Dell this week trotted out two new single processor servers for small- and medium-sized business and home offices, part of the continued trend of packing more power into an entry-level server box.
The Round Rock, Texas, company rolled out the PowerEdge 700 and 750 servers in order to help zip data along a network much faster.
In this case, the PowerEdge 700 is a tower server that can hold up to 1 terabyte of data to accommodate storage needs that have the potential to increase. The PowerEdge 750 is a rack system that Dell claims is 35 percent faster than the previous Dell server. Both are powered by Intel Pentium 4 chips and have 1 megabyte of cache.
The 700 and 750 start at $699 and $949, respectively.
The products come just days after Dell announced version 2.0 of the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) specification to improve server management, vowing to wrest market share from IBM and Hewlett-Packard by standardizing products for greater inoperability and providing managed services for business customers.
Dell is looking to sell infrastructure that has become a fixture in the market at a lower cost to undercut competitors IBM and HP, both of whom also have attempted to appeal to SMBs as analysts largely agree that SMB growth is set to enjoy an explosion in the next few years.
Dell has been traditionally seen as a top PC seller because of its sub-$1,000 cost for a full computer package. But one way to curry favor in the business market, Dell decided, is to sell servers that cost about as much as a single PC package the company might offer consumers.
To sweeten the offer, Dell is offering PowerConnect 2216, 2224, 2324 Fast Ethernet switches in order to help growing businesses boost the speed and efficiency of their networks. The switches feature the capability for companies to upgrade to Gigabit networks in the future.
Neil Hand, director of worldwide enterprise marketing in Dell’s Product Group, said the new products are geared to enable e-mail, Web, file and print-serving software for small workgroups and remote offices with limited IT resources or space.
The 700 and 750 come with Dell OpenManage systems management software and are fully serviced by Dell’s managed services team, the company said. The 2216, 2224 and 2324 switches help SMBs easily connect servers, PCs and printers in a network.
Other features of the new servers include serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) capabilities and the ability to hookup with small computer system interface (SCSI) devices. Redundant array of independent disks (RAID) drives are optional. Dell’s new he PowerEdge 700 and 750 servers support Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2003 and Red Hat Linux Enterprise 3.0 operating systems, as well as Novell NetWare 5.1, 6.5.
Adapted from internetnews.com.
