Dell and Nutanix deliver a Cost Effective Web-scale Hyper-converged Appliance with Microsoft Private Cloud

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1 Dell and Nutanix deliver a Cost Effective Web-scale Hyper-converged Appliance with Microsoft Private Cloud Published by: Value Prism Consulting Sponsored by: Microsoft Corporation Publish date: May 2015 Abstract: The Dell XC Series is a Web-scale hyper converged appliance that enables agile, predictable, and low cost of ownership scale-out of enterprise datacenters. The pre-configured appliance integrates with a broad range of hypervisor environments, including Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware ESXi. The different licensing structures and costs of these virtualization platforms make it difficult to evaluate the Dell XC appliance on a price-to-performance scale. Value Prism Consulting, a management consulting firm, was engaged by Microsoft Corporation to review and contrast the Dell XC appliances featuring private cloud solution built on Microsoft and VMware environments. In this whitepaper aimed at IT decision makers, the firm compared the two Dell XC private cloud solutions based on publicly-available bill-of-materials, costs, and specification data. The analysis shows that the Dell XC appliance with Microsoft Private Cloud is the more costeffective option claiming lower price for equivalent performance measures.

2 Disclaimer Every organization has unique considerations for economic analysis, and significant business investments should undergo a rigorous economic justification to comprehensively identify the full business impact of those investments. This analysis report is for informational purposes only. VALUE PRISM CONSULTING MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT Value Prism Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved. Product names, logos, brands, and other trademarks featured or referred to within this report are the property of their respective trademark holders in the United States and/or other countries. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this report may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this analysis. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this analysis does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property of Microsoft. ii

3 CONTENTS Executive Summary... 1 Introduction... 3 The Datacenter Today... 3 Why Web-Scale IT? Hyper-Converged?... 3 Dell XC Series Appliance... 4 System Costs... 5 Dell XC Appliance... 5 Installation... 6 Maintenance and Support... 7 Price-to-Performance Comparisons... 7 Price per VM... 8 Price per System Core... 9 Price per System Memory Price per Usable Storage Conclusion Appendix A: Methodology B: About Value Prism Consulting C: Dell XC Reference Architectures iii

4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Dell XC Series appliance embraces a modular, pay-as-you-grow model that integrates individual industry standard x86 server nodes with enterprise-ready Webscale software from Nutanix. The hyper-converged portfolio of compute and storage unit aims to provide a quick and easy to scale private cloud solution that allows adding small server nodes, one node at a time, as need arises; with a lower overall systems and operational costs compared to traditional datacenters. This whitepaper is aimed at organizations IT decision makers and compares the Dell XC and Nutanix reference architecture for private clouds built on the software stack from two leading vendors Microsoft and VMware. The Dell XC appliance with Microsoft Private Cloud uses Microsoft Windows Server 2012R2 with Hyper-V, Microsoft System Center 2012R2, and Windows Azure Pack for virtualization and management (validated within the Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track reference architecture program); whereas the Dell XC appliance with VMware vsphere relies on VMware vsphere 5.5, vcenter and vrealize suites. For consistency, comparison was made on similar ¼ pod Dell XC appliances featuring a total of twelve XC nodes (includes 13 th generation Dell PowerEdge R630 servers with local hard disk and flash based storage) and two Dell S- Series top-of-rack networking switches in leaf and spine configuration. Price-to-performance 1 comparisons have been collected and summarized across both software vendors solutions based on a price-per-virtual Machine (VM) metric. Three additional price-to-performance metrics price-per-system core, price-per-system memory, and price-per-usable storage were also examined. In Figure 1 results closer to the center show lower price-per-specification. The results show that Dell XC appliance with Microsoft Private Cloud has a lower price-per-vm for a standard VM profile. The Microsoft based reference architecture is also better in rest of the price-to-performance metrics, thus demonstrating that it is both a high-performing and an economical private cloud offering. The reference architecture also comes with Windows Azure Pack, which allows organizations to build public-cloud consistent experiences within their private cloud environments at no additional cost. This comparison is based on publicly available list price and specification metrics. Individual vendors offer different discounts and volume price breaks, so the actual results may be different than the ones listed here. 1 Refers to the three-year net present value (NPV) of system purchase price. This includes upfront costs of hardware, software licenses, installation, and prepaid maintenance and support; and recurring costs of maintenance and support agreements. All prices are list prices and exclude any vendor and volume specific discounts. 1

