise
* Collaboration and investment across EMC Federation businesses with joint engineering lab accelerates customer time-to-value with validated and supported solutions
* Supports traditional and next-gen applications to provide agility and flexibility
* Introducing integrated collaboration model for EMC Federation customer service and support

The first of five planned EMC Federation solutions, the new Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution, provides a completely virtualised data centre that is fully automated by software and delivered as a service.

The Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution will greatly accelerate time to value with a fully engineered, validated and supported offering. The Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution was jointly developed in the fully staffed and resourced EMC Federation Lab in Palo Alto, California, to automate hundreds of orchestration workflows and accelerate ease of deployment.

With a Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution, mission-critical applications run on infrastructure that delivers greater visibility, manageability, cost control and agility.

The Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution includes a reference architecture, solution guides and solution-specific workflows engineered and validated in the Federation Lab.

It is built on top of these products from the Federation:

* Management and orchestration: VMware vCloud Automation Center, VMware vCenter Operations Management, VMware IT Business Management, EMC Storage Resource Manager
* Hypervisor: VMware vSphere, the industry's most widely deployed virtualisation platform
* Networking: VMware NSX, the network virtualisation and security platform for the software-defined data centre. VMware NSX brings virtualisation to existing networks and transforms network operations and economics
* Storage: Designed for EMC ViPR, EMC Storage Resource Manager and EMC Storage
* Data protection: EMC Avamar, Data Domain, RecoverPoint, VPLEX
* Hybrid cloud deployment: VMware vCloud Air connectivity and workload migration
* Choice of hardware: Built on converged infrastructure and can be deployed on a variety of hardware including VCE Vblock Systems* and VSPEX
* PAAS: Delivering platform-as-a-service with Pivotal CF
* Documented reference architectures

To enable mission-critical infrastructure and applications to meet performance and availability expectations, the Federation joint support teams have established a collaborative support model for service and support. A support call can be initiated with any of the Federation members; that Federation support team will assume primary responsibility for issue resolution and customer satisfaction, including escalation and coordination with additional Federation members.

Partner engagement

The Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution will also be made available through platinum solution providers in EMC's Business Partner Program.

Using best-of-breed technologies, the Federation members will deliver a series of solutions for the new IT agenda, accelerating customer time to value as global organisations redefine IT for the cloud and big data era.

Planned EMC Federation Solutions include:

* Platform-as-a-service: Built on the Software-Defined Data Center, PAAS solution will provide a new platform for agile application development and modernisation, enabling IT organisations to adopt agile development methodologies while delivering modern applications, optimised for mobile platforms.
* End-user Computing: A complete solution from mobile device management to storage platform, delivering desktop-as-a-service efficiently and responsively.
* Virtualized Data Lake: Enabling organisations to analyse the massive data being created by new devices and applications, providing customers with differentiating insights to redefine their business.
* Security analytics: Building on the Virtualized Data Lake Solution, the Security Analytics solution will help identify irregular activity and enable customers to act quickly to prevent corporate assets from becoming compromised.

Availability

* The Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution is available now. Customers can work with their EMC II or VMware sales representatives to purchase the different products and to deploy the Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution. Customers may also work with EMC's platinum level solution provider partners to deliver and deploy the solution.

"The Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution will help enterprise IT accelerate the strategic imperative of migration to a hybrid cloud while utilising their existing investments. This will allow for improved costs, availability and flexibility to ensure enterprise IT can compete directly with cloud providers where it makes business and technical sense to deploy in-house, and at the same time enable seamless access to next-generation cloud applications, infrastructure and data resources," says David Floyer, Co-Founder and CTO, Wikibon.

Bob Olwig, Vice-President of Business Strategy and Innovation at World Wide Technology, states: "World Wide Technology is a global leader of next-generation information technology services and solutions. As an award-winning systems integrator and supply chain solutions provider, WWT delivers an innovative and proven approach to how organisations explore, evaluate, architect and implement technology. The Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution enables us to provide our customers with a quick and seamless path in redefining their IT. The Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution is the foundation that empowers business transformation and helps us build next-gen IT infrastructure offerings for our clients."

"The Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution is the first-of-its kind and the ideal architecture for public, private and hybrid clouds enabling IT organisations to radically redefine IT and their business," commented Servaas Venter, Country Manager, EMC Southern Africa.

"The Federation Software-Defined Data Center Solution with enterprise PAAS provided by Pivotal CF enables companies to deliver disruptive, high value and next generation apps for big data, mobile, social and cloud innovation. Pivotal is proud to be an integral component of the Federation Solution," said Todd Paoletti, Vice President, Product Marketing, Pivotal.

"Through the software-defined data centre, organisations can achieve greater security, efficiency, availability and faster service delivery, all while lowering costs. This Federation offering will enable organisations to quickly realise the benefits of a software-defined data centre architecture," concluded Ray O'Farrell, Corporate Senior Vice President, Cloud Infrastructure R&D, VMware.

Additional resources

* For more information on the Federation Software Defined Data Center Solution, go to http://emcfederation.com
* To learn more about EMC Federation Solutions, follow @EMCCloud
* Join the #EMC conversation on Twitter
* Connect with EMC via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and ECN

EMC

EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing. Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyse their most valuable asset ? information ? in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at www.EMC.com.

EMC, ViPR, VSPEX, Avamar, Data Domain, RecoverPoint and VPLEX are trademarks or registered trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries.

All other trademarks used are the property of their respective owners.

Pivotal

Pivotal offers a modern approach to technology that organisations need to thrive in a new era of business innovation. The company's solutions intersect cloud, big data and agile development, creating a framework that increases data leverage, accelerates application delivery, and decreases costs while providing enterprises the speed and scale they need to compete. More at www.pivotal.io

RSA

RSA, The Security Division of EMC, is the premier provider of intelligence-driven security solutions. RSA helps the world's leading organisations solve their most complex and sensitive security challenges: managing organisational risk, safeguarding mobile access and collaboration, preventing online fraud, and defending against advanced threats. For more information, please visit www.EMC.com/RSA .

VMware

VMware is the leader in virtualisation and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the cloud era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2013 revenues of $5.21 billion, VMware has more than 500 000 customers and 75 000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com .

VMware, vSphere, VMware NSX, vCloud Automation Manager, vCenter Operation Manager, vCloud Air, VMware Virtual SAN and VMware IT Business Management are registered trademarks of VMware in the United States and other jurisdictions. Other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective organisations. The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

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First fully integrated Software-Defined Data Center Solution now available from EMC Federation of Businesses

Solution showcases collaboration to accelerate customer time-to-value.