Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift

APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift modernizes infrastructure.

The Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift is now accessible. This platform is designed as the first fully integrated application delivery platform specifically for Red Hat OpenShift. Developed in collaboration with Red Hat and driven by 4th-generation Intel processors, the APEX Cloud Platform revolutionizes the deployment, administration, and operation of containers and virtual machines on-premises for organizations.

Recognizing the necessity for flexibility, agility, and purposeful application development and execution, Dell, in collaboration with Red Hat, a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Container Management, is enthusiastic about introducing the inaugural integrated application delivery platform for Red Hat OpenShift to the market.

“Innovation has always been at the center of our collaboration with Dell, and today, we’re bringing that innovation to life with a transformative way to run Red Hat OpenShift on-premises. Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift offers a streamlined cloud-native experience by leveraging the best of our technologies in a unified application platform. I look forward to seeing how our customers use this platform to bring their innovation to life.” – Stefanie Chiras, senior vice president, Partner Ecosystem Success, Red Hat.

A Platform for Modern Application Innovation, Deployment and Management

The APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift revolutionizes conventional approaches to managing OpenShift, the foremost hybrid cloud application platform driven by Kubernetes. This on-premises solution aims to streamline multi-cloud operations, expedite application delivery, and enhance workload placement optimization, challenging preconceptions about operating the industry-leading platform.

In a multi-cloud environment, customers seeking the consistency, performance, reliability, and security features of on-premises infrastructure, without compromising the agility and flexibility of the public cloud, can turn to the APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift. The complex era of the "do-it-yourself" approach to deploying and managing Kubernetes is now a thing of the past. The APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift, designed for rapid deployment and operation on a turnkey, integrated bare metal platform, is equipped with the APEX Cloud Platform Foundation Software. This software automates the deployment of Red Hat OpenShift, demonstrating a 90% increase in speed compared to manual methods. With over 21,000 hours of testing and validation on full-stack updates, there is a 90% reduction in the time required for updates. Users can contemplate the possibilities that come with having 90% more free time.

Accelerating Application Delivery becomes a reality for organizations as they contemplate the potential achievements of their IT teams when freed from the challenges of infrastructure management. The application delivery platform, fortified with infrastructure, including advanced Intel AMX acceleration, and contemporary container orchestration, coupled with sophisticated DevOps automation tools, bestows upon IT teams the invaluable gifts of time and freedom.

The APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift is constructed upon the foundation of next-generation PowerEdge servers and leverages Dell's high-performance, linearly scalable software-defined storage, rooted in PowerFlex technology. Collectively, these components empower organizations to fulfill rigorous enterprise Service Level Agreements (SLAs) by delivering exceptional performance, scalability, and resilience across a diverse range of workloads.

“With Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift, organizations can now realize the full performance potential of next-generation PowerEdge servers with 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors delivering 2x performance compared to previous generations.” – Jeremy Rader, general manager, Xeon Market Readiness, Intel

Red Hat OpenShift assembles proven and reliable services to alleviate the challenges associated with developing, modernizing, deploying, running, and managing applications, providing a uniform experience across public cloud, on-premises, hybrid cloud, or edge architecture. Red Hat OpenShift seamlessly supports both containers and virtual machines (VMs), facilitating a smooth transition from VMs to containers. The inclusion of comprehensive automation toolsets, encompassing open APIs and Dell's Container Storage Modules, streamlines DevOps processes, enhancing overall IT efficiency.

Optimizing Workload Placement becomes a priority, recognizing the crucial need for application portability in a multi-cloud landscape. The facilitation of seamless application and dataset movement across multi-cloud environments is a focus. Within the APEX Cloud Platform, the Software-Defined Storage (SDS) is aligned with the same universal storage layer featured in the public cloud storage offering, fostering compatibility between on-premises storage and Dell's public cloud storage services. This agility is maintained without compromising security, thanks to the close collaborative engineering efforts between Dell and Red Hat. This collaboration ensures customers have swift access to new patches, aiding in the mitigation of potential security vulnerabilities.

“Customers are frequently asking us how to accelerate application development and adopt cloud-native strategies,” said John Cole, general manager, of AHEAD. “Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift is the first fully integrated on-premises infrastructure platform designed to make it easier than ever for companies to adopt hybrid cloud, speed application delivery and optimize workload placement.”

A Refined Approach to AI Differentiation

Organizations of varied sizes have adopted an AI-enabled future, aiming to generate enhanced value for customers, employees, and shareholders. Despite the substantial potential that AI brings, there exists considerable complexity, particularly as data scientists increasingly leverage multi-cloud solutions to optimize the portability of applications and data. With 82% of IT decision-makers expressing a preference for an on-premises or hybrid model in the context of Generative AI (GenAI), it is crucial to possess a multi-cloud architecture that not only maximizes the value derived from data but also minimizes operational complexity.

In the latest announcement, there is the introduction of a new Dell Validated Design for Red Hat OpenShift AI on the APEX Cloud Platform. This design provides organizations with a streamlined guide for deploying a digital assistant using a Large Language Model (LLM) and the Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) framework. This integrated multi-cloud solution serves as an illustration of utilizing RAG securely on-premises with your data.

The APEX Cloud Platform and Red Hat OpenShift AI collectively provide data scientists with the essential agility, flexibility, portability, and scalability required for the design, construction, and deployment of AI-enabled applications on a large scale. Complementing the suitable AI application platform, numerous organizations will find it imperative to engage with the right partner to unlock the full potential of AI applications for their business.

World Class Services to Deliver AI Value and Accelerate Container Adoption

Dell Services, acknowledged by Forbes7 is trying to inspire organizations to formulate a successful strategy for Generative AI can benefit from the established methodology offered by advisory services through Dell. These services assist in outlining the ideal future state and creating a practical roadmap aligned with high-value AI use cases. Leveraging Dell's profound expertise in data science and the recent introduction of Data Preparation Services, businesses can expedite the potential of AI for their data, ensuring access to a clean, accurate dataset in the appropriate format for successful AI projects.

Infrastructure services provide best practices to deploy, support, and assist with OpenShift deployment and configuration. Consulting services offer deep expertise covering people, processes, and workloads, designed to accelerate the utilization of Red Hat OpenShift.  Managed Services will help overcome the complexities of managing and maintaining a containerized platform needed by development teams, freeing up your IT organization to manage the workloads that are developed or migrated to the APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift.

Modern Consumption for Modern Apps

In the realm of modern applications, the demand for contemporary infrastructure is crucial, and the approach to consumption should mirror this agility. The prediction of utilization can be challenging, prompting Dell APEX to offer flexible consumption options that provide elastic capacity. For optimal agility, customers have instantaneous access to buffer capacity, as needed, with the advantage of paying solely for the resources utilized. Adding to this flexibility, Dell APEX Flex on Demand instills further assurance by capping total monthly billing at 85% of the usage of the total installed capacity.