VCE Vxrail Appliances Be Orderable and Generally Available?

VCE VXRAIL™ APPLIANCE FAQ

Table of Contents

ANNOUNCEMENT 2

ORDERING 2

TECHNOLOGY 3

MANAGEMENT 4

NETWORKING 5

VMWARE AND VIRTUALIZATION 5

SALES 7

PARTNERS 9

PRICING 10

POSITIONING AND COMPETITION 11

HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE MARKET 13

SUPPORT 13

VSPEX BLUE 14

ANNOUNCEMENT Q: What is the VCE VxRail™ Appliance?

A: The VxRail Appliance is a hyper-converged appliance exclusively from EMC/VCE and VMware, and is the easiest and fastest way to stand up a fully virtualized VMware SDDC environment.

Q: What are the benefits of the VxRail Appliance?

A: The VxRail Appliance provides a simple, cost-effective hyper-converged solution for a wide variety of applications and workloads. With the VxRail Appliance, IT organizations can start small and easily scale capacity and performance by non-disruptively adding appliances to the cluster without the investment or up-front planning required with traditional infrastructure. The VxRail Appliance seamlessly integrates into customers’ existing VMware data centers, workflows, and tools.

Q: How is the VxRail Appliance exclusive to VMware and EMC?

A: The VxRail Appliance is jointly developed by EMC/VCE and VMWare. It leverages VMware hyper-converged software and includes propriety VMware automation and EMC software not available from other vendors.

ORDERING Q: When will the VCE VxRail Appliances be orderable and generally available?

A: VxRail Appliances will be orderable in MyQuotes on February 16, 2015 with General Availability in early March.

Q: Is the VxRail Appliance 60 entry-level model available in Q1?

A: No, the VxRail 60 will be available to order in February but will not ship until Q2. If you are placing orders for this model please place it on separate quote so as not to delay shipping or revenue recognition of other products on the order.

Q: Will the all-flash models be available in Q1?

A: No, the all-flash models will be orderable and quotable in Q2.

Q: What software is included in the VxRail Appliance?

A: The VxRail Appliance includes the full VMware hyper-converged software suite and proven EMC software that enhances the VMware experience—RecoverPoint for VMs (15 VMs per appliance), and EMC CloudArray (10 TB cloud storage license per appliance). These licenses are designed to meet the most common customer needs, but additional capacity can be purchased as needed.

Q: How do I order additional RecoverPoint for VM or CloudArray licenses?

A: Order additional licenses from the standard ordering paths for those products.

Q: Can I order the VxRail Appliance without Maintenance?

A: No, at least one year of maintenance is required.

Q: How do I size a VxRail Appliance for virtual machines and virtual desktops?

A: A VxRail Appliance sizing tool will be available on the Enablement Center in late February, until then use the VSAN sizing and TCO tool at https://vsantco.vmware.com/vsan/SI/SIEV to determine which and how many appliances are needed for a customer workload.

Q: How do I get additional information about the VxRail Appliance configurations?

A: See the VxRail Appliance Ordering and Configuration Guide in the VxRail Appliance Enablement Center for details.

TECHNOLOGY Q: What is the VCE VxRail Appliance architecture?

A: The VxRail Appliance architecture is a distributed system consisting of common modular building blocks that scale linearly from 4 to 64 nodes in 1 to 16 2U/4 node appliances. An EMC branded Intel processor-based x86 server delivers compute, network, storage, virtualization, and management in a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance powered by VMware and EMC software.

Q: How does the VxRail Appliance scale?

A: The VxRail Appliance scales linearly from 4 to 64 nodes (in 1 to 16 appliances). Each appliance adds compute, storage, virtualization, and management resources. An appliance can be joined to a cluster with just one click—and the appliance automatically rebalances resources and workloads across the cluster, creating a single pool of resources.

Q: Is an RPQ required for a deployment with more than 32 nodes?

A: Yes, you must submit an RPQ through standard processes to scale beyond 32 nodes so that VxRail Appliance engineering can validate the configuration. This gives us the ability to inspect whether or not VxRack™ Systems might be a better fit.

Q: What is the minimum initial scale point and scaling increments?

A: At launch, the minimum purchase is one four-node VxRail Appliance. In Q1, VxRail Appliance clusters scale in four node increments. Beginning in Q2, the customer can order and scale their VxRail Appliances in single-node increments.

Q: What does the customer receive when ordering a single-node upgrade?

