New Dell-Red Hat Infrastructure Blocks Promise To Slash Networking OpEx

Dell says it is possible for solution providers who use Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks to reduce operating expences by 40 percent and capital expences by 10 percent versus deploying telecom cloud infrastructure without the Dell solution.

Ahead of Mobile World Congress 2023, Dell Technologies said it is driving increased adoption of open, cloud-native networking technologies and it has new infrastructure blocks co-designed with Red Hat that promise to slash operating expenses for network operators.

The solution has the hardware, software and subscriptions network operators need to build, scale out and power core network functions using Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes, Dell said.

Dell said consulting firm ACG Research found that it is possible for solution providers who use Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks to reduce operating expences by 40 percent and capital expences by 10 percent versus deploying telecom cloud infrastructure without the Dell solution.

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Andrew Vaz, vice president of product management at Dell, said during a press briefing ahead of the announcement that the telecom industry is beginning to embrace the benefits of cloud-native, open infrastructure, similar to the transformation that IT providers have undergone.

Dell said the infrastructure block it designed with Red Hat – similar to the products Dell announced with Cisco and WinRiver last year – are enabling the shift of telecom workloads to cloud.

“We’re offering the foundation of the stack with these infrastructure blocks. You have the ability to lock down your telecom foundation,” he said. “The hardware and infrastructure is from Dell. The automation and middleware pieces are from Dell. In this case the cloud software platform is coming from Red Hat. This is a fully-engineered system and validate from end to end.”

He said they ship directly from Dell and they offer automation for set up and installation from day one.

Dell is also making strong environmental and sustainability claims around the product, noting that “ACG found that, by reducing power and cooling expenses, 833 metric tons of total CO2 emissions can be saved over five years, which is equivalent to driving 179 gas-powered cars for one year or the average amount of electricity used by 162 homes during one year.”

Mobile World Congress is the event of the year for technology vendors with large telecom businesses such as Dell. Additionally the event draws the largest carriers in the country with Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T each staking out time for announcements.

With senior executives from some of the big industry players scheduled to deliver remarks, the event is one of the most closely watched for thought leadership regarding the macro and micro topics that will shape the market in 2023.

Dell is introducing a private 5G wireless portfolio that gives solution providers and enterprise customers pre-tested and validated architectures that include self-service operational capabilities. Dell can provide end-to-end management and support.

Thanks to parterships with Airspan and Expeto, Dell also has a fully integrated solution private wireless solutions for medium-size businesses and enterprises, while partnership with Athonet offers a choice of network architecture and radio vendor for small to mid-sized companies.

For the new hardware, Dell said its lineup of PowerEdge XR8000, XR7620 and XR5610 servers are specifically designed for telecom, open RAN and mobile edge computing workloads.

The models use Intel’s 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors. If the PowerEdge is also running with Intel vRAN Boost, that saves about 20 percent of additional computing power over the previous generation, by eliminating the need for an external accelerator card.

Additionally the devices come equipped with Network Equipment Building Systems Level 3 compliance and Zero Trust enablement through Dell’s safe supply chain sourcing practices. Dell said the servers are built to operate in edge locations and extreme temperatures as low as 23-degrees up to 130-degrees.