Dell announced some enhancements to its systems management portfolio, including the Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter. The plug-in follows after an integration of Dell’s hardware management capabilities into Microsoft’s System Center, and is reportedly capable of reducing time spent on systems provision to around 5 minutes a week.

“And so Dell has done the obvious thing: it created a plug-in for vCenter that allows it to reach back into the OpenManage tools, the Lifecycle Controller service processor on the Power Edge machines, and the iDRAC remote access controller for remote systems management.”

Dell customers are unlikely to utilize VMware’s vSphere server virtualization stack and vCenter console in order to use its OpenManage system management tool, but the Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter is a different story. It, along with Dell’s enhancement embedded systems management capabilities are a part of the company’s approach to “touch on multiple aspects of the company’s portfolio”. The plug-in is expected by sources to launch with the PowerEdge 12g servers and vSphere 5.0 sometime this year.

In addition to this latest update, earlier news from Dell included its plans to combine its large-enterprise business units into a single operation and its plans to acquire SecureWork. VMware on the other hand worked on expanding its partner base, with more and more companies supporting their products: namely Bitrix, Southwestern /Great American’s and others.