Dell EMC Updates Unity & SC Series Storage Software

Today @DellEMC announced major software updates to its #Unity and SC Series. For Unity, the company is updating to Operating Environment (OE) 4.4 that brings a boost in file-based replication and data mobility as well as new security capabilities for block and file workloads. Dell EMC is also announcing that it has shipped 1 Exabyte of raw flash storage capacity since its May 2016 debut. For its SC Series Operating System (SCOS) 7.3, users gain a new Unisphere HTML5 interface and a big boost in performance.  The updates today show that Dell EMC is shows the company’s commitment to innovation for midrange solutions. The updates, built into both Dell EMC Unity and SC Series All-flash and Hybrid storage arrays, give customer new features and performance. The upgrades can be done non-disruptively and for free for those that have an active ProSupport agreement. With over 1 Exabyte of raw flash storage capacity shipped in two years, Dell EMC Unity is quite a popular midrange storage option. Designed to be simple including the ability to be easily deployed, have streamline management and seamlessly tier unified storage workloads to the cloud. The Unity line was has: Array-based file replication New Metrosync array-based file replication protects transactional file applications with rapid recovery and automated failover to a secondary data center 2-Way NDMP improves performance for better NAS backup times while reducing WAN/LAN network congestion Data Mobility Built-in data mobility capabilities to migrate block data from third-party storage arrays directly to Dell EMC Unity Security Enhancements LDAP/AD enhancements for performance, availability, and search flexibility for Microsoft environments Dell EMC is also releasing an update to its SCOS, up to version 7.3. The update is all about performance and we had a review of its new performance here. Feel free to check out the review. The company states that the update can also do the following: Major IOPS performance boost Now up to 2.2M max IOPS per array, over 20M in federated multi-array environments 2X increase in maximum IOPS across every current SC array model 50,000-100,000 more mixed-workload IOPS across every SC array Improved management for single and multi-array environments New Unisphere for SC HTML5 Web UI simplifies and automates common storage management tasks; shares common look and feel with Unisphere for Dell EMC Unity Easier, more cost-effective upgrades and expansion Up to 2X increase in maximum capacity per array Data-in-place upgrades for the popular SC4020 offers cost-effective option for customers to migrate data to newer SC models SCv2000 can now federate/replicate with other SC Series arrays More enterprise-class efficiency and availability Support for 100Gb and 25Gb iSCSI network hardware offers customers future-proof solutions and buying assurance Distributed sparing, for greater I/O efficiency and up to 500% faster rebuilds Live Volume enhancements designed to deliver lower latency and reduced network traffic in high availability environments Availability Dell EMC Unity OE 4.4 and SC Series SCOS 7.3 are available now as no-cost software upgrades for customers with an active Dell ProSupport agreement.

