When Dell EMC rolled out its PowerEdge 14G server line last year, the company emphasized features such as automated server setup, security, and faster hyperscale workload performance in anticipation that the software-defined infrastructure would become a key element for enterprise data centers.

One year later, prior to VMworld last week, Dell EMC announced its PowerEdge MX, a modular infrastructure solution designed to allow enterprise customers to virtualize storage devices and other individual components as part of a strategy to make it easier for users to adopt future technologies.

“It’s really important that you have a futuristic view of the world,” said Ashley Gorakhpurwalla (pictured, left), president and general manager of servers and infrastructure systems at Dell Technologies Inc. “With our MX launch now, we’re starting a new generation of infrastructure that is really a capstone to 14G.”

Gorakhpurwalla spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host John Troyer (@jtroyer), during the VMworld conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was joined by Ravi Pendekanti (pictured, right), senior vice president of server solutions product management at Dell, and they discussed the key benefits of PowerEdge and recent enhancements to VxRail. (* Disclosure below.)

Greater flexibility for the future

A key element of PowerEdge MX is the absence of a mid-plane, part of the server chassis. By removing the mid-plane, users have the ability to make direct compute to input/output module connections and support multiple generations of technology releases. In other words, Dell is laying the groundwork to give customers support for fully disaggregated components, such as field-programmable gate arrays and memory-centric devices.

“There’s no mid-plane in the design which gives you tremendous flexibility and agility,” Pendekanti explained. “You’ve got to look at the right hardware partner to come in and help you run your infrastructure.”

In addition to the news surrounding PowerEdge MX, Dell EMC also announced enhancements to VxRail, hardware that offers numerous data management technologies within a single device. The VxRail G560 will now include more processing cores, capacity and memory.

“VxRail is really the preeminent integrated infrastructure systems solution out there,” Gorakhpurwalla said. “It’s really the on-ramp to IS for both private and multicloud.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the VMworld conference. (* Disclosure: Dell Technologies Inc. sponsored this segment, with additional broadcast sponsorship from VMware Inc. Dell, VMware, and other sponsors do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE