Dell PowerEdge FX2s CTO Enclosure

The Dell FX2s is a new 2U rack-based hybrid computing platform that provides a greater dimension of functional flexibility along with a higher density of processing power. It combines the density of blades with the advantages of rack-based systems.

In PowerEdge FX2s enclosure configurations that support storage sleds mapped to compute sleds, the PCIe slots map only to the compute sleds. When storage sleds are installed in the enclosure, the PCIe slots mapped to these bays are automatically reassigned to the compute sleds installed in the upper bays of the enclosure.

Enterprise computing needs are dynamically changing as business and technology leaders embrace strategic computing innovations to create opportunities and gain competitive advantage. The increasing demand for cloud computing, the expansion of mobile use, the widespread adoption of big data techniques, and the rise of software-defined infrastructures are driving IT decision-makers to evaluate fresh approaches in the data center.

IT organizations are looking to adopt the latest application workload paradigms that industry leaders are pioneering. Wherever possible, they want to gain the economic advantages that scale-out technologies have achieved for public cloud providers.

Unfortunately, most enterprises lack the agility to rapidly support IT transformation, which hampers their ability to increase agility, scale for improved business results and simplify operations.

To address the challenges introduced by the latest computing trends as well as to reduce reliance on legacy, siloed equipment and operations, the PowerEdge FX converged architecture is designed to give enterprises the flexibility to tailor their IT infrastructure to specific workloads — and the ability to scale and adapt that infrastructure as needs change over time with zero-growth form-factor options. PowerEdge FX helps deliver the agility, flexibility and secure foundation that businesses need to simplify their operations and increase their business results.

The PowerEdge FX architecture is based on a modular, concept that makes it easy for enterprises to focus processing resources precisely where they are needed. This concept is realized through the PowerEdge FX2 chassis, the foundation of the FX architecture. The FX2 is a 2U platform that combines the density and efficiencies of blades with the simplicity and cost advantages of rack-based systems. The FX2 hosts flexible blocks of server and storage resources while providing outstanding efficiencies through shared power, networking, I/O and management within the chassis itself. Although each server block has some local storage, the FX architecture allows servers to access multiple types of storage, such as a centralized storage area network (SAN) or direct-attached storage (DAS) in FX storage blocks. Software-defined storage environments including VMware vSAN can readily benefit with the FX2 high-density storage elements.

The PowerEdge FX architecture lets data centers easily support an IT-as-a-service approach because it is specifically designed to fit the scale-out model that this approach embraces. In data centers of all sizes, deployments incorporating the FX architecture are designed to be right-sized, efficient and cost effective.

The ultimate power of the FX architecture lies in the flexibility it gives IT professionals when they are designing and constructing their infrastructure. A key tenet of the PowerEdge FX architecture is ease of workload optimization. By providing a wide