https://www.storagereview.com/dell_emc_updates_unity_sc_series_storage_software

Dell EMC Doubles Down On Storage Services, Unifying Portfolio

IT industry behemoths Dell and EMC came together officially over a year ago, but the integration of the combined company's services organization is ongoing. The company's leaders say partners will soon begin experiencing a more unified and efficient operation, especially in storage. To that end, in January @Dell EMC's #ProDeploy and #ProSupport (including ProSupport Plus) services will become available throughout more of the vendor's storage lineup. "There were EMC and Dell platforms, and there was different branding for the services, and as of November, we've started a journey of unifying that and having #ProDeploy as an offer set across the storage portfolio," said @EricaLambert, @Dell EMC vice president of global channel services. Dell EMC's services organization also has rolled out boosted incentives, including a 1.25 percent kicker added to every dollar of storage sales through Feb. 3, the end of Dell EMC's fiscal year. "A lot of storage business is done over the next number of weeks," Lambert said, "and we're happy to support partners We want them taking advantage of the 1.25X kicker. Services are going to continue to be a critical part of the program." Ultimately, Lambert and other services leaders want partners to develop their own services to complement what they sell on Dell EMC paper, which seems to afford the most traction for the channel and the vendor, Lambert said. [Sponsored Suggested Post: New from CRN: The Most Popular Stories Newsletter. Get Our Top Trending Headlines Delivered. Subscribe Today]  "Our strongest partners are the ones that have their own capabilities and delivery practices," she said. "Those same partners have the highest level of services attach with Dell EMC. They're leading with services, and a customer-experience-centric point of view. They're winning, and they're winning for us." Sonia St. Charles, CEO of Davenport Group, said she has positioned the Minneapolis-based solution provider for just that type of services go-to-market strategy.  "We've hired that capability in-house because we didn't have it. Prior to that, we've used Dell to do fulfillment. "We like to work with the customer from the beginning to end so we can do the ful¬fillment from beginning to end of whatever the solution is," she said. The effort to unify the company's services portfolio started with the midrange Dell EMC Unity line, and will be rolled out across the entire storage portfolio beginning this month. Services offerings from Dell and EMC were similar, but bringing them under Dell's existing ProSupport and ProDeploy brands brings a more concrete integration to the suite. Dell EMC has about 60,000 services personnel globally, about half of them working with the channel and "focused on making sure the support and deployment portfolio is aligned with the technology and outcomes [customers] are looking for," said Doug Schmitt, president of Dell EMC support and deployment services. "We're making sure from a sales perspective that the portfolio is unified, simplified." Dell EMC's services organization also published line-of-business sales guides that help partners position their services offerings in the market, and educate them on how services can drive incremental sales and improve the overall customer experience. Services are a key component of partners' storage sales strategies, Lambert said, because they can help drive repeat business and help keep customers loyal. "When partners sell with services, those customers come back and buy [more products] from us and we get incremental revenue," Lambert said. "The end user has a better experience. Services drives sticky customers and drives more overall opportunity for both our partners and Dell EMC. In storage, we need our partners attaching the right level of support service and selling the deployment capability, or developing their own to give the best experience for the customer that's getting that technology."

https://www.crn.com/news/managed-services/300098601/dell-emc-doubles-down-on-storage-services-unifying-portfolio.htm

Dell EMC World 2017: Flash, HCI and cloud take center stage

If you think #DellEMC will condense any of its overlapping storage products at Dell EMC World 2017, think again. There has been a great amount of speculation about which storage arrays might be dropped since Dell said it would pay more than $60 billion to acquire EMC in late 2015. The merger created overlap throughout Dell EMC's combined traditional storage products, especially in midrange arrays.

Michael Dell spent a lot of time in the run-up to closing the deal assuring Dell's #Compellent customers their platform would survive the merger. That will remain true through next week, when the vendor makes a crush of product releases at Dell EMC World 2017, which begins May 8.

Dell EMC is looking to pivot toward newer technologies such as flash, #hyperconverged and cloud as sales of traditional disk-based arrays slip. Even with all this change, Dell EMC will hold on to its major array platforms. The traditional array families such as EMC #VMAX, #Unity and Dell SC (formerly Compellent) will survive but are considerably flashier. In many cases, they are flash-only, as is Dell EMC #XtremIO, which has never been a hard disk drive system.

During an analyst day last month, Dell EMC president David Goulden said the vendor will eventually merge midrange arrays but will proceed at a slow pace. For now, the Unity platform from EMC and Compellent SC platform from Dell will continue.

There will be a combined midrange family, but we don't have to rush into that because we have two very important families," Goulden said of the Unity and SC platforms. "We have been making moves to pull the storage portfolio together."

The vendor will instead focus on integrating flash throughout its storage lines at Dell EMC World 2017 and beyond. Its recent decision to discontinue its #DSSD high-end NVM Express-based shared storage box was a step in that direction. Instead of selling a DSSD product that appealed to a limited customer base, Dell EMC will incorporate that technology into other products.

"We're making that a feature of storage products rather than its own thing," Goulden said at analyst day. "We're focusing high-end storage products according to where their respective strengths are, as opposed to a broad overlap.

"You'll see us announce a lot of new storage capabilities at Dell EMC World," Goulden continued. "We recognize the storage market is in consolidation mode and the market is basically flat, but there are some great pockets of growth. There are a lot of things happening in the storage business. We're seeing hypergrowth in all-flash, we're seeing hypergrowth in converged infrastructure and we're seeing declines in traditional markets."

