DELL UNVEILS COMPREHENSIVE DATABASE COMPUTING SOLUTIONS OFFERING

DELL UNVEILS COMPREHENSIVE DATABASE COMPUTING SOLUTIONS OFFERING

Winning Combination: Microsoft* SQL Server 2005 on Powerful New Dual-Core, Quad-Socket Dell PowerEdge* Servers Plus High Quality Dell Services

Bracknell, UK, November 2nd, 2005 - Customers migrating mission-critical applications to the new Microsoft® SQL Server database environment can optimise performance, value and manageability with a comprehensive end-to-end solutions offering of servers, storage, systems management, service and support announced today by Dell.

It is now easier than ever for customers to scope and size mission-critical database environments, an all-important precursor to selecting the best-fit solution. The comprehensive customer experience is further enhanced by the significant ease of purchasing, installing, managing and supporting Microsoft's new SQL Server 2005 database on Dell* PowerEdge* dual-core, dual-socket and Dell's newest and most powerful quad-socket servers. Dell will offer SQL Server 2005 directly to customers, either pre-packaged on Dell PowerEdge servers or via existing licensing agreements. This agreement also simplifies installation and support of the database application for customers.

New Dell services, encompassing assessment services through to installation & tuning as well as Pro-active Maintenance Services, will streamline the way customers can integrate these high-performance, dual-core database computing products into their data centres. Customers can protect business-critical data today and cost-effectively scale for the future with Dell's building-block approach to managing and protecting storage in SQL environments.

Steve Lewis, Enterprise Systems Director, Dell UK, noted the importance of helping customers simplify data centre operations by providing a complete, powerful and fully supported ecosystem for business-critical database applications.

"Customers can now more effectively and efficiently deploy, run, manage and protect critical investments with a single, complete database solution," said Lewis. "Dell can provide a single point of contact for enterprise database needs, from hardware and software to services and storage, with great performance today and headroom for future growth."

New Dell(tm) Dual-Core, Quad-Socket PowerEdge(tm) Servers

The Dell(tm) PowerEdge* 6800 and 6850 are also ideal for customers concerned about balancing performance demands with power consumption. The dual-core processors can increase the total performance per watt of these PowerEdge servers by up to 43 percent*3. In addition, whether single-core or dual-core, PowerEdge 6800 and 6850 servers maintain a common system image and are backward compatible so customers can easily manage and update all of their systems.

To complement these new high-speed multi-core processors, Dell now factory installs fully tested 4 GB Fibre Channel host bus adapters in all PowerEdge servers, allowing the servers to transmit data as fast as they can create it. Dell direct-attached and Dell|EMC* network-attached storage offerings make it easy to extend storage capacity as well as manage, protect and back up data.

Easy to Manage

Customers purchasing Microsoft* SQL Server 2005 for Dell PowerEdge servers are assured ease-of-management capabilities with seamless integration into the Microsoft* Systems Management Server 2003 and Microsoft* Operations Manager 2005 console.

Dell's standards-based, integrated Open Manage systems management suite provides the only capability to update server software, operating systems, and applications such as Microsoft SQL Server 2005 from a single console.

Easy to Migrate and Support with Dell Services

Dell helps simplify operations by allowing customers to upgrade from single-core to multi-core environments or migrate to Microsoft® SQL Server 2005 with minimal disruptions and negligible effect on operating costs.

Dell will carry out an assessment of the customer's current database architecture and design a best practice infrastructure of how to migrate to Microsoft SQL Server 2005; including a full implementation, risk assessment, data migration, tuning and on-going maintenance plan of the customer's SQL Server 2005 solution. Dell's SQL Server 2005 sizing tool can size a customer's database and recommend the optimal combination of Dell offerings. Dell can also assist customers to mitigate risk and minimise downtime across the enterprise. Dell has recently introduced a series of pro-active maintenance services including Dell|EMC* maintenance for SANs, a pro-active maintenance service including system Health Checks and Enterprise Assistance for upgrades.

In addition to this, Dell's Data Centre Environment Assessment Service can provide a detailed report with survey processes, findings and recommendations for data centre cooling and power infrastructure. Later this year, Dell will extend pro-active maintenance to the rest of the Dell(tm) PowerEdge(tm) Server and PowerVault(tm) storage range to keep these systems in a known-good-state.

The Dell Services organisation can help customers with installation of the new systems and provide training that helps customers learn about the technologies' capabilities and the multiple applications provided. Additionally, Dell Services offers "Platinum, Gold and Silver" support to help ensure uptime and provide appropriate levels of support once the technology is up and running.

Pricing and Availability

The dual-core PowerEdge(tm) 6800 and 6850 servers are available across EMEA today with factory-installed Microsoft *Windows Server 2003 (32/64-bit edition) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (32/64-bit edition). Starting prices for the servers are as follows: PE 6800 with dual-core from £3799, PE 6850 with dual core from £4149 excluding VAT and delivery. For more information, visit www.dell.com/multicore. Microsoft* SQL Server 2005 will be available later this year. For more information, visit www.dell.com/microsoft.