5 Price per Usable Storage ($ tenthousands) Price per Standard VM ($ thousands) $15 $12 $9 $6 $3 $- Price per System Core ($ thousands) Price per System Memory ($ hundreds) Dell XC+Nutanix with Microsoft Private Cloud Dell XC+Nutanix with VMware vsphere Figure 1: Price-to-Performance Ratios across the two Dell XC solutions 2

6 INTRODUCTION The Datacenter Today Until recently, many modern data centers have considered transitioning their legacy infrastructure, application, and database workloads to a converged environment, which offers an integrated package of compute, storage, and networking capabilities. According to IDC, the converged infrastructure system sales saw a significant growth at 60% year over year by the end of 2Q 2014, exceeding U.S. $1.35 billion in sales. i The market is split between multiple vendors that each cater towards providing either compute servers, shared storage infrastructure, or network components; and come together as OEMs and technology integrators to package these capabilities within a same box. These converged environments do make it easy to scale out datacenter compute capacity and deploy virtual machines quickly; however, the reliance on legacy network-based storage architecture such as NAS and SAN can in some cases results in large OpEx costs for the IT organization that has to spend considerable amounts of time and effort in planning, provisioning, and managing their storage infrastructure. Dell XC and Nutanix Private Cloud Solution Configurations: Microsoft Private Cloud iv v (Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track v4)* vi vii VMware vsphere 5.5 With network-based storage, the issue doesn t just end at the operational level. The fact is that procuring network storage can be expensive, and enterprises often run the risk of overspending when planning for future growth turns inaccurate. Moreover, there is an issue of vendor lock-in a recent Gartner report suggested that just the top four external controller based (ECB) storage vendors made up almost 67% of the total market. ii At times when there is constant budgetary pressure on the enterprises to lower their IT costs, it is key that they look for alternatives that are cheaper and yet can deliver comparable performance. Why Web-Scale IT? Hyper-Converged? Customers today desire a consistent private and public cloud experience that supports both business agility and reduces infrastructure and management costs. The term Webscale emerged from the datacenter architecture pioneered and adopted by large Internet companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, which were able to not only scale their infrastructure quickly and exponentially, but also do so while keeping their IT costs minimal. Gartner predicts that by 2017, 50% of the global enterprises will have adopted Web-scale approach in their IT environments. iii At the heart of the Web-scale approach lies the Hyper-Converged computing environment that integrates low-cost and commodity compute and storage resources into a single node each of which is a building block to a larger high-performance cluster thereby eliminating the need of expensive and high-latency network based storage. The infrastructure is 100% software defined and delivers all performance, management, automation, monitoring, and self-healing capabilities via an intelligent controller VM that resides within the same block. Finally, the environment is 100% distributed, i.e., the VMs, user data, and operations are spread across the various nodes iv v vi vii that make up the cluster. * The Microsoft Fast Track Reference Architecture (FTRA) is a joint effort between Microsoft and its hardware partners to deliver a pre-integrated and consistent private cloud solution. The Microsoft validated configurations increase agility and minimize complexity and risk associated with private cloud deployments. For more information, visit: 3

7 Dell XC Series Appliance The Dell XC Series appliance, a joint offering from Dell and Nutanix, delivers a consistent cloud experience that supports business agility and reduces infrastructure and IT management costs. The hyper-converged appliance integrates individual industry standard x86 server nodes with enterprise-ready Web-scale software from Nutanix. Each high-performance, scale-out node features compute (processors and memory) and local storage capabilities packaged into a hyper-converged unit that hosts user and controller virtual machines (VMs). The web-scale software Nutanix Distributed File System (NDFS), runs in the controller VM of each node to centrally manage data I/O and storage operations. NDFS aggregates the direct-attached storage across nodes into a single storage pool and eliminates the need of traditional and sometime more expensive network-based storage solutions such as SAN and NAS arrays. Figure 2 shows Dell XC architecture, with the outlined black dashed unit representing an individual node. Figure 2: Dell XC Reference Architecture (Source: Dell) Dell XC is designed and available as a pre-validated and configurable node in 1U (XC630-10) or 2U (XC730xd-12, XC730xd-24) form factor. Each node includes: Hardware components from Dell that are required to run the system, including the rack, servers, storage, and networking devices that support the organization s datacenter workloads; Software required to run the system, including system software from Nutanix, server operating system, virtualization hypervisor, and management software used for monitoring and provisioning of datacenter workloads. Organizations can simply follow the reference architecture design and guidance documents available from Dell and Nutanix to build out a private cloud infrastructure that meets their desired scale and size. The pre-validated designs removes much of the guess-work and planning associated with custom or build-it-yourself solutions that could take many months; and provides organizations an opportunity to get up and running quickly with their cloud initiatives, lower their IT costs, and deploy their revenue generating applications and services much faster. In this study commissioned by Microsoft, two Dell XC private cloud configurations, as listed in the sidebar, have been reviewed, summarized, and compared. Dell and Nutanix provide via their Website datasheets, architecture guidelines, and bill-of-material (BOM) 4

