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Dell Cloud News: Hyper-V for OpenStack, Public Cloud Partner Program
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Two pieces of important cloud news coming out of Dell (the company I work for) today:
- Dell to Enable Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Support for OpenStack
Dell today announced it will enable Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V as a viable hypervisor choice for the OpenStack cloud platform. This development, which is the first instance of a leading technology vendor enabling Windows Server Hyper-V hypervisor on OpenStack for private clouds, will give customers additional flexibility and choice to run OpenStack workloads within their existing Windows Server environments.
More info here.
- Dell to Deliver Public Cloud through Partner Ecosystem
Dell is launching the Dell Cloud Partner Program to deliver public cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) through an ecosystem of partners. Acting as a single-source supplier, Dell will offer customers a choice of vendors and technology, freedom from lock-in to a single platform or pricing model and a central point of solution integration and control. Sales of Dell’s current in-house multi-tenant public cloud IaaS will be discontinued in the U.S. in favor of best-in-class partner offerings.
More info here.
Both of these announcements highlight key tenets for our cloud strategy.
- First and foremost, our customers come first when it comes to new products, solutions, and services – they are the most important element in enabling the vendor lanscape understand where the priorities should be.
- We will continue to collaborate and learn from our customers as we develop products, solutions, and services in the cloud space. It is part of our DNA – plain and simple.
- Though our tactics evolve, our commitment to enabling our customers with cloud technology remains constant. Customers are finding success in cloud when partnering with Dell, and we’ll continue to keep that our mission.
- Specifically with OpenStack, our commitment to enabling the innovative cloud technology and community remains as solid as ever. We have been vocal advocates since Day 1 (something no other hardware solutions vendor can claim), and we have no intentions of slowing down.
From the Data Center Solutions (DCS) team, who have built and enabled some of the biggest public clouds in the world, to the Dell Revolutionary Solutions Team, who have been early entrants into the OpenStack and Hadoop spaces, and to Dell’s open source community in Crowbar, we’ve proven our commitment to innovation and customer success.
That is what we are about.
And don’t expect that to ever change.
Until next time,
JBGeorge
@jbgeorge
ONE MILLION: Dell Data Center Solutions (DCS) Ships Millionth Server
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The team at Dell (the company I work for) celebrated a huge milestone last week…
The Data Center Solutions group (aka DCS) officially shipped their millionth cloud server!
As the director of DCS marketing, Drew Schulke, pointed out, DCS’s influence is all around you – “If you used a search engine, updated your status via social media, or generated a map on the internet to get from ‘point A’ to ‘point B’ today, there is a good chance that a DCS server made that possible.” (You can read Drew’s entire blog here.)
As many of you know, I lead a team of product managers and strategists on the Dell Revolutionary Cloud and Big Data team, who focus on areas such as OpenStack and Hadoop, who deliver the Dell Crowbar software framework, and lead the Crowbar open source community.
So what does DCS have to do with our OpenStack / Hadoop / Crowbar team?
Actually quite a bit.
DCS set out to meet the needs of the hyperscale customer, and as it turns out, most of those customers are looking at cutting edge technology trends like OpenStack, Hadoop, and open source toolsets.
In fact, our solutions feature PowerEdge C servers, the density optimized server line that was born out of the work done by DCS, and are being run by our solutions customers on a regular basis as they stand up cloud and big data environments.
So by pulling together integrated HW+SW+Services solutions around OpenStack and Hadoop, leveraging innovative Dell IP like Crowbar and the unique advancements coming out of the DCS group, we’re able to make our customers even more successful – which is what its all about.
Win-win-win!
It’s a great milestone for the innovative DCS team – join me in celebrating this momentus milestone!
Until next time,
JOSEPH
@jbgeorge
More info:
NOW HIRING: Dell’s Revolutionary Cloud and Big Data Team Expands
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We’re growing!
The Revolutionary Cloud and Big Data Team at Dell (the company I work for) is looking to expand our team of rockstars, so we’re putting the word out. Specifically we’re looking for architects, engineers, developers, and I’m looking to hire a few more senior product managers to join my team of subject matter experts.
Just for context, we’re the team that has taken to market the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution, the Dell Apache Hadoop Solution, and the Dell Crowbar software framework and open source project.
And if you’re a rockstar in any of those spaces, we’d like to talk to you.
SPOILER ALERT – If you’re interested in talking to us about a technical spot on our team, you can email us your info and resume at OpenStack@Dell.com or Hadoop@Dell.com.
What is this team about?
