Dell Technologies APEX Cloud Platform Cluster Deployment

Michael Wells, a Tech Marketing Engineer at Dell Technologies, discusses the APEX Cloud Platform and its deployment process for Microsoft Azure and Red Hat OpenShift. He explains that the deployment for both platforms involves a similar set of steps, such as node discovery, configuration settings, and network information. APEX Cloud Platform for Azure is built on Microsoft’s HCI OS as part of the new Premier partner tier, which allows for deeper integration and collaboration with Microsoft.

The deployment results in a fully configured cluster, an OpenShift cluster on one side and an Azure Stack HCI cluster on the other. The OpenShift cluster includes Red Hat Core OS, Kubernetes, and Dell SDS storage, while the Azure Stack HCI cluster uses Storage Spaces Direct, Hyper-V, and the Microsoft SDN stack. Both deployments include the APEX Cloud Platform Foundation software, which integrates with the cloud OS management experience.

Michael also discusses licensing, entitlements for advanced cluster management and security included with the OpenShift Platform Plus subscription, and the unique capabilities of the Cloud Platform Foundation software. He emphasizes that the APEX Cloud Platform family is designed to offer the same types of results and efficiencies across different cloud OSes.

Lastly, Michael hints at upcoming features, such as the addition of Dell SDS support for the APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure, which will allow for greater scalability and storage independence.