8 lists that have been used as the primary source for specification data (such as cores, memory, storage, etc.). List pricing and other annual costs details are cited specifically, and are also taken from public sources or directly from the OEMs. Consistent hardware specifications were used for each solution to ensure standard comparison across the Microsoft based and the VMware based private clouds. SYSTEM COSTS The system costs over a three-year period were calculated to include upfront investments in hardware, software licenses, installation, maintenance and support; and recurring annual investments in the appliance maintenance and support agreements. The summary of the total price for the private cloud solution is presented as a three year NPV, which assumes a discount rate of 10%. NOTE: This comparison is based on the list price and publicly available price and specification metrics. Each unique customer discount situation will be different, and more information (and customization) is likely available from each vendor so the comparison may be different than the one using only list prices and specifications. All prices are listed in U.S. dollars and rounded to the nearest hundreds for sub-categories and nearest thousands for totals. Costs Microsoft Private Cloud VMware vsphere System Nodes 2 (and Cores) 12 (240) 12 (240) Appliance 3 $1,234,500 $1,495,600 Installation 4 $18,000 $18,000 Maintenance & Support $73,900 $106,900 Total Y1 (Upfront) $1,326,000 $1,621,000 Total Y2- Y3 (Annual) $74,000 $107,000 3 Year NPV of Costs* $1,454,000 $1,807,000 Price per VM** $10,100 $12,550 * Calculated based on list prices over 3 years. Negotiated prices after vendor discounts will likely be lower. ** Total supported VMs was limited either by capacity cores, memory, or usable storage available for hosting a standard VM with 1.9 CPUs, 7.2GB RAM, and 0.2TB storage space. See Price per VM section for more details. Table 1: Costs summary for Dell XC Systems (Costs in U.S. dollars) Dell XC Appliance The total price of the Dell XC hardware and software components is based on information directly provided by the OEM, publicly-available information directly from the vendor price lists or pricing tools, from a reseller that has listed vendor list pricing, or if necessary from news or blog articles that have published price estimates. Total retail price for each configuration option, along with the pricing source, is listed below. 2 Includes capacity and management nodes. 3 Includes cost of hardware components from Dell and software from Nutanix, Dell, Microsoft, and VMware. 4 Considers only hardware setup and pre-requisite software installation, with customer performing the workload configuration / deployment tasks. 5

9 The Microsoft solution is based on the Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track reference architecture design by Dell and Nutanix. v The total system pricing (hardware and software combined) of U.S. $1,234,500 is based on the hardware for a ¼ pod configuration with 12 XC system nodes. Each node features a 13 th generation Dell PowerEdge R630 server with 2 x 10 core processors (total 240 cores), 256 GB of memory (total 3 TB RAM), and a combination of 4 x 1 TB hard disk drives and 2 x 400 GB solid state flash storage (total 57.6 TB raw storage). The system list price of U.S. $90,564 per node 5 was obtained directly from the OEM. The appliance also contains network components from Dell, viii ix which are Dell s S series top-of-rack switches configured in leaf and spine mode. Additional OS, virtualization and private cloud management software includes Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft System Center, and Windows Azure Pack. Microsoft software pricing and maintenance (Software Assurance) are part of an annual subscription. Select Level pricing was used, which is a licensing program designed for medium and large organizations with more than 250 PCs and provides a simple, flexible way to purchase Microsoft technologies. While this is not the least expensive option for licensing, it does provide a good correlation with the targeted environments for Dell XC appliance. The VMware solution is based on the reference architecture by Dell and Nutanix. vi vii For consistency, we assumed the same ¼ pod configuration with 12 XC system configuration as the Dell XC solution with Microsoft. The total system price (hardware and software combined) of U.S. $1,495,600 thus includes the same Dell and Nutanix hardware and software components, however the virtualization and x xi xii the private cloud management software is provided from VMware. Installation The installation costs are one-time professional services costs related to system and software installation and start up. NOTE: Note that this is only part of the overall deployment cost considerations. Customers should carefully evaluate overall project management, workload migration, and testing costs, which are highly variable and may not be similar across platforms. The installation costs of U.S. $1,199 per Dell XC node were identified by the OEM to be the same for both Microsoft and VMware configuration options. Additional installation costs were included for the Dell 42U rack assembly viii viii ix and the Dell network switches. The total one-time installation costs for the ¼ pod appliance were calculated as U.S. $18, Includes cost of Dell server nodes, Nutanix Pro edition software licenses, and three year support and maintenance. Installation cost was excluded and shown separately. 6

