IDC TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT Sponsored by: Dell Technologies, Intel, and VMware

Delivering Transformational Outcomes with Modern Server Infrastructure July 2020

Written by: Ashish Nadkarni, Group Vice President, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms, and Technologies

Introduction Digital transformation (DX) — an evolution toward more data-centric business models — is an essential mandate for businesses to thrive in a digital economy. Organizations embark on DX initiatives to create value and extend their competitive advantage through new products and services, new business relationships, improved customer experiences, and increased operational efficiencies. In a recent survey of 900 IT executives and practitioners, (IDC's Modernized Infrastructure Survey, 2020) IDC found that 70% of organizations worldwide are well into their DX journey.

Much of DX relies on data gathering via strategic workloads that deliver time to value in a significantly compressed time frame. Strategic workloads drive competitive differentiation for DX. In the survey, respondents identified collaborative applications, IT infrastructure, and business applications as critical to their business. Respondents also said they expected to add structured and unstructured data management and analytics workloads to support their business' digital transformation initiatives over the next 24 months.

Furthermore, IDC's survey found that 91% of respondents considered modernized infrastructure and/or an accompanying technology refresh to be extremely important to the success of DX. Computing platforms (servers) form a key underpinning of modern infrastructure supporting an organization's digital journey. They support the stringent availability, performance, and security requirements, which can be satisfied via a modern server infrastructure.

According to IDC, the right way to go about modernizing infrastructure is to realize the future is about hybrid cloud; implement a hybrid cloud strategy that includes private, public, and edge clouds; and then decide on where workloads should be placed based on those three deployment models.

A modern computing infrastructure forms the foundation for modern enterprise IT. Timely investments in server platforms with an objective of optimized workload placement are key to successful digital transformation outcomes.

KEY STATS According to IDC research:

» 91% of respondents considered modernized infrastructure to be extremely important as a determinant of DX success.

» 89% of respondents have plans to deploy an on-premises private cloud infrastructure in the next 12 months.

WHAT'S IMPORTANT Strategic workloads drive competitive differentiation for DX. They need to run on an infrastructure that provides consistent service quality.

KEY TAKEAWAY Investing in a best-in-class server infrastructure from reputable and experienced vendors ensures that the business can accelerate its DX journey.

AT A GLANCE

Page 2 #US46723420

IDC TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT Delivering Transformational Outcomes with Modern Server Infrastructure

Determining Optimal Workload Placement A modern server infrastructure enables organizations to host strategic and/or mission-critical workloads where they are needed the most: on premises as part of the hybrid cloud infrastructure. For other organizations, a modern server infrastructure is a matter of meeting stringent regulatory mandates by choosing to anchor their infrastructure on premises or the ability to control their consumption of public cloud resources using an on-premises control plane.

For several respondents, the shift to increased on-premises investments is driven by public cloud repatriation. IDC found that 60% of surveyed organizations repatriated because of security challenges while 42% did so because they could host their modernized infrastructure in-house in a cost-effective, efficient, and scalable manner. Respondents also cited inconsistency in service quality and cost variability and/or unpredictability of a public cloud service as reasons for repatriating from the cloud.

IDC also found that nearly 89% of respondents have plans to deploy an on-premises private cloud infrastructure in the next 12 months. Organizations seek a cost-effective, efficient, and scalable in-house modernized infrastructure. They are keen to refresh their infrastructure using a flexible as-a-service pricing model in order to align expenditure more closely with actual usage and/or consumption.

Server technologies are foundational and influence the outcomes of other infrastructure investments. IDC found that organizations consider cybersecurity capabilities, cloud-based data protection capabilities for cloud-based workloads, and accelerated compute and solid state storage as the top technology investments to leverage in a modernized infrastructure. All of the previously mentioned technologies require a robust compute infrastructure that delivers consistent service quality to the workloads running on it.

IDC research also indicates that organizations consider security, performance, management preferences (ease of management), and availability to be the top factors influencing workload placement decisions. Organizations said they specifically focus on workload requirements when considering placement of these workloads.

The performance and availability characteristics of servers are determined by server form factors, and hence form factors are crucial to workload optimization. Organizations prefer servers with built-in failover capabilities for their strategic workloads — workloads that they consider to be essential for their business mandate. IDC found that nearly 40% of surveyed organizations deploy standalone blade or multinode servers for their strategic workloads while only 22.5% deploy such workloads on single-node servers. IDC's research shows that generally speaking, single-node and rack-optimized form factors are best suited for scale-out workloads that use cloud-native application approaches.

It is imperative that organizations consider the modernization of server infrastructure in lockstep with storage, data protection, security, and networking infrastructure. Like the tiles of a Tetris puzzle, these infrastructure domains operate in an interdependent manner. Further, validated, certified solutions and purpose-built, full-stack integration can fully relieve the burden of missteps and reduce deployment time. These solutions provide organizations with a solid foundation for accelerating their DX journey and achieving competitive differentiation.