A: The first single-node upgrade comes in a VxRail Appliance chassis with three empty node slots. Subsequent upgrades can and will fill the empty slots.

Q: Can I mix VxRail Appliance models within a cluster?

A: Yes, customers can mix VxRail Appliance models within a cluster, except where doing so would create highly unbalanced performance. All-Flash and Hybrid nodes cannot be mixed in the same cluster. VxRail 60 with 1 Gbps Ethernet connections can require an RPQ to be mixed in a cluster with other 10G Ethernet nodes.

Q: Can I mix VSPEX BLUE appliances and VxRail Appliances in a cluster?

A: Yes, existing VSPEX BLUE appliances can be part of a VxRail Appliance cluster. To do so they must be upgraded to the same code level as the VxRail Appliance. This is a free upgrade service. Additionally, Enhanced VMotion Compatibility must be set to align with the Gen 1 appliances for the whole cluster.

Q: Can I mix node types in a VxRail Appliance?

A: No, all of the nodes in the appliance must match. Nodes of differing CPU/Memory/Storage are allowed, except that all nodes within the cluster must have the same VMware license type (Full License or BYO/ELA).

Q: How do I upgrade a VxRail Appliance?

A: The VxRail™ Manager software provides one-click, non-disruptive patches and upgrades.

Q: Is the VxRail Appliance built with ScaleIO technology?

A: No, the appliance is not built with ScaleIO. EMC/VCE and VMware jointly developed the appliance based on VMware vSphere with Virtual SAN and EMC software.

Q: Can I use the VxRail Appliance to manage external storage?

A: Yes, the VxRail Appliance can utilize external iSCSI and NFS datastores on EMC arrays. This external storage can be managed from the VxRail Appliance using vCenter.

Q: Does the VxRail Appliance offer file storage capabilities?

A: Yes, the VxRail Appliance supports managing external CIFS and NFS storage. Work with your SE to see which customer uses cases are suited to this approach.

Q: Does the VxRail Appliance address customer encryption and compliance needs?

A: Not natively, but encryption and other compliance requirements, including per-VM encryption can be accomplished by selling with Hytrust, if needed. Native VM encryption and Data-at-Rest Encryption are roadmap items for a future release.

Q: Is the VxRail Appliance software sold separately from the hardware?

A: No, the VxRail Appliance is purpose built as one integrated offering with optimized hardware and software. It is designed to leverage existing management tools and existing standards to deliver the fastest and cost-effective solution.

Q: Does VxRail offer data reduction capabilities?

A: Yes, VxRail Appliance all-flash configurations offer a full complement of data efficiency services, including deduplication, compression, and erasure coding.

MANAGEMENT Q: How does the VxRail Appliance simplify deployment and configuration?

A: Power-on to provisioning virtual machines takes minutes. Provisioning and configuration is wizard-driven and can be done in just a few simple steps— choosing from predefined small, medium, or large VM sizes, and specifying details, such as guest OS, virtual local area network (VLAN), security options, and data protection. By eliminating more than 200 manual configuration tasks and workflows, IT can reduce errors and simplify administration while improving productivity.

Q: Will there be a management interface that ties in all VMware and storage management into one portal across all VxRail Appliance clusters a customer might have?

A: We don’t want to compromise on the VMware experience because you are going the appliance route. Use your existing VMware tools and processes you know, including Virtual SAN, which is integrated with the VMware stack. The portal to manage the storage is vCenter, vCenter Operations Manager, and/or Virtual SAN Observer—tools most VMware customers already have.

Q: How is the VxRail Appliance managed?

A: The VxRail Appliance is managed through a single pane of glass provided by the VxRail™ Manager software, which incorporates vCenter Server and vCenter Log Insight that support ESRS and other serviceability capabilities. Additionally, the VxRail Appliance is discoverable and visible in VCE Vision™ Intelligent Operations.

Q: Is VCE Vision™ software installed on the VxRail Appliance?

A: No, VCE Vision software is not licensed for nor installed on the VxRail Appliance. However, it can discover the VxRail Appliance.

Q: What version of VCE Vision software is supported with the VxRail Appliance?

A: VCE Vision™ 3.3.0 introduces support for the VxRail Appliance.

NETWORKING Q: Does the VxRail Appliance include networking?

A: No, the VxRail Appliance uses the customer’s existing network or a new switch for connectivity between nodes.

Q: Can I sell networking with the VxRail Appliance?

A: Yes, the VxRail Appliance is an opportunity to sell additional network capacity from the customer’s preferred vendor to support the new appliance connectivity.