10 Maintenance and Support Most vendors require customers to pay an annual hardware and software support fee as a percentage of the initial acquisition costs. While three year support and maintenance was already included in the appliance cost detailed earlier, the list below summarize the costs associated with Microsoft and VMware software and other Dell networking components: The Microsoft solution annual maintenance and support price of U.S. $73,900 includes annual software license subscription and software assurance (SA) costs for the Microsoft Windows Server and System Center, additional Nutanix software viii ix support costs, and support costs associated with Dell networking switches. Similarly, the VMware solution annual maintenance and support price of U.S. $106,900 includes VMware Support and Subscription (SnS) x xi for VMware vsphere, vcenter Server, and vrealize Suite, additional Nutanix software support costs, and viii ix support costs associated with Dell networking switches. PRICE-TO-PERFORMANCE COMPARISONS The Table 2 below summarizes key specifications of the two private cloud solutions as designed based on the architecture reference documents. Refer to Appendix C for more detailed specifications. Specifications Microsoft Private Cloud VMware vsphere Total System Cores Total System Memory (GB) 6 3,072 3,072 RAW Storage (TB) Usable Space Estimate (%) 8 50% 50% Usable Storage (TB) Table 2: Dell XC Private Cloud Solution Specifications Since both options offer the same hardware configuration, the following scaled price-toperformance and VM performance metrics have been calculated and presented. Performance Metrics: Price-per-VM as a key performance metric that shows the price for hosting a single standard VM across each private cloud solution. A lower value for a solution indicates that, at the same available budget, a customer can set up a much denser environment hosting larger number of VM workloads compared to rest of the options. Price-per-system core as a measure of system performance at a given price. More cores provide capacity for more concurrent compute tasks. Lower price indicates better system performance at a given price. 6 Includes compute and management nodes. 7 Includes both HDD and SSD storage across all nodes, which is combined into a single storage pool. 8 Discounted for storage replication factor of 2 (or 50%). Nutanix uses storage replication of 2 or 3. 7

11 Price-per-system memory as a second measure of system performance. Since memory is able to store information in a quickly-accessible place, more memory means more information can be stored without having to write to a disk. Again, lower price indicates better system performance at a given price. Price-per-usable storage space as a storage value approximation that can help provide more comparison details when the amount of usable space is not the same across all vendor appliances. Lower price for a solution indicates availability of more space for VM workloads compared to rest of the options, at the same price point. Price per VM For calculating the price-per-vm, we started off by defining the following VM profiles based reference architecture document by Dell and Nutanix. v A blended profile based on the expected workload mix is used as a standard for the metric calculations. Form Factor CPU RAM (GB) Disk Size (TB) Workload Mix Small % Medium % Medium % Large % Standard % Table 3: Standard VM Profile Most datacenter virtual environments are oversubscribed and stacked, meaning the number of VMs multiplied by the available CPU cores is greater than the total CPU GHz purchased. This is required to make sure that the datacenter resources are not underutilized. There are varying arguments on what should be considered an acceptable oversubscription factor; Dell and Nutanix estimate 8:1 as an acceptable oversubscription / fan-out ratio for VM workloads without a visible loss in performance. v No memory and storage oversubscription was considered, i.e., the ratios were assumed 1:1. Oversubscription Constants CPU CPU fan-out ratio 8:1 Memory oversubscription 1:1 Storage efficiency 1:1 Table 4: Virtual Machine Oversubscription Constants Supported VM Calculations: The total number of supported VMs was limited either by total capacity cores, memory, or usable storage available for hosting the standard VM. This was calculated based on the total resources available for each option and the standard VM profile above. 8

