Dell and Oracle have announced an expanded worldwide alliance, through which the two companies will introduce a new x86 infrastructure offering that combines Dell’s hardware with Oracle’s software. As part of the agreement, Oracle has named Dell a preferred x86 partner, and Dell has named Oracle a preferred enterprise infrastructure partner, including Oracle Linux.
With the new offering, Dell customers will gain access to Oracle’s infrastructure technologies, including Oracle Linux, Oracle VM, and Oracle Enterprise Manager, that are optimized to run on x86 solutions from Dell. The Joint Infrastructure Solution is tested and validated as an application-ready platform for enterprises and delivered as a set of reference architectures that deliver high performance, cost-effective infrastructure solutions. In addition, the two companies will streamline customer support offerings to provide companies of all sizes with a single point of contact from Dell for all support-related needs
“A lot of money is being spent by our customers to integrate technologies and to maintain systems after they are integrated. Customers, more and more, are looking to move those IT costs to vendors so they can invest more in innovation,” said Oracle president Mark Hurd speaking to attendees at a recent Dell event for customers and partners via video. “You see us doing this with our engineered systems. We integrate the hardware with the software. We test it together, we patch it together, we support it together. We essentially take those integration costs away from our customers. We do the hard and the expensive work, and that is frankly what we are announcing today with Dell - an extension of this engineered systems strategy.”
By providing hardware and software integrated together, the companies are helping to solve customers’ problems, said Hurd. “We are integrating our leading infrastructure software, including Oracle Linux, Oracle VM, and Oracle Enterprise Manager software that will all be optimized to run on lean x86 systems from Dell.” The joint infrastructure solutions are Oracle Database-, Oracle Middleware- and Applications- ready, said Hurd. “It is ideal for customers deploying business-critical applications on Dell’s x86 systems. By combining Dell’s best-in-class infrastructure and Oracle’s industry leading software, organizations can deploy and manage applications faster with increased performance, flexibility, and superior value at every scale.”
Dell has "a very strong and healthy distribution model," said Hurd. "They have established themselves as having a great set of capabilities. You combine those capabilties with Oracle and this allows customers to get integrated solutions and support from Dell, with Oracle’s support backing the entire solution."
Dell expects the integrated offerings to be available to customers in the second half of 2013. For more information, visit www.dell.com.