Q: How is the VxRail Appliance connected to the customer network?

A: Each node of the VxRail Appliance is connected to a customer-supplied Top-of-Rack (TOR) switch, by either SPF+ (Twinax DAC cables) or RJ45 ports (CAT 6 cables) for cluster interconnect.

Q: Does the VxRail Appliance support Fibre Channel connectivity?

A: No, the VxRail Appliance is IP and Ethernet only.

Q: How many network ports do I need per node?

A: For the VxRail Appliance 120, VxRail Appliance 160, and VxRail Appliance 200, each node requires 2-10 GbE network connections. A fully populated appliance will require 8 Ethernet connections. For the VxRail 60, each node requires 4-1 GbE connections for a total of 16. If the customer wishes to use optional RMM BMC management port an additional 100 Mbps connection to the customer management network is required per node. 1 GbE and 10 GbE RMM port speeds are not supported.

Q: Does the VxRail Appliance support VMware NSX networks?

A: Yes, the VxRail Appliance can be installed in NSX virtualized networks. In Q1, it will require one NSX controller per cluster. Integration with existing NSX controllers will be available in Q2.

Q: What network speeds does the VxRail Appliance support?

A: The VxRail 60 supports 1 GbE networks (RJ45 only). All other models support 10 GbE, either with SFP+ or RJ45 connections.

Q: Can the VxRail Appliance participate in a VCE Vscale™ Architecture?

A: VxRail Appliances are meant to be customer installed in an existing network environment, so initially they will not be officially part of the VCE Vscale Architecture. However, integration into a VCE Vscale Architecture implementation will be available through an optional service engagement.

VMWARE AND VIRTUALIZATION Q: What VMware software is included in the VxRail Appliance?

A: vSphere, Virtual SAN, vRealize Log Insight, and vCenter Server. Customers with existing site licenses that include vSphere Enterprise Plus may qualify for the VMware vSphere Loyalty Program, which reduces the acquisition price. Consult the VMware vSphere Loyalty Program Term and Conditions FAQ for more details.

Q: What version of ESX and Virtual SAN ships with the VxRail Appliance?

A: In Q1, the VxRail Appliance software ships vSphere 6.0/VSAN 6.1. In Q2 a no charge, non-disruptive upgrade will be available to Virtual SAN 6.2.

Q: Can customers use existing VMware vSphere licenses with the VxRail Appliance?

A: Yes, the VMware vSphere Loyalty Program allows customers to apply VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus licenses to their VMware VxRail Appliance. Eligible customers can reduce VxRail Appliance pricing by leveraging existing VMware investments.

Q: How many vSphere licenses does the customer need to supply if they do not buy them bundled with VxRail Appliances?

A: To be eligible for the vSphere Loyalty Program, a customer must at the minimum have the number of VMware vSphere CPU licenses from one or multiple vSphere Enterprise Plus licenses that matches the number of physical CPUs in each committed VxRail Appliance. The number of vSphere CPU licenses required for each VxRail Appliance depends on the number of physical CPUs in the committed VxRail. For instance

Each VxRail 60 with four nodes requires four vSphere Enterprise Plus CPU licenses (one for each node)

Each VxRail 120, VxRail 160, or VxRail 200 with four nodes requires eight vSphere Enterprise Plus CPU licenses (two for each node)

Q: How do I find out more information about the VMware vSphere® Loyalty Program?

A: See the VMware vSphere Loyalty Program FAQ at VCE.com for full details on the terms and conditions, as well as how to manage vSphere license keys.

Q: Can customers add the VxRail Appliance to an existing vSphere cluster?

A: Yes, beginning in Q2, the VxRail Appliance can be managed by other customer vSphere instances.

Q: Can customers use tools, such as vCenter or PowerCLI to manage the VxRail Appliance?

A: Yes, one of the core values of the VxRail Appliance is that customers can manage a cluster using the VxRail Manager or using all the tools in vSphere. We give the customer the choice. However, the initial appliance build, scale-out for additional appliances, and software upgrades must be done through the VxRail Manager user interface.

Q: Can I use vRealize or vCOPS with the VxRail Appliance?

A: Yes, vRealize and vCOPS are not included in the VxRail Appliance software suite, but the appliance integrates into any VMware environment, including those managed by vRealize and vCOPS.

Q: Does the VxRail Appliance support Microsoft Hyper-V or KVM?