12 Specifications Microsoft Private Cloud Dell XC ¼ pod with VMware vsphere Capacity Cores 9 Capacity RAM (GB) 9 Usable Storage (TB) 10 Supported Standard VMs 192 2, , Table 5: Supported VM Calculations As seen in Figure 3 below, the Dell XC appliance with Microsoft Private Cloud has a lower price-per-vm metric. Private Cloud Solution Microsoft Private Cloud Supported VMs 3Yr NPV of Costs* 144 $1,454,000 $15,000 $10,000 $5,000 $10,100 $12,550 VMware vsphere 144 $1,807,000 $- Price per Standard VM Microsoft VMWare * Calculated based on list prices over 3 years. Negotiated prices after vendor discounts will likely be lower. Price per System Core Processors and cores provide the engines for running the VM workloads and associated management functionality. Dedicated management nodes ensure robust systems and private cloud management capabilities. Figure 3: Price per VM Comparison for Each Solution (Costs in U.S. dollars) With more cores virtual machines run more efficiently; meaning they can handle larger workloads, while still providing high performance results. More is better, but with reference architectures that can scale by adding more nodes, chassis, or racks, even more important is the price per system core. Note that the number of cores is not directly correlated with the price some licenses are not required for every core, but price-per-system core provides a view into the performance of each solution as a factor of total costs. When viewed in relation to the price for the Dell XC appliance, the Microsoft private cloud option was the least expensive at U.S. $6,060 per core. The VMware option was more expensive at U.S. $7,530 per system core. 9 The private cloud solutions use a portion of their capacity nodes on the cluster as management servers. A minimum of 4 cores per node are reserved for the Controller VM (CVM), assuming 50% utilization of the CVM. 10 Nutanix uses a replication factor of either 2 or 3. A factor of 2 was assumed, giving 50% usable storage capacity. 9

13 Private Cloud Solution Microsoft Private Cloud System Cores 3Yr NPV of Costs* 240 $1,454,000 $8,000 $6,000 $4,000 $2,000 $6,060 $7,530 VMware vsphere 240 $1,807,000 $- Price per System Core Microsoft VMWare * Calculated based on list prices over 3 years. Negotiated prices after vendor discounts will likely be lower. Price per System Memory Like cores, the amount of memory included in the private cloud solution is a significant indicator of potential performance. Large amounts of memory allow for faster operation of workloads by keeping more information to be processed in memory, instead of having to make read/write calls to the hard drive. Memory is much more expensive than disk drives (for equal units of storage), so in addition to the storage metric considered below, it is important to include price-per-memory ratio comparison as well. As seen in Figure 5, the Dell XC appliance with Microsoft Private Cloud fared better than the competition. Figure 4: Price per System Core Comparison for Each Solution (Costs in U.S. dollars) Private Cloud Solution Microsoft Private Cloud System Memory (GB) 3Yr NPV of Costs* 3,072 $1,454,000 $800 $600 $400 $200 $470 $590 VMware vsphere 3,072 $1,807,000 $- Price per System Memory Microsoft VMWare * Calculated based on list prices over 3 years. Negotiated prices after vendor discounts will likely be lower. Price per Usable Storage Usable storage for the private cloud is included to provide perspective of total storage provided for VM workloads after discounting for storage replication and fault tolerance. For each solution, we selected the recommended number of disks and the disk size as per the architecture guidance. On the price-per-usable storage metric, the Dell XC appliance with Microsoft Private Cloud once again led the pack. Figure 5: Price per System Memory (GB) Comparison for Each Solution (Costs in U.S. dollars) 10

14 Private Cloud Solution Microsoft Private Cloud Usable Storage (TB) 3Yr NPV of Costs* 28.8 $1,454,000 $80,000 $60,000 $40,000 $20,000 $62,740 $50,490 VMware vsphere 28.8 $1,807,000 $- Price per Usable Storage Microsoft VMWare * Calculated based on list prices over 3 years. Negotiated prices after vendor discounts will likely be lower. CONCLUSION The Dell XC Series Web-scale hyper-converged appliance with Microsoft Private Cloud not only provides a competitively priced solution compared to the VMware option, it also offers the best price-to-performance on key metrics such as Price-per-VM and price-per- system core, memory, and usable storage. This enables customers to run intensive and mixed workloads at a lower cost compared to the competition. Figure 6: Price per Usable Storage (TB) Comparison for Each Solution (Costs in U.S. dollars) In addition to the superior price-to-performance economics, the Microsoft private cloud based solution comes ready with all the required tools needed by organizations to easily integrate and expand their private clouds to a public cloud / hybrid cloud scenario. With Microsoft System Center 2012R2, the IT departments can leverage their existing investments in building out and managing from one place any workload that is distributed across their physical, virtual, and private or public clouds. Finally, with Windows Azure Pack (free download from Microsoft), organizations can build out rich, self-service, and multi-tenant public-cloud consistent experiences within their private cloud deployment, further allowing for flexibility and agility in meeting their business needs. A comparison of similar capabilities could not be made as no equivalent solution is available on a VMware based Dell XC appliance. 11

