In a move aimed at making AI easier for businesses to incorporate for their customers, Dell has unveiled an expanded lineup of five new Dell PowerEdge server models that are built with AMD’s 5th generation EPYC processors to deliver more power and capabilities for AI computing.
The new server models, which will be available through Dell’s AI Factory offerings, are designed to help businesses accelerate their AI adoption through new hardware and services expertise in generative AI and other AI technologies, according to Dell.
The latest product additions are a “massive expansion of our partnership with AMD,” Varun Chhabra, Dell’s senior vice president for its Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) and Telecom, told ChannelE2E.
“As AI adoption is accelerating, what we are hearing from customers are a few things they are looking for more than anything else – they are looking for ways to harness its power more efficiently and more effectively,” said Chhabra. “Our customers want time to value. They want to be able to deploy AI faster and get value out of it quicker. We have been hearing over the last two years that it takes a lot of effort to deploy AI solutions and get them to work. And one of the things that we have all been focused on at Dell is really reducing that time to value.”
Dell Details Five New AMD AI PowerEdge Server Models
The new Dell PowerEdge servers are built to drive a wide range of AI use cases and traditional workloads while simplifying server management and security, according to Dell. The new models are:
- The Dell PowerEdge XE7745, which is designed for enterprise AI workloads. Supporting up to eight double-width or 16 single-width PCIe GPUs, they include AMD 5th Gen EPYC processors in a 4U air-cooled chassis. Built for AI inferencing, model fine-tuning, and high performance computing, the internal GPU slots are paired with eight additional Gen 5.0 PCIe slots for network connectivity.
- The PowerEdge R6725 and R7725 servers, which are optimized for scalability with powerful AMD 5th generation EPYC processors. Also included is a new DC-MHS chassis design that enables enhanced air cooling and dual 500W CPUs, which help counteract difficult thermal challenges for power and efficiency, according to Dell.
- The PowerEdge R6715 and R7715 servers with AMD 5th gen EPYC processors that provide increased performance and efficiency. These servers are available in various configuration options to meet diverse workload requirements.
The Dell PowerEdge XE7745 servers will be available globally starting in January 2025, while the Dell PowerEdge R6715, R7715, R6725 and R7725 servers will be available globally starting in November 2024, according to Dell.
How Dell’s AI Factory is Helping Customers
“AI is extremely complex,” said Chhabra. “Deploying AI workloads, getting them to production, making sure that responses from GenAI are trustworthy, accurate, etc., is no easy feat. There's a lot of different solutions to integrate, and a lot of different vendors to work across and the whole approach around the Dell AI Factory is really to help remove some of that burden from customers by actively working with the leading ecosystem providers and creating these turnkey integrated solutions.”
Analyst Insights on the Latest Dell AMD PowerEdge Servers
Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, told ChannelE2E that the new Dell server models equipped with the latest AMD EPYC processors will be useful for business users who are still scrambling to figure out how to offer AI services for their customers.
“The channel is trying to meet an overwhelming need for applied AI, and with these AMD solutions Dell is providing their channel with a set of solutions that should be well received,” said Enderle. “AMD has been doing some impressive AI work of late and their solutions have advantages in performance, value, and availability over their competitors. Dell, and others, are jumping on this AMD technology as they chase the promise of a lucrative AI future.”
At the same time, Dell “has historically been slow to adopt technology from non-Intel suppliers, which has allowed competitors like Lenovo who have been more aggressive to move around them,” said Enderle. “This time, Dell is … finally stepping up to these opportunities and executing in a timely way. Overall, this means that Dell is becoming far more competitive in the AI space.”