A: The VxRail Appliance and VMware software are optimized and deeply integrated to make it more efficient and easier to deploy, configure, and manage in a VMware environment. Other hypervisors are not supported, but the VxRail Appliance supports customer-deployed Microsoft applications, such as Office, Exchange, etc.

Q: Does the VxRail Appliance support Citrix XenDesktop?

A: Yes, the VxRail Appliance supports Citrix End-User Computing just as it does any other application running in a virtualized VMware-enabled environment.

Q: What is the difference between the VxRail Appliance and Virtual SAN Ready Node?

A: The VMware HCI strategy consists of delivering the best Hyper-Converged Software (HCS) on the broadest set of consumption options. The tightly integrated HCS software stack includes VMware vSphere, the market-leading hypervisor; Virtual SAN, radically simple, enterprise-class native storage; and vCenter Server, a unified and extensible management solution.

The VxRail Appliance is the only HCI appliance jointly developed by VMware and EMC, delivering the best and most complete VMware Hyper-converged Software (HCS) experience.

Virtual SAN Ready Node is a certified VMware HCS x86 server and storage program, offering precertified solutions delivered by all leading server vendors.

Q: What is the status of the EVO:RAIL program?

A: ALL Qualified EVO:RAIL Partners (QEPs) were notified in the fall of 2015 that EVO:RAIL 2.0, which was generally available in December, is the final EVO:RAIL release. VMware has been working with each QEP to help them figure out their respective roadmaps.

SALES Q: Can EMC and VCE direct sales teams sell the VxRail Appliance?

A: Yes, direct sales can sell, and will receive compensation and quota retirement on the VxRail Appliance.

Q: Who is the target customer?

A: The target enterprise customer profile includes line of business/department owners, application owners, IT directors/generalists, remote office/branch offices as well as test and development teams. In mid-market and small enterprise accounts, the VxRail Appliance can be deployed as a core data center infrastructure.

Q: What are the use cases for the VCE VxRail Appliance?

A: The VxRail Appliance is ideal for General Purpose IT applications, Enterprise Edge, VDI, Virtual Environments, Test/Dev, and departmental workloads.

Q: What training is available?

A: Sales, Presales, and Competitive training are available on the Education and Development portal (Sales). Other regional training events are ongoing.

Q: How will I be compensated for the VxRail Appliance sales?

A: EMC and VCE sales will receive full compensation and quota retirement on the full value of the appliance. See the compensation guide on the Sales Resource Center for additional details.

Q: Do I need to do a proof-of-concept or evaluation with a customer?

A: Often times, yes. Hyper-converged is a new concept to many customers and they may want to kick the tires with the product in their labs. Successful sales are very dependent on proof of concepts where the customers test-drive the appliance in their own environment.

Q: How do I arrange for a customer proof-of-concept or evaluation?

A: Follow standard POC orders or Customer Evaluation processes when entering customer evaluation orders in MyQuotes. However the order must be flagged as “EVAL.” As with normal revenue orders, license activation emails are sent to the end user. Follow the instructions in the Evaluation best practices guide, including making sure that licenses are NOT ACTIVATED until the system is purchased. If the license is activated, the customer will get invoiced for the amount of the quote.

Q: My customer is only looking at buying one or two HCI appliances right now. Why should I sell the VxRail Appliance?

A: Your mindset should be to focus on winning the small deals in order to get a chance at the larger follow on orders. While there are large opportunities, customers are not looking at buying everything at once. With HCIA, they want to start small, and decide if and when to expand. HCIA makes this buying motion easy. Once customers have deployed an HCIA cluster, they just add appliances as their needs grow—whether they be moving from test and development into production, or scaling out to support new or growing workloads.

A: Because of the nature of scale out with hyper-converged, if you don’t sell these first few units, you don’t have an opportunity at the larger deals over subsequent quarters.

Q: How can I demonstrate the VxRail Appliance to customers?

A: EMC/VCE believe that a hands-on demonstration of the VxRail Appliance is a very powerful sales tool to let our customers understand the level of simplicity and TCO benefit. There are several ways customers can experience the VxRail Appliance and the types of demonstrations available are listed below. Refer to the EMC Sales Playbook on the Enablement Center for more information or contact a partner to arrange a demonstration or evaluation.

• Video Demos

• Interactive Demos

• EMC VLABs

Q: Should I transact a VxRail Appliance deal through EMC or VCE Systems?

A: VxRail Appliance deals should be transacted through EMC Systems (EMC’s SFDC and MyQuotes), unless VCE paper is required, in which case they can be transacted by VCE Representatives through VCE Systems (VCE SFDC and ACT/OMS).