15 APPENDIX A: Methodology In a study commissioned by Microsoft, Dell XC reference architectures for two leading virtualization and management software stack vendors have been reviewed, summarized, and compared, based on publicly-available price and specification information. The two vendors compared in this study were: Microsoft VMware Similar ¼ pod, 12 Dell XC blade configurations were analyzed to ensure standard comparisons across the reference architectures for both Microsoft and VMware private clouds. Summary metrics and total price were compared. Price-per-VM is used as a price/value approximation that can help provide more accurate comparison details across multiple private cloud offerings. Comparisons are based on the list price and publicly available cost and specification metrics. In addition to the hardware and software price, which is only part of the cost considerations, the analysis included installation, maintenance and support costs. Each discussion with vendors and their customer discount situation will be different, and more information (and customization) is likely available from the vendors. Individual results may thus be different than the ones listed here. Customer should carefully evaluate deployment, migration, and on-going management costs specific to their solution requirements before making a decision. B: About Value Prism Consulting Value Prism Consulting is a valuation and management consulting firm that provides services to a broad range of clients worldwide. Our Management Consulting Practice assists clients with business case development and decision support analysis. Our solutions measure the results of various options related to business process improvement, capital and major budget-spending decisions, including infrastructure upgrades, and the value of new product introductions. Visit for more information. 12

16 C: Dell XC Reference Architectures Dell XC Appliance with Microsoft Private Cloud VMware vsphere 5.5 Notes Product: ¼ pod, 12 node XC with Microsoft Private Cloud ¼ pod, 12 node XC with VMware vsphere 5.5 Hypervisor: Microsoft Hyper-V VMware vsphere 5.5 Management: System Center 2012R2, Windows Azure Pack System Software: Nutanix Distributed File System VMware vcenter, VMware vrealize Suite Nutanix Distributed File System System Nodes: Dell PowerEdge R630 servers Processors: Dual, 10 core Intel E v3 per blade Cores: Memory (GB): 3,072 3, GB per node Clock Speed (GHz): 2.3/ /3.0 Management Nodes: cores per node reserved for Controller VM (CVM) functions Cores: Memory (GB): Capacity Nodes: Calculated as total system nodes minus the management nodes Cores: Memory (GB): 2, ,457.6 Storage Nodes: Storage built-in to the rack server Number of HDDs: x 1TB HDDs per node HDD Size (TB): Number of SSDs: x 0.4TB SSDs per node SSD Size (TB): RAW Storage (TB): Total raw hard disk + solid state drive capacity Usable space 50% 50% Replication factor of 2 Usable Storage (TB): Total usable storage for VM workloads 13

17 D: Sources i IDC Press Release. (2014, September 25). Worldwide Integrated Infrastructure and Platforms Revenue Increased 33.8% Year Over Year to $2.4 Billion in the Second Quarter of 2014, According to IDC. ii Gartner. (April 7, 2014). Why Your Vendor Doesn t Want You to Adopt Web-Scale IT. iii Gartner. (March 5, 2014). Gartner Says By 2017 Web-Scale IT Will Be an Architectural Approach Found Operating in 50 Percent of Global Enterprises. iv Dell. (2015). Solution Brief: Microsoft Cloud. v Dell. (2015). Microsoft Windows Azure Pack Reference Architecture for Dell XC Series. vi Nutanix. (2015, January). Nutanix Reference Architecture: vrealize Automation on Nutanix; Version vii Nutanix. (2014, September). Nutanix: Citrix XenApp on vsphere Reference Architecture; Version viii Dell. (Accessed 2015, March 26). Dell Online Store. ix Ohio.gov (Accessed 2015, March 26). Dell Price List. x VMware. (Accessed 2015, January 12). VMware vsphere Pricing. xi VMware. (Accessed 2015, January 12). VMware vcenter Pricing. xii CloudComputing.info. (2014, August 25). VMware Launches VMware vrealize Suite. 14