A few years ago, the Dell Data Center Solutions team came into being with a mission of servicing the biggest hyperscale environments in the world, which included many of the market’s top cloud providers. It has succeeded in its mission in dominating the density optimized space (check out more on that here), and in fact, just shipped it’s ONE MILLIONTH SERVER.
An extension of DCS’s mission soon became clear – as many customers were looking to accelerate into spaces like cloud and big data, providing them integrated solutions would ease their implementation of these technologies. And so our Revolutionary Cloud and Big Data Solutions team was born – to deliver integrated solutions based on cutting edge technologies like OpenStack and Hadoop (and more), as well as innovative Dell projects like Crowbar, in an effort to enable customers to grow and thrive in their businesses with our products, innovation, and expertise.
Who are we?
The team at Dell is made up of a number of people, like myself, that you’d recognize from OpenStack and Hadoop circles – folks like Rob Hirschfeld, Greg Althaus, Kamesh Pemmaraju, and others. We all come from a variety of backgrounds – some from big companies in the technology spaces and many from startups – we happen to have quite a few entreprenuers on our team! And we try to service our customers in the best way possible – agile development processes, open source friendly, community oriented, etc.
What are we trying to do?
Our mission is to develop and deliver HW+SW+Services solutions to market that will enable our customers to be successful. Clear and simple.
Here’s a sampling of what our team has done over the course of our existence:
- The first hardware solutions vendor to support OpenStack
- Released the first HW+SW+Services OpenStack solution to market – the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution
- Launch of open source project “Crowbar” to fill the void of an automated bare metal OpenStack provisioner
- Released HW+SW+Services Apache Hadoop solution to market – the Dell Apache Hadoop Solution
- Launch of the Emerging Solutions Ecosystem Partner Program to enable our customers by incorporating some of our best in breed partner technologies into our solutions, which includes Datameer, Pentaho, enStratus, Mirantis, and Canonical, with more to come
- Launch of the Emerging Solutions Platform Partner Program to enable our customers by delivering solutions focused on specific workloads and target markets
In addition, we’re big believers in the community – we regularly hold hackfests to help move these communities forward, lead community meetups in Austin and Boston working with other key vendors that co-sponsor with us (you may be surprised), are regularly active in IRC, skype discussions, conference breakout sessions, and more.
It’s a fast-paced, customer focused, ever evolving group and its a great place to deliver tanglible, difference making solutions to customers.
It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s DEFINITELY for the mover and shaker.
Who we want to hear from
We’re looking to expand in a number of areas, but specifically we’re looking for technical talent
- Developers / QA
- Technical Product Managers and Strategists
- Architects and Technical Leads
If I’ve piqued your interest, drop me a note and your resume at OpenStack@Dell.com.
Look forward to hearing from cloud / big data / open source rockstars.
Until next time,
JOSEPH
@jbgeorge
Start Your Engines: Dell Hosts OpenStack Deploy Day / Hack-a-thon!
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Earlier this year, Dell (the company I work for) hosted an OpenStack deploy day, and we had great participation from users and developers from all around the world.
We’ll, we’re doing it again.
One week from today – May 31, 2012 – Dell will be hosting a world wide Essex deploy day, and we’re inviting everyone to be a part. It’s a great way for users of any level to deploy OpenStack with Crowbar and get a better understanding of how the Essex release of OpenStack works.
As before, the focus of the day will be on automating deployment of the latest release of OpenStack, specifically through Dell’s Crowbar software framework (www.Dell.com/Crowbar). It will be an all day, world wide event that will engage all types of OpenStack fans – developers, operators, users, and more.
We’re already getting a strong response from the OpenStack vendor community as well. Along with Dell, you’ll see Suse, Mirantis, enStratus, and others in person and on Skype to work on Essex, whether its advanced topics, bug fixing, and even 101 sessions for newcomers.
All the details you need are on our Github site – https://github.com/dellcloudedge/crowbar/wiki/OpenStack-Essex-Deploy-Day
As an added bonus, we also have a few physical locations to hack in person at as well – Austin, Boston, and New York. If you’re in one of these locales, be sure to RSVP and stop by. (And if you’re interested in hosting a location for the hack-a-thon, drop us a line and we’ll tell you how.)
If you have any questions about details, logitistics, or how Dell is enabling our customers with OpenStack, drop us a line at OpenStack@Dell.com.
See you there!