Q: How do I transact a VxRail Appliance deal that has VxRail Appliance and other VCE products?

A: VxRail Appliance deals should be transacted through EMC Systems (EMC’s SFDC and MyQuotes), and the other VCE products are transacted by VCE Representatives through VCE Systems (VCE SFDC and ACT/OMS), unless VCE paper is required for VxRail Appliances, in which case VxRail Appliances can be transacted through VCE Systems by exception. If a partner is involved, VxRail Appliances will still go through EMC systems, and the partner combines VCE and EMC quotes on their paper.

Q: Will VMware help me with my deal?

A: Yes, VMware OEM teams, account teams, and partner managers are paid on this business and are incentivized to help sell the VxRail Appliance.

Q: What sales scenarios should you avoid?

A: There are a few situations you should avoid. It’s not to say that we can’t change the conversation and win, but you can expect some very long sales cycles and challenges along the way.

Small retail where the price point dips below $30,000 per appliance.

And while VDI is a strong use case for us, avoid opportunities that require heavy graphics processing.

Finally, as the VxRail Appliance is a fully-VMware-based appliance, opportunities that are completely Hyper-V or KVM should be avoided. While the VxRail Appliance can be used as the tip of the spear to begin to insert VMware into an account, it’s a very heavy lift.

Q: Can VxRail Appliance be sold as a Technology Extension to a Vblock® System or VxBlock™ System?

A: No, VxRail Appliance cannot be sold as a Technology Extension for Blocks, though it can be monitored with VCE Vision software.

Q: Is there a Service Provider program with the VxRail Appliance?

A: Not at this time.

PARTNERS Q: Do I register opportunities with EMC or VCE?

A: Partners must register opportunities with EMC to receive a valid registration.

Q: Is the VxRail Appliance eligible for Deal Registration?

A: Yes, the partner should immediately register the deal. The VxRail Appliance can be registered just like any other product via EMC Partner Central in the initial selling phase to enjoy registration benefits. Deal registration for the VxRail Appliance uses the same forms and processes as any other deal registration at EMC.

Q: What are the approval criteria for VxRail Appliance Deal Registration requests?

A: The EMC Partner Support Center (PSC) handles deal registration requests on a first-come-first-serve basis and inspects each to ensure that

The VxRail Appliance is selected in the Registration Products.

Another channel partner has not already registered the opportunity.

If the request passes all three checkpoints, partners will receive a front-end registration discount list prices. VxRail Appliance deals are not stackable with any other registration discounts (e.g., Incremental, New Account, Tech Refresh).

Q: What is the SLA for deal registration requests?

A: The Partner Support Center will respond to deal registration requests within one to two business days, depending on the customer market segment.

Q: How long are registrations and extension requests valid?

A: Approved registrations will be valid for 120 days. One extension request may be granted for an additional 60 days. This provides Channel Partners 180 days to close a deal.

Q: Who can submit the VxRail Appliance registration requests?

A: The registering partner can be the VxRail Appliance Distributor or the VAR.

Q: I have a deal in the public sector where deal registration is not allowed. How do I handle this?

A: For public tender deals, deal registration is not a requirement. The distributor just needs to state that this is a public tender deal in the pricing justification section as the reason for not linking to a deal registration. In EMEA, if the deal starts as a normal opportunity and evolves into a public tender deal, the EMEA PSC will void the registration to ensure that all competing partners have the same pricing for the public tender opportunity.

Q: Will EMC Inside Sales Representatives (ISRs) be qualifying VxRail Appliance opportunities and sharing them with partners?

A: Yes, EMC Inside Sales is prepared to support VxRail Appliance opportunities and share them with channel partners.

Q: Will there be presales support available for the VxRail Appliance?

A: Yes, EMC/VCE employee and channel partner presales resources have access to VxRail Appliance training. The VxRail Appliance enablement team has already created EMC/VCE Sales and Presales accreditation modules that were released at the beginning of Q1. Other training will be rolled out postlaunch.

Q: Should partners transact a VxRail Appliance deal through EMC or VCE Systems?

A: All partner VxRail Appliance deals should be transacted through EMC Systems (EMC’s SFDC and MyQuotes).

PRICING Q: How is the VxRail Appliance priced?

A: The VxRail Appliance is aggressively priced, lower than competitive offerings with a like-for-like configuration.

Q: Is there special pricing available for the VxRail Appliance?

