Dell Sets New Standard in Systems Management

Business Wire, Nov 28, 2006

Company Unveils Industry Blueprint for Unified Manageability, Modular Console Architecture, New Partnerships and Simplified Product Line

ROUND ROCK, Texas -- Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) today announced a series of moves to drive industry standards further into systems management architectures, resulting in new capabilities that can simplify and automate the administration of IT resources in the enterprise.

The company unveiled the Unified Manageability Architecture that provides a blueprint to standardize infrastructure management, a new console architecture in collaboration with systems management leader Altiris and new industry partnerships. Dell also announced that it is simplifying its existing portfolio of OpenManage tools.

"Dell is committed to simplifying the management of IT resources so customers can focus on what is most important to them - growing their business," said Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Dell Product Group. "Today we've taken a tremendous leap forward in enterprise systems management. Thanks to our partnerships with Altiris, Microsoft, Novell and other industry leaders, customers get more control, choice and peace of mind in their enterprise IT environments."

Dell Provides Blueprint for Simplified Infrastructure Management

Dell's Unified Manageability Architecture (UMA) is a vision for a standards-based blueprint for simplified, modular systems management. UMA delivers a layered framework that enables a path to "built-in" management for hardware and software using standard instrumentation such as CIM and SMI-S, and access protocols including WS-Man. The result is a cross-vendor approach that can yield more robust systems modeling, enabling high availability and standards-based building blocks for business process management.

Dell is integrating the new architecture into its own products, including the Dell Remote Access Controller and Baseboard Management Controller for Dell PowerEdge[TM] servers. Hardware, operating system and application partners such as AMD, Intel, Avocent, Broadcom, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle and VMware have already adopted many of these standards.

Dell Delivers Two Paths for Integrated Systems Management

Dell's unique approach to systems management gives customers two paths to integrated enterprise systems management. For customers who value choice of tools and seamless integration, the company collaborates with partners to integrate software and hardware management on a single console using industry-standard protocols. This gives customers control of Dell hardware using leading systems management applications and can minimize the tools required to deploy, monitor and update their enterprise infrastructure while helping reduce cost and simplifying operations.

Dell and Altiris have extended their partnership to co-develop the next generation of OpenManage applications based on the Altiris platform for customers who want a single console from Dell that delivers increased hardware and software management. The company will also offer advanced management with "pay as you grow" upgrades, designed to enable increased control and choice compared to proprietary offerings. This adds functionality, not infrastructure, while helping eliminate the expensive "forklift" approach customers have had to manage in the past when upgrading to software management.

"Altiris and Dell have had a long-standing partnership to provide Dell customers with industry-leading hardware and software management solutions. In a logical extension of our work together, we are revolutionizing the systems management market by delivering an open and unified industry-standard management platform," Greg Butterfield, Altiris president and CEO, said. "Altiris service-oriented management is uniquely positioned to deliver heterogeneous hardware and software management that aligns business and IT through automated operations, enforceable security and IT lifecycle management."

The next generation of Dell OpenManage will also integrate critical functionality in areas such as operations, security and storage management, helping customers easily secure their corporate environments.

New Partner Program, Redesigned Portfolio Drive Functionality and Choice

To help customers avoid a single, high-cost proprietary management solution, the company is enabling more systems management applications to manage Dell hardware.

The Dell OpenManage Certified Partner Program provides systems management vendors with OpenManage developer toolkits that enable them to add integrated control of Dell hardware to their applications - resulting in new ways for customers to leverage their investments in existing systems management tools. When the hardware integration is complete, Dell engineers validate and certify the functionality with the company's hardware. Certified partners are granted an OpenManage Certified Partner logo to affix to certified products.

This tight integration enables customers to simplify their software and hardware management needs from a single console. Customers can use their choice of application consoles such as Altiris' service-oriented architecture, CA Unicenter Management, Microsoft System Management Server 2003 R2, Oracle Enterprise Manager, LANDesk management solutions and Novell ZENworks to manage Dell systems. Dell is also collaborating with virtualization management vendors to integrate that functionality as the technology continues to grow. Dell expects Certified Partner Program participants to adopt the standardized framework for systems management as described by the Unified Manageability Architecture.