Until next time,
JBGeorge
@jbgeorge
More info:
- All the event details – https://github.com/dellcloudedge/crowbar/wiki/OpenStack-Essex-Deploy-Day
- Info for the Austin, TX location – http://www.meetup.com/OpenStack-Austin/events/64399052/
- Info for the Boston, MA location – http://www.meetup.com/Openstack-Boston/events/65206122/
- Info for the New York, NY location – http://www.meetup.com/OpenStack-New-York-Meetup/events/65887462/
- More info on the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution at www.Dell.com/OpenStack
- Feel free to send any questions to OpenStack@Dell.com
Thoughts on the Spring 2012 OpenStack Design Summit
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It’s been a couple of weeks since the OpenStack summit took place in San Francisco. It was a great one, and I’m finally getting some time to put down a few thoughts about this year’s show.
The company I work for, Dell, chose to sponsor again, which was great. That would make five OpenStack conferences in a row, including the first one in Austin before OpenStack was announced.
It was great to see all the familiar faces, some with new companies. And there was a number of new faces, which is a great indicator of the progress the OpenStack movement is making. In fact, in the first keynote delivered by Jonathan Bryce, he asked for a show of hands of those who had never been to an OpenStack Summit before – I ballparked it at about 25% of the room as new!
Some interesting takeaways from the conference:
- The user community showed up
The topic of users has been coming up at our local Austin OpenStack meetup often, and I was glad to see a number of inquisitive users come to the show to learn about using OpenStack in operation. Users are an important part of our communit’y’s evolution, and it was good to see that group out in force to have their voices heard.
- HPC as a cloud use case
In a number of user sessions, high performance computing came up as a use case on OpenStack. This has not been a space where I would have expected HPC to come up as a technology, but in thinking about it, it makes sense. Similar to other spaces, the HPC communities are looking for more flexible, extensible platforms to build their systems on.
- More user adoption of Crowbar
Dell has been at the forefront of bare metal provisioning of multi-node OpenStack clouds since the advent of OpenStack, and every conference featured Dell doing bare metal deployments live. It was great to hear about a number of methods of deployment that users were using, but also enlightening to know about all the users using Crowbar that we weren”t even aware of. (It’s an open source community so that happens. 🙂 ) We’re commited to continuing to drive Crowbar as a deployment / mgmt / configuration framework, and it’s good to see the community adopting it as a platform.
Continuing interest in the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution.
Lots of good work is being done all over the community – software, services, and public cloud featuring OpenStack. But I was happy that Dell was still clearly focused on being a central provider of OpenStack as an on-premise, cloud solution, whether private cloud for IT, or a public cloud option for service providers to offer. Along with the announcement of the Emerging Solutions Ecosystem, which features a number of Dell partners like Canonical, enStratus, and Mirantis, there were a number of great discussions on how customers could get going on OpenStack asap.
And there’s a ton more that I’m not covering – the foundation, user group formation, hypervisor talk, etc, etc, etc – I’ll let you do that.
Drop me a comment about some of the things that you took away from the summit. There was a lot to be excited about.
Already looking forward to the next summit in the fall.
Until next time,
JBGeorge
@jbgeorge
More info:
- Info on the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution – www.Dell.com/OpenStack
- Info on the Dell Crowbar open source software framework – www.Dell.com/Crowbar
- Info on the OpenStack movement – www.OpenStack.org
- Email us if you have questions – OpenStack@Dell.com
RoadStack RV: Dell, Rackspace, OpenStack and a Long Stretch of Road…
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This past week marked the end of a nearly three week journey by a few brave souls from Rackspace and Dell, as the two companies sponsored the team to travel to and from the OpenStack Summit in San Fran last week, making Stacker Stops along the way.
A team that included folks like Dell’s Andi Abes and Rackspace’s Wayne Walls, Jordon Rinke, Scott Simpson, and Glen Campbell, finally ended their tour this past Friday, pulling into their San Antonio home base.
The team had quite a lofty mission – make the drive from San Antonio to San Fran, spend the week at the summit, and drive back hitting key cities like Los Angeles, Boulder, Dallas, and Austin. As they drove, they’d code and blog. When they stopped, they spread the good word around the OpenStack open cloud.
(And I hear there was a bit of hijinks thrown in as well.)
We had the pleasure of hosting the RoadStackers when they stopped by the Dell campus in Austin – I had a chance to chat with the guys, so take a look at a few of the 90 second videos we put together…
And yeah – we had a little fun with it – enjoy!
If you want to learn more about Dell is doing in the OpenStack space, including the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution, check out www.Dell.com/OpenStack or drop me an email at OpenStack@Dell.com.
Until next time,
JBGeorge
@jbegeorge
Videos:
- Scott Simpson and I chat about OpenStack Swift – and an upcoming movie?
