Dell Readies Validated Systems Integrated with Red Hat OpenShift

Dell Technologies plans to offer validated systems and container-as-a-service solutions on its Apex subscription-based infrastructure offering integrated with Red Hat OpenShift. The longtime alliance partners on Thursday said they are working together to co-engineer new OpenShift solutions for Apex.

The announcement comes just days after Dell launched new iterations of its Apex portfolio for VMware Cloud. The first deliverable with Red Hat, a Dell Validated Platform for Red Hat OpenShift, will be available Sept 30.

In early 2023, Dell will start shipping Dell Apex for Red Hat OpenShift that consists of server and storage infrastructure. And later in 2023, the company will release Dell Apex Containers for Red Hat OpenShift, which will provide Dell-managed Container-as-a-Service.

Dell’s Jeff Boudreau

“The Dell and Red Hat collaboration is key to our efforts to build a multicloud ecosystem that offers customers greater flexibility and choice as they develop new applications and modernize existing ones in multicloud environments,” said Jeff Boudreau, president of Dell’s Infrastructure Solutions Group.

Bringing OpenShift to the new Dell Apex offering will let developers focus on building applications without having to focus on infrastructure, he noted. The Dell-managed Apex Containers for OpenShift will be a subscription offering. Dell will manage the infrastructure and operations.

Dell-Validated Platform for Red Hat OpenShift

The Dell Validated Platform for Red Hat OpenShift will consist of Intel-based, Dell PowerFlex software-defined compute and storage infrastructure. The solutions, which can run in bare-metal configurations, aim to let DevOps teams provision compute and storage resources. They can also deploy infrastructure-as-code and automate their processes, according to Dell.

Specifically, the validated platform will consist of Red Hat OpenShift 4.6 with Dell EMC’s PowerFlex server and compute infrastructure. It will include the Kubernetes-based Container Storage Interface (CSI).

“This platform uses PowerFlex in a 2-tier architecture to give you optimal performance, and the ability to scale storage and compute independently, up to thousands of nodes,” Dell engineer Michael Wells explained in a blog.

Wells added the offering will utilize PowerFlex Manager with OpenShift virtualization to make efficient use compute nodes with minimal hardware.

“The combined platform gives you the ability to become more agile and increase productivity through the extensive automation already available, along with the documented APIs to extend that automation or create your own” he noted.

Hybrid Cloud Deployments

The Dell hybrid cloud solution integrated with OpenShift will enable consistent management of OpenShift on-premises and in public clouds. According to Dell, it will consist of automated infrastructure that will use its software-defined compute and storage for consistent operations of applications spanning the on-premises infrastructure and public clouds.

As part of this pact, Dell and Red Hat’s parent, IBM, will offer optional intelligent automation and AIOps capabilities. The tools will provide further visibility of the infrastructure and business applications.