A: Special Pricing on a case-by-case basis is always available. However, VxRail Appliance Special Pricing requests should be EXTREMELY rare and will be HIGHLY governed, given that the VxRail Appliance is aggressively priced compared to the competition.

Q: What do you recommend for short-term VxRail Appliance pricing requests prior to orderabiltiy?

A: We can provide budgetary pricing (but not quotes) ahead of February 16.

Contact the following: Americas: Renata Horikova EMEA: Andy Carr APJ: James Kappadais

Q: What kinds of discounts can I expect on the VxRail Appliance?

A: The VxRail Appliance is in discount class J and the same program rules apply (approval thresholds, partner program discounts, etc.) to the VxRail Appliance as other class J products.

POSITIONING AND COMPETITION Q: What is EMC’s Block, Racks, and Appliances Strategy?

A: Converged solutions are proven to significantly speed deployments, make infrastructure more agile, and simplify operations. VCE converged products fall into one of three distinct segments: Blocks, Racks, and Appliances.

Blocks are traditional converged infrastructure, which is an engineered system that leverages enterprise storage arrays, traditional storage area networks (SANs), and typically blade-based compute systems—all manufactured into a single product. VCE Block family includes Vblock Systems and VxBlock Systems.

Racks represent a new category of hyper-converged infrastructure. Racks offer an architecture that is not based on a traditional, physical SAN and they do not include enterprise storage arrays. Instead, they are built using industry-standard server platforms running what is called software-defined storage. Because there is no physical SAN and no storage array, these engineered systems enable customers to grow to data-center scale in flexible discrete increments. These self-contained units of servers, networking, and management software are well suited for the rapid growth in next-generation applications—allowing customers to support a growing number of use cases with built-in resiliency and less stringent availability and performance requirements on infrastructure. VCE VxRack System 1000 series offers two software-defined storage technologies, a choice of hypervisors, and bare-metal workloads.

VxRail Appliances are purpose built for departmental and edge applications as well as small enterprise and mid-market data centers. Like VxRack Systems they do not contain a storage array, but instead run a software-defined storage environment on the appliance. They are built using standard x86 hardware, and tend to focus on ease of use and use case specific features. VxRail Appliances scale from 4 to 64 nodes.

Q: When do I position the VxRail Appliance, and when do I position a VxRack System?

A: VxRail Appliances are purpose built for departmental and edge applications as well as small enterprise and mid-market data centers. Ease of deployment and management are foundational elements for the VxRail Appliance. This simplicity enables you to position it in organizations that may not have deep storage administration expertise but rely more on IT generalists. The VxRail Appliance is built on Virtual SAN software and is the simplest product to deploy for vSphere environments.

Position a VxRack System in the large enterprise data center where a customer wants extreme scalability and flexibility. If a customer is looking for more than 32 nodes to start, then lead with VxRail Appliance. VxRack System is an engineered system that enables customers to grow to data-center scale in flexible discrete increments. It is well suited for the rapid growth in next- generation applications and mixed workloads—allowing customers to support a growing number of use cases with built-in resiliency and less stringent availability and performance requirements on infrastructure. VxRack Systems come in two versions: VxRack System 1000 FLEX is built on EMC ScaleIO, and VxRack System 1000 SDDC is built on VMware’s EVO SDDC.

Q: How is the VxRail Appliance different from VNX/VNXe or ScaleIO?

A: Unlike other EMC offerings that are storage-only or software-only, the VxRail Appliance is an all-in-one Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Appliance (HCIA) that incorporates virtualization, compute, storage, management, and protection in a single product. It provides a streamlined consumption model that eliminates the burden of preplanning and budgeting for growth. The VxRail Appliance provides simplified deployment from a single pane of glass, abstracting complexity with wizard-driven configuration, management, upgrades, and patches. It incorporates built-in data protection and security optimized for virtual environments and can provide unlimited hybrid-cloud storage via the EMC CloudArray Gateway. Lastly, the VxRail Appliance provides end-to-end, one-call support with a single point of accountability for all hardware and software.

Q: Can other server, storage, or virtualization vendors sell a version of the VxRail Appliance software?

A: No, this is exclusive to EMC/VCE. VMware EVO:RAIL is winding down and we are developing along a different code branch. VxRail Appliance IP is not available to other OEMs.

Q: How do I compete against Nutanix with the VxRail Appliance?

A: Sell the portfolio—lead with Racks and Appliances; fall back to Block if the customer use case warrants it.

