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4 min read

Guest Blog Post by Dell: Microsoft and Dell make Data Warehouse Attainable for Everyone

To stay competitive, organizations must become more and more adept at managing and mining data to identify trends, measure return on investment, maximize performance and minimize risks. The world is changing, critical data is captured across many new data sources and formats that span internal systems, external systems and social media. Organizations of all sizes need an analytic platform to integrate and transform this data into actionable insight.

But here’s some great news! Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing are getting easier to implement and manage.

Solutions based on the Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation platform and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 are pre-configured, tested and verified and are designed to simplify and streamline business intelligence in your organization. SQL Server 2012 includes enhanced data warehouse and analytics capabilities, and Dell provides leading edge performance, scalability and management options. Together, you get something pretty amazing.


The Dell Advantage

Historically, organizations contemplating data warehouse and business intelligence projects have faced several key challenges, including large up front and maintenance investments, the need to develop new skill sets and complicated data integration requirements. Dell’s SQL Server 2012-based solutions are designed to meet these challenges by providing pre-integrated options that streamline implementation, capitalize on existing resources and accelerate time to value.

Our solutions capitalize on the new power and features of Microsoft SQL Server and deliver:

  • Faster time-to-value using integrated, balanced and verified architectures jointly engineered with Microsoft.
  • Outstanding performance on Dell’s 12th gGneration server platform, including enhanced onboard memory, the world’s first hot-swappable PCIe SSD storage, and blazingly fast processor speeds. Our solutions are optimized for better data warehouse performance.
  • Deep expertise as the largest Large Account Reseller/OEM for SQL Server. Dell and Microsoft have been delivering solutions together for over 25 years!
  • A single point of contact for purchases, services and support. SQL Server 2012 is available for purchase worldwide from Dell starting April 3, 2012.
  • Innovation to ramp up data warehousing and analytics performance, including advances in hardware as well as leading edge storage, performance and integration solutions.

Dell’s SQL Server solutions leverage Dell’s PowerEdge 12th Generation platform or are currently being migrated to this leading edge hardware. Performance is the #1 concern for organizations implementing business intelligence solutions, and PowerEdge 12th Generation servers feature the latest generation of Intel processors for high performance, third generation PCI Express slots for faster throughput, and PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) cards for faster disk I/O. The servers can handle large amounts of memory, to ensure optimal performance at all times.

Our SQL Server solutions also capitalize on advanced technologies from Dell’s Boomi and Compellent acquisitions to enhance the features and performance of our business intelligence offerings.

  • Dell Boomi addresses the growing need to pull real-time data into data warehouses and supports traditional batch ETL data integration. This robust integration platform successfully bridges the domains of application integration (e.g. real-time) and data integration (ETL) to support both integration needs on one solution. Dell Boomi comes standard on all QuickStart Data Warehouses and is available to support all our other analytics and BI solutions.
  • Dell Compellent Storage , built on Dell Fluid Data Architecture, optimally enables growth in SQL Server capacity and performance while reducing TCO. Compellent Instant Replays capture automatic and consistent database snapshots, guaranteeing resilient and reliable SQL Server databases.


Dell and Microsoft – Three Great Solutions

Through our strategic Microsoft alliance, Dell has designed and engineered tightly integrated end-to-end solutions and provides end-to-end services and support. Our goal is to provide superior technology and solutions that meet needs of all market segments, industries and business objectives. We have three great SQL Server options:

  • The new Dell Quickstart Data Warehouse Appliance is coming soon and will be the first data warehouse appliance in the market to run on SQL Server 2012.   It is designed for mid-market and departmental use to enable easy data access, analysis for better decision making and the factory integration  delivers results faster. This new data warehousing appliance, with Microsoft SQL Server 2012, takes advantage of the Dell Boomi acquisition for data integration and has been in beta test since February 2012.
  • Fast Track for SQL Server 2012, a reference architecture developed jointly by Dell and Microsoft, combines Dell’s PowerEdge 12th generation servers and Fluid Data Architecture with the benefits of SQL Server software.  Delivered as reference architecture, customers receive step-by-step best practices, eliminating any guesswork on balancing and configuring the components of the hardware and software.  This solution reduces the risk, cost, and time to successful implementation and gives customers one of the lowest costs for a complete data warehouse solution in the market. This offering includes both data warehousing and major components of an integrated Business Intelligence and Enterprise Information Management platform.
  • Dell’s Parallel Data Warehouse Appliance is a jointly developed appliance between Microsoft and Dell for larger customers with the most demanding data warehousing needs.  With scalability up to 600 Terabytes, the solution is delivered as an appliance, with software and hardware already integrated, giving customers the fastest time to solution and immediate value at a fraction of the cost of acquisition, operation and maintenance of other enterprise data warehouse solutions in the market. Because PDW is part of the SQL Server portfolio, customers will receive both Data Warehousing and major components of an integrated Business Intelligence and data integration platform included in the purchase.


Final Thoughts

The successful implementation and management of SQL Server and data warehousing technologies requires more than hardware and licensing.  With remote and on-site installation services and ongoing support from Dell Services professionals, customers can speed time to production, reduce costs and downtime, simplify management and ensure consistency throughout their IT environments. Dell has been providing enterprise-level data warehouse solutions and services for more than a decade across a broad spectrum of industries. 

Over the last 25 years, Dell and Microsoft have worked together to develop innovative complete solutions that combine the best of our hardware, software and services. Our Parallel Data Warehouse and Quickstart Data Warehouse appliances demonstrate how we collaborate to deliver optimized, innovative and integrated solutions that are much greater than the sum of their parts.

To learn more visit: www.dell.com/sql

Carey Dietert
Marketing Director, Dell Workloads Outbound Marketing, Product Group