EMC introduces VSPEX BLUE Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Appliance

EMC Corporation today announced availability of the EMC^® VSPEX^® BLUE hyper-converged infrastructure appliance that delivers compute, storage, networking and management powered by VMware EVO:RAIL and EMC software.

The VSPEX BLUE hyper- converged infrastructure appliance enables customers to go from power on to provisioning virtual machines in under 15 minutes, offering impressive time to value when compared to other hyper-converged infrastructure offerings. The VSPEX BLUE scale-out infrastructure provides customers the ability to meet users’ changing demands at the speed of business and freedom from the burden of advanced IT forecasting.

Comprised of common modular building blocks, the VSPEX BLUE hyper-converged infrastructure appliance offers customers seamless linear scalability from one to four 2U/4-nodes and is ideal for infrastructure consolidations, virtual desktops in large remote or branch offices and managed service providers.

EMC Differentiation

The VSPEX BLUE hyper-converged infrastructure appliance simplifies IT configuration, management, and maintenance. EMC is delivering an integrated management experience for VSPEX BLUE customers. The VSPEX BLUE Manager extends the capabilities of the native EVO:RAIL Deployment, Configuration and Management (DCM) Engine, delivering a built-in support experience and  Market providing customers access to select software titles and solutions from an EMC interface that leverages VMware EVO:RAIL’s clean and intuitive design principles.

VSPEX BLUE Manager

With the VSPEX BLUE hyper-converged infrastructure appliance, EMC continues to break new ground, offering for the first time a one-stop Market to download value-added software, purchase upgrades and appliances from EMC and EMC ecosystem partners to quickly and easily meet ever-changing business demands.

From the VSPEX BLUE Manager, users can conveniently access electronic services, such as EMC knowledge base articles, access a wealth of community sourced online and real time information and familiarize themselves with EMC best practices for optimal appliance operations. The VSPEX BLUE Manager also simplifies IT management by delivering patch and software update notification that can be installed automatically without interruption or downtime so that the appliance software is always up-to-date.

VSPEX BLUE Market

The Market provides customer access to solutions and technologies that are developed by EMC and technology partners that are pre-validated for the VSPEX BLUE appliance and then made available to download. In the first release, EMC has included business continuity with EMC RecoverPoint^® for Virtual Machines, VMware Data Protection Advanced providing disk based de-duplicated backup and recovery that is optimized for virtual environments, and access to virtually unlimited hybrid cloud storage via the EMC CloudArray^® Gateway. 

EMC Secure Remote Support (ESRS)

The EMC VSPEX BLUE hyper-converged infrastructure appliance also provides EMC Secure Remote Support (ESRS) that is built into the interface and provides end-to-end, consistent support via chat, community or phone with a single point of accountability for all hardware and software. With ESRS, EMC can periodically monitor the EMC VSPEX BLUE appliance and will be notified of failure enabling support to take preventative measures to help avoid downtime. When coupled with ESRS, EMC 24x7 Supportis incredibly simple. All appliance issues regardless of whether they are hardware or software are handled by EMC.

Partner Ecosystem

EMC will focus initially on a select group of world-class EMC Business Partner Program distributors for the EMC VSPEX BLUE appliance including Arrow, Avnet, Networld, TD Azlan and Tech Data. Initial distribution partners have an established global reach, required manufacturing capabilities, and the necessary international certifications and capabilities.

Availability

The EMC VSPEX BLUE hyper-converged infrastructure appliance is generally available February 17. Customers should contact their authorized EMC partner to learn more about VSPEX BLUE.

Market Industry Analyst Quote

 Mark Bowker, Senior Analyst, ESG: “ESG research validates that early adopters of converged infrastructure are achieving benefits associated with improved service and support, ease of management, and an improved total cost of ownership. The VSPEX BLUE appliance will help enterprise IT accelerate the strategic imperative of virtualization/migration to a hybrid cloud. The appliance is a simple, low-risk path to delivering virtualization, and snaps well into an existing line of EMC solutions. It helps reduce TCO, and ensures availability and flexibility so that enterprise IT can achieve infrastructure excellence and connectivity to the cloud.” 

EMC Executive Quotes:

Gil Shneorson, Vice President, General Manager VSPEX, EMC Corporation: “The VSPEX BLUE appliance represents a strategic addition to EMC’s existing highly successful converged infrastructure portfolio. EMC’s VSPEX BLUE appliance is delivered exclusively by our partners, and offers customers IT simplicity and agility backed by EMC’s award-winning global support organization, with built-in differentiation such as the VSPEX BLUE Manager, Market and EMC Secure Remote Support that will dramatically simplify how IT is deployed and managed.”