Raise doubt on performance of their VSA architecture. Virtual SAN is integrated into the VMware kernel and will always have a performance advantage.

Virtual SAN has storage-based policy management and integration with NSX SDN.

Be careful with bid pricing, VxRail Appliance list prices are ~25% below Nutanix, but they will bid three-node systems vs. our four nodes and could offer irrational pricing.

Highlight the split-support model (VMware for Software and Nutanix for Hardware). VxRail Appliance is fully supported by EMC and includes secure remote support.

Highlight that the Dell Nutanix future is doubtful and accounts for one-third of their revenue.

Highlight the tight integration of the hardware and VMware software stack—VxRail Appliance is the BEST way to consume VMware technology in HCIA.

Our data services are as good or better.

Q: How is VxRail Appliance priced when compared to Nutanix?

A: For a like-for-like configuration, VxRail Appliance list price is priced significantly lower than Nutanix.

Q: How do I compete with VxRail Appliance versus SimpliVity?

A: SimpliVity nodes are generally underpowered relative to VxRail Appliance and Nutanix requiring more nodes to get to the same result.

Avoid very small ROBO opportunities, e.g., non-big box retail. SimpliVity has a two-node configuration that can be more cost- effective in a small ROBO.

Highlight the VxRail Appliance integration with VCE Vision software and the VMware M&O stack.

SimpliVity has very confusing, highly technical positioning and messaging. Elevate the conversation to business outcomes and sell the portfolio.

Their data protection story is a proprietary and closed system. Our story with VMware integration, VDP, RecoverPoint, and Data Domain is much stronger.

Deduce and compression is a strength for them because of a proprietary PCI card, so question the relevance of these services. Customers get more capacity but also spend more on proprietary hardware, CPU, and memory.

Their Cisco partnership will be unwinding with Cisco’s initiative with SpringPath.

Q: How do I get additional information about positioning VxRail Appliance against the competition?

A: See the VxRail Appliance battle cards and Compete deck for both Nutanix and SimpliVity in the VxRail Appliance Enablement Center.

Q: Does the VxRail Appliance work with EHC?

A: There is an opportunity to position VxRail Appliance in hybrid-cloud deployments. Simplicity and consistent platforms deliver successful deployments across sites and improve service level availability. Some examples include: registering edge infrastructure into a centralized self-service console, extend cloud management by provisioning IaaS and/or applications to your edge locations, just as an additional vCenter endpoint, or storage and backup solution services not available at ROBO locations.

HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE MARKET Q: How are Converged and Hyper-Converged different?

A: Traditional converged infrastructure is an information technology system that packages multiple components into a single optimized IT solution. It typically brings together blade-system servers, enterprise storage arrays, storage area networks, IP networking, virtualization, and management software into a single product. Vblock Systems are an example of traditional converged infrastructure.

Hyper-converged infrastructure is a software-defined architecture with integrated compute, software-defined storage, networking, and virtualization. It enables compute, storage, and networking functions to be decoupled from the underlying infrastructure and run on a common set of physical resources that are based on industry-standard x86 components.

Q: What is the opportunity for hyper-converged systems?

A: Hyper-converged systems are expected to be the fastest growing segment of CI, representing 24% of the overall market and having a CAGR of 68% by 2019.

Q: Why are customers interested in hyper-converged infrastructure?

A: Many customers feel it represents a new type of IT infrastructure based on smaller, commodity building-block servers that scale out. Hyper-converged infrastructure uses local direct-attached storage (DAS) instead of shared storage, which provides a simpler, scalable foundation that leverages software-defined compute and software-defined storage. Other factors include a lower total cost of operation than alternative forms of infrastructure, as well as increased agility since customers can easily add storage and compute resources as needed to meet business demands.

SUPPORT Q: Who provides support for the VxRail Appliance?

A: Customers who purchase the VxRail Appliance from either VCE or EMC will be supported by EMC Support (EMC Maintenance contract). EMC Maintenance options are offered (premium and enhanced, not basic). EMC Support Delivery remains the same.

Q: Whom does the customer contact for VCE VxRail Appliance support?

A: Both VCE and EMC customers are to contact EMC for support. For customers who purchase the VxRail Appliance from VCE, they will be instructed in their Welcome Letter to contact EMC for support. If a VCE customer contacts VCE instead, they will be warmly transferred (live online call) to EMC support. For customers who purchase the VxRail Appliance from EMC, they will be instructed to contact EMC for support. If a VCE customer contacts VCE instead, they will be warmly transferred (live online call) to EMC support.