Dell EMC has the technology pieces for this changing world. It has more all-flash array platforms than any of its competitors. Its #Vblock #convergedinfrastructure (CI) partnership with #Cisco still is the market leader in CI revenue, although the emphasis may shift to using Dell servers instead of Cisco in converged packages. Dell sells #VMware #vSAN software that powers #hyperconvergence and Dell EMC #VxRail vSAN-based hyper-converged appliances. It also has a raft of cloud technologies.

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/news/450418266/Dell-EMC-World-2017-Flash-HCI-and-cloud-take-center-stage

Dell EMC SC Series Best Practices with VMware vSphere 5.x–6.x

Updated for #vSphere 6.5, this document provides configuration examples, tips, recommended settings, and other storage guidelines for integrating #VMware vSphere 5.x and 6.x hosts with #DellEMC SC Series storage. It also provides answers to many frequently asked questions with regard to how VMware interacts with various SC Series features such as #DynamicCapacity ( #thinprovisioning ), #DataProgression ( #automatedtiering ), and #RemoteInstantReplay ( #replication ).

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/m/white_papers/20441056?utm_source=Release%20announcement&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Document%20release 

Dell EMC Extends Common User Experience to SC Series

#Dell #EMC announced it has boosted the capabilities of its mid-market proven SC Series (formerly #Compellent™) storage arrays by making them interoperable with the world’s leading portfolio of storage management, mobility and data protection solutions formerly only available to EMC customers. A core tenet of Dell EMC’s portfolio strategy is to provide customers with the ultimate in choice and flexibility regardless of the problem they are trying to solve. By rapidly extending key Dell EMC™ software capabilities to include the SC series, Dell EMC enables customers to mix and match Dell and EMC storage products and services within their enterprises while taking advantage of a common user experience with the same storage management, data protection and mobility capabilities. “Our portfolio strategy is all about choice,” said Jeff Boudreau, SVP and General Manager, Midrange Storage, Dell EMC. “With today’s announcement, we’re enabling our SC Series customers to continue using the products they’ve invested in while also having access to exciting new capabilities as Dell EMC continues to combine our storage solutions into a seamless portfolio.”

http://satprnews.com/2016/11/27/dell-emc-extends-common-user-experience-to-sc-series/

Dell Storage SC9000 review

#Dell is on a mission to bring #allflash storage to the masses as its flagship #SC9000 array delivers the lowest costs around. Its latest SC Operating System 7 (SCOS 7) also introduces plenty of new features including intelligent data reduction, storage QoS and unification with Dell’s PS arrays. The SC9000 controller comprises two #PowerEdge R730 servers equipped with dual 3.2GHz E5-2667 v3 Xeons and 256GB of system memory. Each uses a cache card linked over fibre GBICs where all cache mirroring is carried out automatically using their 4GB of battery protected NVRAM. #DellStorage

The SCOS software runs on an internal SSD and storage shelves are attached using dual-port 12Gbps SAS expansion cards. Storage potential is massive as the SC9000 currently supports up to 960 SSDs and HDDs with a future firmware upgrade expected to push this to 1,024 drives and beyond.

Expansion shelves include the 12-bay and 24-bay SC400 and SC420 12Gbps SAS units plus the 84-bay SC280 which supports low-cost NL-SAS drives. Data port options are plentiful with Dell offering 10GbE copper or SFP+, FCoE or 8/16Gbps FC HBAs with 25GbE coming soon.

http://www.itpro.co.uk/server/27500/dell-storage-sc9000-review

Upgrading to new Dell PowerEdge R730 servers could help make a datacenter more efficient

DURHAM, NC--(Marketwired - August 11, 2016) - Principled Technologies (PT) compared the performance of a Dell #PowerEdge R710 server to that of a newer #Dell PowerEdge R730 featuring Intel Xeon processors E5-2660 v4. Both solutions ran #Microsoft SQL Server 2016 and Microsoft #Hyper-V. PT found that the upgraded solution could handle four times the work of the older one. That means potential cooling, power, and physical space savings for businesses. Additionally, if companies already have powerful storage like #DellStorage SC4020, they can put more of that storage performance to use. To learn more about how the Dell PowerEdge R730 can make a datacenter more efficient, see the full report at facts.pt/nWBvDY-m and the infographic at facts.pt/qekSku-m.

