The Cube’s Stu Miniman interviewed Dell customer and member of Dell influencer program, Roger Lund a Senior System Administrator for the Array Services Group, at the second annual Dell Storage Forum (part I of interview below, see part II here). The Array Services Group is a parent company for several companies that provide call center and billing services, which is similar to many other businesses working to optimize their IT ecosystem. The Cube and Miniman discussed the technology challenges the Array Services Group faces and how their technology environment has evolved to meet changing demands.

According to Lund, his company uses Dell technology extensively and began adopting virtualization technology over a decade ago. His company’s environment is now 75 percent virtualized. He continued saying he is still excited about working with virtualization technology like VMWare because it provides “a single pane of glass” into what his environment is doing. However, Miniman acknowledged that since the Array Services Group is not completely virtualized, he can’t actually manage all of his servers from a single interface. Although it is Dell’s vision that APIs and automation will provide a bridge for customers with a mix of physical and virtual servers, most companies – including Lund firm – aren’t there yet.

Lund noted that Dell’s announcements of new blade-based EqualLogic Storage Arrays and new unified storage Compellent array, which includes a new controller, the SC8000, and the Dell Compellent FS8600 high-performance, scale-out file storage. Overall, Lund seemed most impressed by recent technology announcements from Dell and other vendors to streamline data center management. His company has invested in some new technologies, but like most other businesses, struggles to adopt innovation will maintaining day to day operations.

The system administrator was also reassured by hearing Dell’s strategy for the future. Dell has recently acquired so many new products, they risk creating uncertainty in customers concerned how and where the new technologies will be integrated and the impact on existing offerings. Dell seems to be aware of this risk given the amount of effort they spent reiterating their message for the future at this year’s event.