Q: Who provides support for VCE Vision software?

A: VCE Vision software is supported by VCE. VCE is licensed/entitled to VCE™ Support via the customer’s core VBlock Systems and VxBlock Systems. VCE Vision software is not licensed for and therefore not installed on the VxRail Appliance. However it can discover VxRail Appliance.

Q: Whom does the customer contact for VCE Vision software support?

A: VCE and EMC customers should contact VCE on VCE Vision software issues. Existing VCE Support process will apply. If a customer calls EMC for VCE Vision software support, EMC will warmly transfer (live, online call) to VCE Support.

Q: Will there be a VCE VxRail Appliance Release Certification Matrix?

A: VCE will not provide a VCE VxRail Appliance Release Certification Matrix. The purpose of VCE RCM is to streamline and derisk upgrades, which is significant for integrated systems (Vblock Systems) with separate components. With appliances, software updates are delivered by VMware and can be applied automatically and non-disruptively. This is a significant benefit of hyper- converged infrastructure. Customers will be instructed to refer to the EMC Simple Support Matrix on the EMC Support portal via their services agreement (https://elabnavigator.emc.com/eln/elnhome).

Q: Will VxRail Appliance customers receive support via the VCE Support portal?

A: No, all VxRail Appliance customers will be directed to the EMC Support portal (https://support.emc.com/).

Q: If the product has both EMC and VMware technology, who is responsible for customer support?

A: The VMware components in the product are embedded through an OEM agreement and EMC is responsible for support of all components. For level three support for VMware components, EMC will escalate to VMware but retain ownership of the support relationship.

Q: My customer would rather go directly to VMware for support on their components. Can they do this?

A: No, the customer is not entitled to support from VMware. They must contact EMC for customer support.

VSPEX BLUE Q: How does VxRail Appliance differ from VSPEX BLUE?

A: VxRail Appliance is an EMC and VMware exclusive appliance offering available from EMC, VCE, VMware direct sales, and channel partners. It is available in multiple, competitively priced configurations. VxRail Appliance offers increased performance and capacity including all-flash configurations and rich-data services. EMC, VCE, and VMware receive full hardware and software value compensation for selling VxRail Appliance.

VSPEX BLUE is a channel-only product that is similar to other OEM EVO:RAIL offerings. It is only offered in two hybrid configurations with limited storage capacity. VSPEX BLUE is sold through a distribution model that can require complex pricing approval. Channel partners are only compensated on the software portion of VSPEX BLUE sales.

Q: Is VSPEX BLUE still available?

A: The VxRail Appliance delivers improved scalability, greater performance, and more features than VSPEX BLUE. Because of the increased capabilities of the VxRail Appliance, at similar or lower price points, we expect customers to adopt the VxRail Appliance instead of VSPEX BLUE.

Q: Can VSPEX BLUE customers upgrade to the VxRail Appliance?

A: Yes, customers can upgrade the software to get the same VxRail Appliance functionality at no charge. Additionally, a VxRail Appliance is cluster-compatible with VSPEX BLUE once the upgrade is done.

Q: Will VSPEX BLUE continue to be sold and supported?

A: Yes, we have not announced end of sale for VSPEX BLUE. As with any EMC product, VSPEX BLUE will be supported for a minimum of five years from its general availability.

Q: Is there a trade-in program for VSPEX BLUE customers?

A: No swap program is planned. Customers can continue to use their VSPEX BLUE appliances and can upgrade for free to the new version of code (3.0) to get the same software features as the VxRail Appliance. VSPEX BLUE nodes can be clustered with the VxRail Appliance.

ABOUT VCE VCE, an EMC Federation Company, is the world market leader in converged infrastructure and converged solutions. VCE accelerates the adoption of converged infrastructure and cloud-based computing models that reduce IT costs while improving time to market. VCE delivers the industry's only fully integrated and virtualized cloud infrastructure systems, allowing customers to focus on business innovation instead of integrating, validating, and managing IT infrastructure. VCE solutions are available through an extensive partner network, and cover horizontal applications, vertical industry offerings, and application development environments, allowing customers to focus on business innovation instead of integrating, validating, and managing IT infrastructure. For more information, go to vce.com.

© 2016 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Vblock, VxBlock, VCE Vscale, VCE Vision, and the VCE logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of VCE Company, LLC and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. All information is provided ‘as is’ and all warranties are disclaimed.information is provided ‘as is’ and all warranties are disclaimed.