http://m.marketwired.com/press-release/upgrading-new-dell-poweredge-r730-servers-could-help-make-datacenter-more-efficient-2149990.htm

Africa’s fastest computer built at CSIR

The Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has created the fastest supercomputer on the continent, with processing speed capable of a thousand trillion floating point operations per second. Floating point operations (flops) are used in computing to calculate extremely long numbers. With over 40 000 cores, the new machine is the fastest computer in Africa owing to its speed of roughly 1 petaflop (1000 teraflops). That is 15 times faster than the system it succeeds, which was named Tsessebe (Setswana for antelope). Aptly, the new beast is called Lengau, which is the Setswana word for cheetah. Dr Thomas Auf der Heyde, Deputy Director-General: Research Development and Support at the Department of Science and Technology (DST), outlined the role high-performance computing plays in growing the economy. “For our country to grow at the required rate, as set out in the National Development Plan, it needs to change gear by building capacity in the production and dissemination of knowledge,” he explained. “The CHPC represents a deliberate move by this country to invest in modernising our research and development. High-performance computing and advanced data technologies are powerful tools in enhancing the competiveness of regions and nations.” Dr Happy Sithole, the director of CHPC, detailed the journey leading to the unveiling of the new PFLOPs machine: “When we started in 2007, we took inspiration from the fastest animals in the land and named our first high-performance computing system iQudu (Xhosa for kudu) which boasted 2,5 teraflops). “In 2009 there was increased demand for computational resources, and a new high-performance computing system dubbed the Tsessebe was launched. It boasted 24,9 teraflops and became number 311 on the TOP500 #supercomputer s, and ranked number one in the African continent. The system was later upgraded to 64,44 teraflops,” he said. The technology powering Lengau means that it is also smaller in footprint than the previous system. The #Dell HPC system is comprised of 1039 Dell #PowerEdge servers based on Intel Xeon processors, totalling 19 racks of compute nodes and storage. It has a total #DellStorage capacity of 5 petabytes, and uses #DellNetworking Ethernet switches and #Mellanox EDR #InfiniBand with a maximum interconnect speed of 56 GBps.

http://www.dataweek.co.za/8682a

Dell Aims To Grab Share From Cisco, HPE, Juniper With Aggressive New Rebate

#Dell is after big game in the enterprise IT jungle, and it has armed itself with an aggressive new rebate for partners that win new business for #DellStorage and #DellNetworking gear.

The Round Rock, Texas-based company introduced a 15 percent back-end rebate that effectively more than doubles similar existing rebates and encourages partners to take market share from #Cisco Systems, #HewlettPackardEnterprise  and #Juniper Networks, according to @CherylCook, Dell's vice president of global channels and alliances.

http://m.crn.com/news/networking/300080014/dell-aims-to-grab-share-from-cisco-hpe-juniper-with-aggressive-new-rebate.htm

Flash technology accounts for more than half of total external storage value, analyst claims

IT buyers are snubbing high-end storage systems in favour of new flash alternatives, according to IDC, which said the latter now accounts for more than half of external storage value.

The analyst claims that the external storage systems market fell 9.8 per cent annually in Q3 to $1.57bn (£1.05bn).

The slump was driven by a 27 per cent fall in the value of traditional hard disk arrays. The decline would have been worse were it not for the rocketing value of flash systems. Over the same period, the value of flash technology jumped a massive 75.4 per cent, with hybrid flash arrays enjoying a seven per cent boost in value too.

IDC said this forms part of the move towards the next generation of IT.

"The transition toward the ‘Third Platform' is influencing purchase decisions, with users shying away from high-end systems, which declined for the tenth quarter in a row, to fully embrace new solutions such as flash systems, which passed the 50 per cent threshold of total external storage value," said IDC senior analyst Silvia Cosso.

The EMEA decline in the storage market was mirrored in the UK, which IDC claims is partly down to a slowing down of investments in the financial services space. The UK's status as a hub for storage startups means the region faces greater competition on price, which IDC said also drove the slump.

IDC senior analyst Archana Venkatraman said flash is doing well in western Europe particularly.