Drivers of Server Infrastructure Refresh Modern IT organizations upgrade their server infrastructure on a regular three- to five-year cadence. However, DX is a business-critical imperative that cannot wait for this cadence. IDC found that 67% of respondents plan server refreshes specifically as part of their DX journey.

Page 3 #US46723420

IDC TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT Delivering Transformational Outcomes with Modern Server Infrastructure

Figure 1 illustrates key drivers that these IT organizations cited as the top reasons for upgrading server infrastructure for DX:

» 37.6% of respondents cited increased datacenter density (such as more powerful servers per rack). IDC studies find that the choice of form factors comes down to the performance, flexibility, and density characteristics offered by the platform. Licensing costs play a role in determining return on investment.

» 37.1% of respondents cited increased availability and reliability (reduced unplanned downtime because of component failure). Recent IDC studies have shown the hidden costs of unplanned downtime caused by older infrastructure are too high to be ignored.

» 36.7% of respondents cited increased internal capacity for applications (such as internal HDD, flash, or memory). Aggregating strategic and mission-critical workloads onto a common compute infrastructure means an increase in available memory as well as high-performance ephemeral and persistent storage.

» 34.5% of respondents cited improved hardware security. The security of the server platform is crucial to maintaining the integrity and reliability of data that lives on it. Modern server platforms — and especially those from reputed vendors — are designed with supply chain integrity and come with a slew of features such as silicon root of trust, multitier administrator controls, and service isolation features in the event of a breach.

» 33.9% of respondents cited increased data reliability. IDC consistently finds that unreliability of computing platforms (servers) is a leading cause of data corruption or data loss. This is often caused by the inability to protect transient data in use or in flight or the corruption of a data store because of a component failure and the resulting crash.

» 29.9% of respondents cited increased or more predictable workload performance (as a result of improved components). This capability is table stakes for a modern server platform, especially one that supports a private cloud infrastructure in which workload profiles govern service tiers. Newer server infrastructure can provide consistent service quality in addition to reliability and resiliency.

Page 4 #US46723420

IDC TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT Delivering Transformational Outcomes with Modern Server Infrastructure

FIGURE 1: Increased Datacenter Density Drives Server Refresh

n = 603

Source: IDC's Modernized Infrastructure Survey, 2020

Investing in a Trusted Vendor

Enterprises must consider their IT vendors as partners in their DX journey. The degree of trust that firms place on an infrastructure vendor is directly related to the vendor's ability to build and deliver a modern and secure server platform. For a vendor, delivering a quality product is just half the story. Earning trust means that a vendor also has the ability to:

» Maintain a secure supply chain. This includes verifying the authenticity of components or parts, procuring components or parts from trusted suppliers, and physically securing the build environment, the system build process, and the process of shipping the system to the customer.

» Build security into every design step. This includes incorporating security features in the hardware to prevent malicious attacks as well as developing, testing, and verifying the integrity of the firmware prior to installing it.

» Support proactive updates and system recovery. This includes proactively patching firmware bugs or vulnerabilities and ensuring that updates are delivered and applied in a timely fashion. When a system recovery is necessary, a vendor can provide a restore to a known good state.

» Offer support, deployment, and consulting services to ensure that an organization can operate efficiently and without interruption.

0.0

19.8

21.3

27.5

29.9

33.9

34.5

36.7

37.1

37.6

0 10 20 30 40

Other

Reduced costs

Lower or more predictable application latency

Simplified management (via improvedmanagement tools)

Increased or more predictable workloadperformance

Increased data reliability

Improved hardware security

Increased internal storage capacity forapplications

Increased availability and reliability

Increased datacenter density (such as morepowerful servers per rack)

(% of respondents)

Page 5 #US46723420

IDC TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT Delivering Transformational Outcomes with Modern Server Infrastructure

IT organizations are generally open to working with a vendor that makes the extra effort to make the key influencers and buyers aware of the build integrity and strongly affirm the need for individuals and teams involved in making or influencing purchasing decisions to be fully aware of the vendor's build process.

Furthermore, IT organizations must hold vendors to high standards when it comes to the ability of the vendor to stand behind its product with an equally competent support and services organization. Ultimately, IT organizations are accountable for maintaining the service quality of their IT infrastructure. The reliance on a trusted vendor goes a long way in achieving this goal.

Modernizing Server Infrastructure with Dell Technologies Solutions Dell Technologies is a leading provider of enterprise IT products and services. The vendor's extensive enterprise technology portfolio includes Dell Technologies, SecureWorks, Virtustream, and VMware, with solutions that span cloud software, servers, storage, data protection, networking, converged and hyperconverged infrastructure, and software-defined datacenter and cloud platforms as well as enterprise infrastructure software in the virtualization, storage, security, and data protection markets. In the enterprise server market, the vendor's portfolio consists of various form factors designed to serve a variety of performance- and capacity-optimized workloads that enterprises rely on for their DX journey. Dell Technologies is a market leader in the infrastructure systems and platforms, converged/hyperconverged systems, and infrastructure software platforms markets.

