In response to customer needs, Dell is introducing new software solutions aimed at helping organizations simplify IT, mitigate risks, and accelerate business results. In line with the company’s customer-inspired, end-to-end solutions vision, Dell is unveiling Dell CIO Powerboard, a unified and open software interface that will allow organizations to maximize visibility and management across their preferred solution suites. In addition, the company is introducing a mobile management solution that helps organizations secure and simplify BYOD, a security portal to help organizations monitor network security threats, and a data recovery appliance to ensure organizations stay up and running amid unexpected outages.

“Our acquisition, organic development and integration strategy has allowed us to make tremendous progress in delivering software solutions that bridge the gap between what businesses expect and what IT can deliver,” said John Swainson, president of Dell Software. “The next frontier of innovation is in software, and our focus is on bringing that innovation to customers with software solutions that are easy to access and simple to deploy and manage.”

Integrated Software Simplifies Enterprise Systems Management

Dell is announcing CIO Powerboard, an integration of its Dell Quest, KACE, SonicWALL and AppAssure solutions, all brought together by Dell Boomi. This game-changing proposition will enable CIOs, IT admins and Dell sellers and partners a simplified look across their IT environments, including the services and managed resources throughout the enterprise to drive improved business results.

CIOs need an end-to-end view of their organization’s critical applications to better leverage IT skills and drive total cost of ownership. IT admins need powerful products with the ability to contribute context to the network events affecting productivity and Dell’s sellers and partners need to understand how individual products in the portfolio come together to contribute to the overall solution. The new Dell CIO Powerboard will help organizations improve the integrity of data across their systems within the environment by creating a normalized view and source of ‘truth.’

“This is about business performance,” said Carol Fawcett, CIO of Dell Software. “CIOs need to respond to ever changing IT environments while business goes on and orders are being placed and processed. If a system is unresponsive, we need to understand when it started and why, in order to quickly engage the right IT skill in order to resolve the issue. Having an end-to-end view like CIO Powerboard will give CIOs this critical information in a simple and efficient manner to help maintain business continuity.”

For example, a network security appliance like Dell SonicWALL Next Generation Firewall can provide application usage and access data while a systems management tool like Dell KACE K1000 can also provide information about users and systems that are accessing the application. Dell AppAssure’s backup and recovery system can provide the status of backup and recovery resources used to deliver the application, while Dell’s Quest Foglight can provide performance information about the same application. The new unified interface will deliver a broad view of the IT environment that simplifies awareness, root cause and issue resolution.

The integrated health and status information provided by CIO Powerboard can save CIOs valuable time each workday by not having to assemble metrics and ensure that systems are running according to service level agreements, that they are secure, and have been backed up successfully. The unified interface allows CIOs to have this critical information at their fingertips while being freed up to focus on more strategic tasks.

CIO Powerboard will provide organizations with a unified view that includes the status of:

• Applications and user experience across multiple technologies associated with an IT service (e.g. Java, .Net, virtual or physical servers, databases, networks, etc.)
• Networking elements across the IT environment
• Users and the PC assets and the software they are using to access an IT service
• The protection and backup of managed resources that comprise an IT service

Through a set of simple but powerful integrated solutions that allow organizations to manage applications, systems, devices and data securely, Dell is delivering software solutions that help simplify IT, mitigate risk and ultimately help businesses accelerate results.

Security Portal Helps Organizations Anticipate Network Security Threats

To help IT leaders stay current on the world of network security and the rapidly-changing threat landscape, Dell Software is introducing the Dell SonicWALL Security Portal. The heart of the portal is the “Security Education” section, which contains product-neutral materials such as blogs, white papers, webinars, e-books and security-related games. Organizations can sharpen their knowledge of network security and anticipate potential threats with fresh information from Dell SonicWALL, customers, partners and industry experts.

Beyond education, the Dell SonicWALL Security Portal includes a “Threat Center” for an up-to-date view into the current landscape of malware, intrusions and application usage information transmitted from hundreds of thousands of sensors around the globe. Through the Threat Center, visitors can view data from around the world and create customized graphs to see a variety of telemetry data ranging from country of origin, threat type, top 10 attacks and much more. Finally, the “Training & Certifications” section is where network administrators, security experts and Dell partners can access technical training curriculum to enhance their knowledge and maximize their investment in the Dell SonicWALL products and security applications.

Mobile Device Management Appliance Secures and Simplifies BYOD

In related news, Dell is helping IT teams manage the proliferation of mobile devices in the workplace with a limited release of Dell KACE’s K3000 Mobile Management Appliance. IT infrastructure has become increasingly complex as more organizations face the demands of mobile workforces and “bring your own device” (BYOD) programs. The KACE K3000 makes it simple to support and secure corporate and personal mobile devices running iOS and Android operating systems with an on-premise mobile management appliance.

Powerful Dell Integrated Hardware and Software Appliance Restores Data Quickly

Dell is announcing the availability of the Dell PowerVault DL4000 appliance, powered by AppAssure software, which offers organizations a simple way to protect and ensure the availability of the data and applications in their growing IT environments. In case of an unexpected outage, organizations need to be able to quickly recover their applications and data to maintain business as usual.

The Dell DL4000 is a fully configured 1U backup appliance that integrates 5.5 terabytes of storage capacity and two standby virtual machines with Dell AppAssure snapshot, replication, deduplication, and compression software. The capacity of the Dell PowerVault DL4000 can be expanded beyond the existing 5.5 terabytes to provide up to 30 additional terabytes of capacity.

The DL4000 with AppAssure includes:

• Live Recovery helps restore operations almost instantly, which helps organizations meet SLA objectives and can reduce risk of data loss
• Assured Recovery validates and verifies data and applications daily to ensure the backup file is completely recoverable
• AppAssure Scaling 5 Architecture takes advantage of high-performing, multi-core hardware to address data growth and offer near-instant RTOs and RPOs

Pricing and Availability

• Dell CIO Powerboard will be available in early 2013.
• Dell KACE K3000 Mobile Management Appliance will be available in January 2013. For more information, click here.
• Dell SonicWALL Security Portal is available now. For more information, click here.
• Dell PowerVault DL4000 will be available Dec. 18, 2012. The list price for DL4000 with 5 server protection pack and 1 year of maintenance (includes hardware and software maintenance) is $24,427 (US).

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com.

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Dell, Dell Boomi, Dell KACE, Dell SonicWALL, Dell Quest, Dell Foglight, AppAssure, and Dell PowerVault are trademarks of Dell Inc. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.