"The high growth in flash storage coupled with strong ODM vendor revenue growth shows that western European enterprises are heavily investing in disruptive storage technologies such as flash, software-defined storage, cloud-based storage, and hyperconverged systems when they refresh their infrastructures," she said.

http://m.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2439473/flash-is-the-future-of-external-storage-idc

DataCore Announces Universal VVols Support to Expand Reach of VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#DataCore Software, a leader in Software-Defined Storage and Hyper-converged Virtual SAN solutions, today announced universal vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVols) support which extends the scope and impact of this important industry advance. Many administrators crave the power and fine-grain control promised by vSphere Virtual Volumes; however, most current storage arrays and systems do not support it or are not currently certified as VVol capable. This powerful new capability enabled by DataCore allows VMware’s VVols benefits to work universally across all kinds of storage. With DataCore enabled, VMware vSphere administrators can self-provision virtual volumes from virtual storage pools -- and can instantly specify the capacity and class of service needed for their applications without having to know anything about the storage or underlying hardware. The new capability is already shipping and comes included within the current release of DataCore’s VMware certified SANsymphony™-V Software-Defined Storage and DataCore™ Hyper-converged Virtual SAN.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151214005144/en/DataCore-Announces-Universal-VVols-Support-Expand-Reach

Meet the new Dell Storage SC9000 and Dell Storage Center 6.7 array software

Dell has announced the new Storage #SC9000 Array Controller and Storage Center OS 6.7. This flagship storage controller provides the ideal solution for large-scale systems, high-end workload performance and distributed enterprise environments. Built for private or hybrid clouds, big data analytics centers or secure OLTP platforms, the SC9000 delivers a strong return on investment. The SC9000 is powered by the the new #SCOS6.7 operating system and offers an upgraded, more scalable hardware platform. #DellStorage

Tuesday, November 10, 2015 at 11:00 a.m. CT

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Dell Eyes Single Channel Program After EMC Acquisition

Dell said it intends to move forward with a single channel program after it closes its planned $67 billion acquisition of EMC.

"[EMC has] a strong channel program, and we're going to make sure that as we move that along it becomes one channel program to make it extremely healthy and both strategic [and] growth-oriented economically, and attractive for all of our partners together," Dell COO and President of Enterprise Operations Marius Haas told CRN in an interview during the recent Dell World conference in Austin, Texas.

Dell has integrated the channel programs of eight acquired companies -- EqualLogic, KACE, Compellent, Force10 Networks, AppAssure, SonicWall, Wyse Technology and Quest Software -- into Dell PartnerDirect since 2007.

It hasn't always been easy, and Dell channel executives have acknowledged in the past that integrating disparate, competitive programs has been a challenge.

But partners say the Round Rock, Texas, company has done an impressive job of bringing outside programs into the fold, despite some early issues some said they experienced after Dell's acquisition of SonicWall.

"I don't know how they're doing it, but they're doing a good job of it," Mike Hadley, CEO of Boston-based Dell partner iCorps, told CRN. iCorps is primarily a Dell shop and works closely with EqualLogic and SonicWall. iCorps also sells EMC.

"I was very concerned about SonicWall," Hadley said. "We used to compete very heavily with Dell and it was very frustrating, but Dell now is more in line with the channel. The integration of these companies into their brand has been impressive, and I'm not easily impressed. If there's one company I feel comfortable taking on [EMC's] products and services, it's definitely Dell."

Michael Crean, president of Solutions Granted, a Woodbridge, Va.-based Dell security partner that came to Dell in the SonicWall acquisition, told CRN there were parts of Dell's integration plan that "I was adamantly opposed to because my go-to-market [with SonicWall]  was so easy, so straightforward and so convenient. But, given the opportunity, we see that it has been a good change."

Crean said the past two years have been especially strong for Dell and the channel.

"There's been more collaboration, more talking, more engagement with executives and senior staff. It's been a good, strong two years of Michael Dell's strong support of the channel," he said.

http://www.crn.com/news/channel-programs/300078658/dell-eyes-single-channel-program-after-emc-acquisition.htm

Isilon software on Dell hardware – could it really be true?