- Jordan Rinke and I chat about OpenStack and Hyper-V support – and REM cycles on the trip
- Glen Campbell and I chat about his Top 3 important topics at the OpenStack summit – and an unscheduled extension to the RoadStack tour
- Wayne Walls and I chat about what he’s going to do as soon as he gets off the RoadStack RV
THIS JUST IN: The Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution Expands Globally
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It’s hard to believe that it’s only been eight months since Dell, the company I work for, brought the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution to market. 
It was a great day for Dell in that we were
- the first to bring an OpenStack based, on-premise cloud solution to market
- the first to make available a software framework like Crowbar (extending Opscode’s Chef tool)
- the first to provide a referencable Dell OpenStack customer in DreamHost
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Being the agile team we are, we were very focused in our launch. We launched the solution in North America first, while 
we learned about the open source cloud needs of Europe and Asia and what our customers in those regions needed from an OpenStack solution.
We listened. We learned. We built. We tested. We took learnings back to our solution. And we retested. And got more customer input. And retested. And we built in our learnings.
(Should be a very familiar song and dance to the innovators out there.)
And that journey brings us to today.
With that exprience under our belt, I’m proud to say our team has reached our next milestone….
At World Hosting Days in Germany today, Dell will be announcing that our OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution will be launching in the UK, Germany, and China.
Our executive director, John Igoe, will be on stage at the event to talk through more details on the launch, supported by a great group of folks to help answer questions on the announcement and the solution.
As we take the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution into these new regions, it continues to feature:
- A validated and OpenStack-optimized reference architecture based on Dell’s infrastructure portfolio, including Dell PowerEdge C series and new 12G servers
- Open source OpenStack cloud software
- Dell developed Crowbar software to enable quick and easy deployment + continous integration
- Deployment, support, and consulting services
We’re very excited by the news today, and anticipate this will help accelerate OpenStack as a movement and a community. 
We’ve seen the OpenStack community grow so quickly and our friends in Europe and Asia are a strong part of what makes the OpenStack open source movement so great. In fact, I am happy to report that we’ve already begun enablng some of our customers in those areas to start with our solution.
If you’re interested in learning more about what Dell is doing with OpenStack, and more on the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution, you can visit www.Dell.com/OpenStack or drop us an email at OpenStack@Dell.com.
Until next time.
JOSEPH
@jbgeorge
More info:
- Dell.com/OpenStack
- Dell.com/Crowbar
- Crowbar’s public repository
- The Dell OpenStack case study featuring DreamHost
- RobHirschfeld.com – our lead architect’s blog
- BartonGeorge.net – our web / tech marketing director’s blog
OpenStack meetups in Austin and Boston!
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Just a quick heads up on some OpenStack meet ups coming your way…
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Boston
A shot from our FIRST OpenStack meetup in Austin last month...
This Tuesday, Nov 29, Dell (the company I work for), along with Fidelity, will be sponsoring an OpenStack meetup in BOSTON at 6pm at the Lexington Depot.
Hear from folks actively deploying (or getting close to) on OpenStack clouds.
Partly presentation and mostly discussion (and obviously pizza). 🙂
Sessions should cover the core new features in Diablo: Keystone and Dashboard, as well as deployment strategies (and will touch on Dell’s own Crowbar). Each topic will have a presentation followed by open Q & A.
Time is also reserved for an unconference so come armed with some topics
Meet and eat at 6, then get to cloud stuff at 6:30, and plan to end around 9pm.
Learn more / register at http://www.meetup.com/Openstack-Boston/ – if you attend, be sure to grab some pics and tweet w #OSBOS
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Austin
Last month, my team at Dell hosted the first ever OpenStack meetup in Austin with a great showing of the cloud community in the city. We’re now at over 100 members on the MeetUp, and we want to keep the goodness going.
We’ll be back at the Tech Ranch on Thu, December 8 to have our second Austin OpenStack meetup where the topic (based on last time’s feedback) will be deployment, and a myriad of other topics.
This time around Rackspace will be joining us and sponsoring the food and refreshments for the night.
You can join the group and get details on the Austin meet up at http://www.meetup.com/Openstack-Austin/
Same deal – when you come, take a few pics and tweet with #OSATX.
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What city’s next?
A number of the attendees of the last Austin meetup actually traveled in from a number of nearby cities, so if you’re so inclined, start an OpenStack meetup in your area!
Feel free to drop me a line or catch me at the next meet up if you’re interested in learning how we got started.
See you at the next meet up!
