Dell Technologies: Networking Portfolio Review

Dell Technologies is one of the world’s leading technology companies, including in the networking sector.

Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Technologies employs over 165,000 people and has an annual revenue of over $101 billion.

After participating in the growth of the networking category, Dell Technologies is qualified to solve the challenges being faced by enterprises needing highly available, easy to manage, and scalable network infrastructures.

See below to learn all about where Dell Technologies stands in the networking market: 

Networking Portfolio

By employing an open networking, standards-based approach, Dell Technologies has disaggregated hardware and software. With options to choose the best-suited networking components without having to pay for functionality that isn’t needed, Dell Technologies aims to meet the exact needs of an organization.

Here are some key offerings in Dell’s networking portfolio:

Ethernet Switches

• Designed to offer networking agility and flexibility to data centers looking to deliver scalable performance
• Available product lines include PowerSwitch Data Center Switches, PowerSwitch Campus/Branch Switches, and PowerEdge MX I/O Modules

SmartFabric Services

• Provides autonomous fabric deployment, expansion, and life cycle management for software-designed (SD) infrastructures
• Manage all infrastructure through a single point of entry
• Automate 99% of network configuration tasks
• Accelerate and simplify management of complex environments
• SmartFabric Design Center allows organizations to gather the information needed for their next deployment, determine materials, and configure key networking variables

Edge Platforms

• The Dell Virtual Edge Platform (VEP) provides both hardware platforms and virtual networking functions (VNFs)

Enterprise SONiC Distribution

• Scalable, open-source network operating system based on Debian Linux distribution
• Container-based design architecture uses standards-based APIs to simplify integration, while providing the flexibility for applications to adapt to different environments
• 24/7 enterprise-class support
• Tested and validated to be compatible across all Dell systems
• Enterprise-grade management capabilities

Networking OS

• Dell provides several network operating system (OS) options: including, DellSmartFabric OS10, Dell OS9, and Dell OS6

Partners

Dell Technologies offers a Partner Program with three options:

• Solutions Providers: for resellers of products and services
• OEM Partners: for companies that embed, attach, or integrate information management, data security, and other IT solutions
• Cloud Service Providers: for companies building cloud services platforms to host Dell Technologies

Members of the Dell Technologies Partner Program receive access to several benefits:

• Financial incentives, marketing funds, and rebates
• Access to sales solutions and tools
• Comprehensive training program to develop sales, technical, and marketing skills

Networking Use Case

La Poste is responsible for the postal services in France, managing traffic and delivery for millions of parcels every day. Delivering these services effectively requires efficiently sorting parcels, with the need to scale as needed.

When La Poste needed to support seven new sites and a 50% increase in parcels being processed, they chose Dell Technologies Edge Solutions with PowerEdge rack servers, PowerSwitch switches, and ProSupport services.

“The edge architecture deployed is not only measurable but scalable so that new services can be rapidly deployed in the future,” says Jean Pinassaud, industrial IT project manager, La Poste.

La Poste reports several business results following their adoption of Dell Technologies Edge Solutions:

• 38,000 parcels are processed per hour, a significant increase over the previous 12,000 parcel limit
• New services are deployed quickly and are easily scalable
• Customer inquiries and product support are funneled through a single source
• Cost savings enabled investments in job creation and environmental protections

User Reviews of Dell Networking

Overall, Dell Technologies receives high praise for their data center and networking solutions, earning an 4.4 out of 5 from Gartner Peer Insights.

Industry Recognition of Dell Networking

Dell Technologies has won several honors recently and shares some of them in a post called ”Let the numbers speak for themselves.”

There are a few standouts among these reported numbers:

• IDC ranked Dell Technologies number one in the list of leaders in server revenue, citing the PowerEdge servers as innovation engines
• The Technology & Services Industry Association awarded Dell with several STAR awards that show the company’s dedication to being the best in the technology and services industry
• Intersect360 declared Dell EMC servers at the top of three categories: highest level of product awareness; highest level of current usage; and highest rated with likeliness to use in two years.

Dell in the Data Center Market

The data center server market is expected to grow by $83.91 billion over 2020 values, by 2025, according to a recent report published by Technavio. This growth is enjoyed by a number of key vendors, with top market share honors going to HPE with 15.7%, Dell Technologies with 15.6%, and Inspur with 9.4%.