Dell EMC PowerEdge Solutions Featuring PowerEdge MX

Dell server solutions are based around its PowerEdge server platforms and feature both Intel and AMD processors. Intel-based PowerEdge solutions can make use of features such as the Intel Quick Assist Technology (QAT), which is a bundled coprocessor with the newer Xeons that can provide hardware assist for compression and/or encryption and other data services.

PowerEdge servers are available in rackmount, modular, and tower models as well as both compute- and storage-intensive configurations. Systems management software offerings cover datacenter virtualization, cloud management platforms, and desktop and application virtualization. Dell offers a variety of converged infrastructure configurations that leverage Dell EMC PowerEdge rackmount servers and feature various storage options from Dell EMC and either Cisco or VMware networking. Hyperconverged infrastructure offerings are also based on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers; support all-flash, hybrid, NVMe, and HDD-based configurations; and can be configured with VMware vSphere or Microsoft Azure software-defined infrastructure software stack. Additionally, Dell EMC value-added software delivers automation, life-cycle management, and cloud extensibility.

The latest PowerEdge MX servers for high-density computing feature Intel processor technology and the vendor's new kinetic infrastructure design that supports the flexible architecture and agile management needed for software-defined, composable infrastructure. MX chassis can be easily configured with various types of compute, storage, and networking resources for improved efficiency of resource utilization and to support in-place technology refresh to lengthen platform longevity. MX is a Dell Technologies Cloud Validated Design and supports interoperability with VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) Redfish standards. The recently introduced PowerOne converged infrastructure system includes the PowerEdge MX platform and is designed to accommodate Dell PowerEdge rackmount servers in the future. Dell Technologies and Dell EMC validated and certified solutions reduce the complexity of delivering a workload-optimized on-premises, private cloud, or hybrid cloud IT model. In addition to reducing complexity, purpose-built, full-stack integration reduces deployment time.

Page 6 #US46723420

IDC TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT Delivering Transformational Outcomes with Modern Server Infrastructure

Challenges

Infrastructure refreshes on a faster capex-based cadence are becoming more and more difficult for organizations. Organizations face ongoing challenges with how they procure IT infrastructure to drive their business forward:

» They are not aware of newer procurement options at their disposal. Organizations could procure infrastructure on a capex basis (i.e., buy them) or on an opex basis (i.e., lease them or pay just for the time the infrastructure is used).

» The promise of public cloud where infrastructure can be consumed as a service in an opex-based manner is often enough to sway organizations initially.

» The desire to exit facilities management and instead go all in on a hosted private cloud, either self-managed or as a service, is quite strong. Again, this may be born out of miscalculations with respect to total operating costs.

Regardless, it is imperative that organizations evaluate their options fully before making a decision. They can enlist the services of a vendor such as Dell Technologies with a vast portfolio to support any or all of these consumption models before deciding on the option best suited for their business.

Dell Technologies faces the challenges of ensuring that the needs of its clients are met technologically as well as financially. Enabling optimal workload placement on best-of-breed server solutions is half the journey. The other half lies in the vendor's ability to provide compelling opex-based options for consuming infrastructure either traditionally or as a hybrid cloud anchored to an on-premises private cloud. This is where Dell Technologies On Demand comes into play. By leveraging Dell Technologies Cloud, organizations can improve their cloud experience by unifying public cloud, private cloud and edge locations with consistent infrastructure and operations. With Dell Technologies Cloud available as a capex option or an opex option, Dell Technologies can deliver better flexibility around budgeting and business models.

Conclusion A modern on-premises-based hybrid cloud infrastructure forms the foundation for organizations to accelerate their digital transformation journey, future proof their business, and gain competitive differentiation in the process. A computing infrastructure based on modern solutions such as the Dell EMC PowerEdge MX is an important cog in the infrastructure wheel.

A modern on-premises-based hybrid cloud infrastructure forms the foundation for organizations to accelerate their digital transformation journey.

Page 7 #US46723420

IDC TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT Delivering Transformational Outcomes with Modern Server Infrastructure

About the Analyst

Ashish Nadkarni, Group Vice President, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms, and Technologies Ashish Nadkarni is Group Vice President within IDC's worldwide infrastructure practice. He leads a team of analysts who engage in delivering qualitative and quantitative research on computing, storage, and data management infrastructure platforms and technologies via syndicated research programs (subscription services), data products (IDC Trackers), and custom engagements.

The content in this paper was adapted from existing IDC research published on www.idc.com.

IDC Research, Inc.

5 Speen Street Framingham, MA 01701, USA

T 508.872.8200

F 508.935.4015

Twitter @IDC

idc-insights-community.com

www.idc.com

This publication was produced by IDC Custom Solutions. The opinion, analysis, and research results presented herein are drawn from more detailed research and analysis independently conducted and published by IDC, unless specific vendor sponsorship is noted. IDC Custom Solutions makes IDC content available in a wide range of formats for distribution by various companies. A license to distribute IDC content does not imply endorsement of or opinion about the licensee.

External Publication of IDC Information and Data — Any IDC information that is to be used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written approval from the appropriate IDC Vice President or Country Manager. A draft of the proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC reserves the right to deny approval of external usage for any reason.

Copyright 2020 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden.