Dell Cloud Servers Attract Partner Interest

Written by samdizzy
December 19, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ZhxLSOjrs[/youtube]At first glance, Dell has developed a family of cloud servers. But check in with the hardware giant, and Dell describes the offerings as the Dell Cloud Solution for Web Applications. Early adopters include Uniserve, a Canadian Internet Service Provider. Dell Cloud Evangelist Barton George describes the strategy a bit more fully in a TalkinCloud FastChat Video.

At first glance, Dell has developed a family of cloud servers. But check in with the hardware giant, and Dell describes the offerings as the Dell Cloud Solution for Web Applications. Early adopters include Uniserve, a Canadian Internet Service Provider. Dell Cloud Evangelist Barton George describes the strategy a bit more fully in a TalkinCloud FastChat Video.

Simply put, Dell Cloud Solution for Web Applications is a pre-tested, pre-assembled and fully-supported hardware, software and services solution for deploying a platform as a service (PaaS) offering to run highly responsive web applications, Dell claims. The offering targets IT service providers, hosting companies, telcos and online driven enterprises.

Translation: Dell Cloud Solution for Web Applications isn't designed for small MSPs and small VARs. Still, small channel partners could leverage the servers when working with larger cloud services providers — such as Uniserve Communications of British Columbia, Canada. According to a prepared statement, the large ISP has embraced the Dell Cloud Solution for:

"Web Applications to offer on-demand access to a high-performance Internet application and consumer delivery platform, for customers to develop iPhone apps to commercial storefronts, to hosting and delivering Software-as-a-Service."

During the Rackspace Partner Leadership Summit in October 2010, Dell Cloud Evangelist Barton George shared additional perspectives with me. In particular, he noted that the Dell cloud solution leverages Joyent's software, plus third-party solutions like Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, Greenplum and Aster Data. Also George and I went off on a tangent, discussing Dell's commitment to OpenStack, an open source cloud platform promoted by Rackspace and NASA.

Overall, it sounds like the Dell Cloud Solution for Web Applications initially targets 1,000 of the world's largest cloud computing opportunities — everyone from big enterprises seeking private clouds to massive service providers building public clouds. We'll be watching to see if smaller partners leverage the servers when working with big cloud platform providers.

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