El Reg was kindly sent a note about an EMC virtual event plus a Commtech session in Ireland, suggesting that scale-out filer Isilon array functionality could be available as software-only running on Dell servers.

There is an Expand the Data Lake virtual event to be run by EMC on 10 November. You will find a teaser video on that web page which features a data lake swimmer sitting at a screen with a pair of Dell servers behind him.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/28/isilon_software_on_dell_hardware/

When Michael Dell met Chris Mellor

Profile This is the way of it: you're sitting there, at a table in a general meeting room at the #DellWorld event in Austin, talking to a distant colleague about what happened to Don, did I know Liem had moved to such and such an office, when an ordinary-looking guy comes over and sits down at the same table, saying: "How's it going Chris?"
And I say: "Great," as you do, and look at this pleasant guy, middle-aged, maybe a little older, spectacles, greying gair around the edges and cut conservatively. Tieless with a check pattern shirt. A relaxed and watchful expression, sort of like a reliable-looking head of a school, or a quiet engineer. Not an exceptional guy at first impression ... only it's not my first impression.
I've seen him already, in hundreds of photos, in a press conference the day before with his exec team, and in an event-opening session in front of 5,000-plus people explaining why buying #EMC for $67bn is a great idea. For it is @MichaelDell and he is a billionaire who has done extraordinary things in computing, all starting from building PCs at college for his friends. #Dellstorage

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/26/michael_dell_chris_mellor/

All Dell breaks loose in latest Gartner disk array magic quadrant

#Dell has become a top-four player in disk arrays, as #IBM and #NetApp are left behind in #Gartner 's 2015 #MagicQuadrant for general purpose #diskarray s.

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/22/gartners_disk_array_mq/

Dell Storage Compatibility Matrix - PS Series, SC Series, FS Series

The new, combined Dell Storage Compatibility Matirx (September 2015) is now available here: PDF

The DSCM provides guidance on host and switching devices have been validated for use with SC Series (#Compellent), PS Series (#EqualLogic) and FS Series (#FluidFS) storage solutions.

This list is not an exhaustive list of what works with any of these solutions.  Dell Storage solutions are based on storage industry standards for Fibre Channel and iSCSI and can work with almost any host adapter or switch that adheres to these standards.

Please review the Support Policy Statement for clarification on how Dell will provide support for validated and non-validated components.

Michael Dell says HP CEO Meg Whitman 'has her facts wrong' about EMC buyout

AUSTIN: @MICHAELDELL has responded to #HP CEO @MegWhitman 's criticism of #Dell 's to buy data storage firm #EMC, saying "she got some of her facts wrong".
The Dell CEO made the comments in the opening keynote of his company's annual conference in Austin, Texas, when questioned about whether he'd heard Whitman's comments regarding Dell's decision to acquire EMC for a record-breaking $67bn.
"HP is a great #VMware partner," said @Dell, just before he paused for a good few seconds and smirked, throwing some shade at the @HP CEO and immediately provoking laughs among the crowd.
"I don't have any other comments about that, but she got some of the facts wrong. We'll let the facts speak for themselves."

http://m.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2431302/michael-dell-says-hp-ceo-meg-whitman-has-her-facts-wrong-about-emc-buyout

EMC acquisition: Is it a good deal for Dell?

Will Garside ponders the prospective partnership, and the potential for the channel
The expected $67bn purchase of #EMC (NYSE:EMC) by #Dell is potentially the biggest IT deal ever with far reaching consequences for partners and rivals.

Although still not finalised, the deal would create a company with an estimated 170,000 staff, combined revenues of possibly $80bn and a channel community of roughly 140,000 partners. There is a lot of conjecture in even these numbers due to the private nature of Dell, the status of the various EMC businesses and the speculation on how Dell will digest EMC over what will likely be a multi-year reorganisation process.

http://www.channelpro.co.uk/opinion/9496/emc-acquisition-is-it-a-good-deal-for-dell

EMC-Dell dynamic duo: Mike's my ‘brother from another mother’ – Tucci

#EMC/#Dell deal  @MichaelDell has named one Dell exec – @RoryRead – and one @EMC exec – @HowardElias – to oversee deduplication of the two companies’

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/15/duo_to_integrate_dell_emc/