Until next time,
JBGeorge
@jbgeorge
More info on what Dell is doing with OpenStack at www.Dell.com/OpenStack or email me at OpenStack@Dell.com
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TOP TEN: Why You Should Be At Tonight’s Austin OpenStack Meetup
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OK, ladies and gentlemen – the top ten reasons for why you should head out to the Tech Ranch tonight for our first Austin OpenStack meetup.
OpenStack Meet Up Tonight (Thu, 10/27) 6:30pm at Tech Ranch Austin
10. There will be free food.
9. You’ll meet other Stackers and cloud fans in the Austin area.
8. You’ll get a first hand view of OpenStack, Diablo, and Crowbar
7. You’ll get to hobnob with OpenStack rockstars from Dell, Rackspace, Opscode, and other OpenStack supporters. (There are also rumors that Dell’s elusive and wildly handsome director of marketing will be in attendance.)
6. There will be free food.
5. You’ll learn about Crowbar from the people that actually wrote the software.
4. Remember the week-long OpenStack technical trainings that have been happening world-wide over the last month or so? This week, it’s in Austin, so we’ll have a number of out of town guests to meet up with.
3. JBG will provide timely World Series score updates.
2. Live demos. That’s always a crowd favorite.
1. OpenStack is one of the coolest new technology movements out there – this is a great way to dive into OpenStack!
(Oh, and there will be FREE FOOD.)
If you’re planning to head out, be sure to RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/OpenStack-Austin/events/37908242/
You can learn more about Dell’s doing with OpenStack by emailing me at OpenStack@Dell.com or visiting www.Dell.com/OpenStack
See you tonight!
JBGeorge
@jbgeorge
Sneak Peek: Dell at the Fall 2011 OpenStack Design Summit and Conference
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It’s that time of year again – leaves changing color, kids back in school, Halloween preparations…
…and time for the the Fall OpenStack Design Summit and Conference!
For Dell, the company I work for, this is our fourth time at bat with the OpenStack summit – and if you do the math, that means we’ve been at EVERY OpenStack Design Summit since the initiative was announced.
If you’ve never been, this is a great time to come out and check out what’s happening in this innovative open source community.
Since Dell is among a few vendors that have been a part of OpenStack since Day 1, I can truly say I’m amazed at how far we’ve come. From a fledgling group of partners with a vision for an open source project to a thriving community of over 100 partners and multiple projects in just over a year is an incredible feat.
And there’s no chance that this community is stopping any time soon.
With the release of Diablo, new work ALREADY starting on Essex, and a LOT of customer interest in the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution, this is an amazing time to be a participant in the community!
So what’s Dell got in store for the Design Summit and Conference next week?
Glad you asked.
- Conference Sponsor – Dell’s been an active part of every Design Summit to date, including sponsorship, gear donation, speaking sessions, etc. And this time around, we’re continuing that tradition as a a top level sponsor of the event.
- Keynote – We’ll have one of our fearless leaders get up on stage and talk about what we’re seeing in the community and the market place, some insight into how OpenStack has positively impacted how we all do cloud, and where we see OpenStack going next.
- Speaking Sessions – A few of the OpenStack veteran celebrities at Dell – Rob Hirschfeld, Greg Althaus, and others – will be speaking at various times throughout the conference, leading sessions, participating in panels, etc. (Please no autographs or flash photography.)
- Live Demos – The Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution is the only HW + SW + Services OpenStack solution on the market, and we’ll be showcasing it LIVE at the conference. And we’ve got a few surprises up our sleeves – Crowbar barclamps anyone??? 🙂
Get a backstage pass! We’ve been working on some new tech to better enable our customers with OpenStack, but some of it’s not quite ready for prime time demos yet.
HOWEVER….
If you’re interested in getting a sneak peek at some of the innovation while you’re at the Conference, email us ASAP at OpenStack@Dell.com – we’ll schedule some time for you to meet with our engineers while they’re out in Boston next week, and you’ll get a front row seat to some of the coolness we’re working on.
I plan on blogging a bit next week while I’m at the summit, so be sure to stay tuned for the latest and greatest from Boston.
See you in the Cradle of Liberty!
More info:
- The Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution website – www.Dell.com/OpenStack
- Our first customer reference – DreamHost! http://i.dell.com/sites/content/shared-content/solutions/en/Documents/dreamhost-openstack-cloud-case-study.pdf
- Download Crowbar – Dell’s software framework that enables you to install and manage OpenStack – www.github.com/DellCloudEdge
Until next time,
JOSEPH
@jbgeorge
The JBGeorge Tech Blog 