EMC Announces VSPEX For Quick Fix Cloud Infrastructure

EMC today launched a fresh packaging option called VSPEX Proven Architecture, aimed at small and medium-sized companies who want a quick fix for cloudy data centre projects on infrastructure they can trust will not fail.

VSPEX combines technologies of a select group of vendors, including Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, Intel, Microsoft and VMware for different parts of the stack, including storage, networking, server, hypervisor and applications. There are 14 initial VSPEX configurations.

EMC will not be selling VSPEX kit directly, only channel partners will manage sales. VSPEX can also be branded by partners if they wish.

EMC believes there are two key use cases for VSPEX architecture right now: virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and private cloud deployments. The storage giant expects to see other use cases emerge as the offering is taken up by IT departments.

There is no fresh hardware or software being delivered with VSPEX. What is new is the way in which products from various vendors are being brought together, providing more certainty all the pieces of the stack work with one another.

EMC will just sit behind its partners as they take the package to market, said Andrew Hough, head of EMC’s unified storage group in EMEA.

“Historically what we’ve done is put very large architectures together through our VCE coalition [EMC’s partnership with VMware and Cisco that provides the Vblock converged infrastructure],” Hough told TechWeekEurope. “What we are doing here is providing a repeatable solution based on the customers’ needs. Those customers’ needs are going to be better understood by our partners because they are closer to them. But we are going to make it quicker for our partners to put these solutions together.”

Vendor limitation

Vendor partners are fairly limited right now. Hough said customers EMC had spoken to mainly wanted products from those providers, but indicated others would be added as VSPEX evolves.

“We’re not settling on this. This where we are starting and we’re starting here for a reason in that it is based on the feedback of the people that are building this in the field,” Hough added. “We want to go out and play to the strengths that our customers and partners are asking us to as opposed to going broad and saying you can have all of this.

“We are trying to strike that balance of giving people flexibility at the server and network level, and giving people an absolute bonafide solution that will work. We are not an IBM saying you have to take everything from IBM, we’re not an HP saying take everything from HP, we are giving flexibility, but we’re also saying there is a limit to the flexibility if you want to go quick.”

The announcement comes a day after IBM announced PureSystems, which converge compute, networking and storage into one complete offering.

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