Dell Technologies Cloud Gets ‘New Breadth’ With Google Cloud

Dell Technologies is doubling down on its hybrid cloud strategy by boosting the Dell Technologies Cloud with new Google Cloud and Kubernetes integrations.

Dell Technologies, the $91 billion infrastructure giant, is taking its cloud architecture to the next level by teaming with Google to create the new Dell Technologies Cloud OneFS for Google Cloud to help customers simplify management of private and public cloud storage.

“This integration adds new breadth to the Dell Technologies Cloud offerings,” Rick Gouin, chief technology officer at Winslow Technology Group, a Waltham, Mass.-based Dell Titanium partner and 2019 CRN Triple Crown award winner.

Dell Technologies Cloud OneFS for Google Cloud combines the scalability and performance of Dell EMC Isilon, the company’s scale-out network-attached storage platform, with Google Cloud’s analytics and compute services through a native cloud experience that uses the same core software.

The Round Rock, Texas-based worldwide leader in storage said companies can now easily move and access high performance computing and demanding workloads -- as large as 50 petabytes -- in a single file system between on-premises Dell Technologies file storage systems and Google Cloud without having to make changes or adjustments to their applications.

[Related: Dell’s Next-Generation Storage Platform Is Here: PowerStore Is ‘Untouchable’]

Gouin said the integration of Dell Technologies Cloud with Google Cloud simplifies management of public and private cloud storage while also giving channel partners more opportunities in instances where a customer has already chosen Google Cloud as well as the ability to sell larger solutions.

“As more providers are integrated and more features are added, we get more tools in our toolbox to build larger and more cohesive solutions,” he said. “One possible use case is that [OneFS for Google Cloud] might be useful as a replication target in certain scenarios. For example, IoT data written locally that is replicated into Google Cloud Platform to run analytics on.”

Scott Millard, senior vice president, specialty sales, global channel, alliances and OEM at Dell Technologies, said partners who sell Dell Technologies Cloud OneFS for Google Cloud will earn a referral fee based on the contract value as well as tier credit in the Dell Technologies Partner Program.

“Partners are really digging into containers and Kubernetes and developing as-a-service offerings for cloud-native apps,” said Millard in an email to CRN. “They’re also deploying hybrid cloud for smaller customers, or looking to pilot hybrid cloud projects. And for the last few years, they’ve been using SD-WAN to transform customer networks for the cloud era. These enhancements ensure partners have exactly the right products and services to offer customers complete, modern, flexible, economical cloud solutions for the real world.”

The news comes as virtualization and Kubernetes star VMware, which is majority owned by Dell Technologies, prepares to launch the Google Cloud VMware Engine, an integrated solution for customers to extend, migrate and run their VMware environments in Google Cloud this summer.

A report from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) said while file data often accounts for at least half of an organization’s on-premise data, very little of it is stored in public clouds due to performance and scale limitations. For example, customers who demand terabytes of storage and low latency file storage have challenges managing large file workloads in public cloud. With Dell Technologies Cloud OneFS for Google Cloud, customers can easily work across private and public clouds with consistent operations and have the flexibility to scale as needed.

Dell Technologies Cloud was launched last year as a hybrid cloud, data center as-a-service architecture that tightly integrates VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) on VxRail, the world’s market leading hyperconverged infrastructure solution. The cloud architecture comes in two flavors. One offering, Dell Technologies Cloud Platform, includes VxRail and VCF with additional product options including Dell EMC servers, storage and networking products that can be sold and managed by channel partners. The other offering is Cloud Data Center-As-A-Service which includes VxRail, VCF and VMware management that is fully managed by Dell Technologies that can be sold by partners.

In addition to new Google Cloud integration, Dell also unveiled on Wednesday that it is reducing the barrier of entry and improving capabilities for hybrid cloud deployments on the Dell Technologies Cloud.

Dell Technologies Cloud Platform now provides a simple and direct path to Kubernetes from a single environment, with support for containerized workloads and traditional virtual machines on the same VxRail infrastructure. The approach integrates VCF version 4 and VxRail into a single solution that enables a consistent approach across all cloud locations.

Additionally, the Dell Technologies Cloud Platform subscription program, Dell Technologies On Demand, is now offering new node configuration options that include as few as four nodes. The cloud architecture also features a new enterprise scale, 42 rack unit infrastructure, which doubles the amount of supported processor cores, memory options and NVMe all-flash storage.

The Dell Technologies Cloud news comes as the company is embarking on a massive market share takeover campaign where Dell hopes to win upwards of 50 percent global market share in storage, servers and hyperconverged infrastructure. The campaign is being fueled by Dell’s revamped infrastructure portfolio under its new Power product lines in storage, servers, data protection, networking and converged solutions.

“Our portfolio has never been stronger,” said Dell’s founder and CEO Michael Dell, in a recent interview with CRN. “The entire portfolio is being refreshed under the Power brands. Markets are consolidating. We have very ambitious goals.”