Dell Technologies APEX Cloud Platform Hardware Configurations

Michael Wells, Tech Marketing Engineer for Dell Technologies, discusses the hardware configurations for the APEX Cloud Platform.

• The APEX Cloud Platform uses specialized configurations of PowerEdge servers called MC nodes, specifically the MC660 (1U 10 drive) and MC760 (2U 24 drive).
• The nodes support Intel scalable fourth-generation processors with 2 to 4 terabytes of memory per node, which is currently limited by supply chain issues rather than technical constraints.
• There are options for NVMe and SSD storage configurations, as well as Nvidia GPU support, with the 1U supporting single-width cards and the 2U supporting both single-width and double-width cards.
• Michael mentions a white paper released in November of the previous year about implementing OpenShift AI and a generative AI solution on the APEX Cloud Platform, using Lama 2 and RAG to build a chatbot trained against Dell’s technical documentation.

Michael explains that the MC nodes have a subset of components that are continuously validated to ensure support and control over the configurations. This approach excludes the possibility of using existing servers customers may already have, as the solution requires common building blocks for simplicity and manageability.

There’s also a mention of the possibility of connecting to PowerFlex storage, which supports various operating systems and allows for the connection of bare metal, hypervisors, and other systems. This could be a way for customers to use existing hardware and gradually transition to the APEX Cloud Platform.