At the OpenStack summit last month we caught up with Ubuntu and Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth.
Below is a quick snippet taken from our chat with Mark where he talks about the Dell XPS 13 developer edition aka Project Sputnik. Mark dubs the system “freakin’ awesome” and the “environment of choice for anyone doing web or cloud development.”
Extra-credit reading
Laptop Week Review: The Dell XPS 13 Developers Edition With Ubuntu – TechCrunch
It just works: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition Linux Ultrabook review – Ars Technica
As you may be aware Dell has been offering and hosting a public, multi-tentant IaaS cloud offering. After getting that business off the ground and many customer conversations, we’ve come to realize that the greatest way we can provide value for our customers is to focus our investments on more strategic components of the cloud and provide our customers with maximum choice and flexibility.
As a result, rather than building out and supporting our own multi-tenant public cloud, we will partner with companies in order to provide customers access to the cloud(s) of their choice.
Enter Enstratius
A sampling of some of the public clouds Enstratius provides access to.
With our recent acquisition of Enstratius not only are we are able to provide our customers with the ability to manage and govern a multi-cloud environment but we are now able to offer access to over 20 prominent clouds from Amazon to Rackspace, to Google, to AT&T.
A new Partner Program
Beyond the partners that Enstratius provides access to, today we are also kicking off today a partner program to provide access to IaaS through an ecosystem of options. The first three partners we are announcing are: Joyent, Scale Matrix, Zero Lag:
Joyent: An IaaS provider for real-time web and mobile applications. Joyent has out-of-the-box compatibility with Enstratius’ multi-cloud management.
ScaleMatrix: Cloud hosting platform, Services are offered from proprietary world-class data centers, and leverage enterprise hardware, storage and cutting-edge security and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation services.
ZeroLag: Combines VMware-powered on-demand cloud infrastructure with professional services and custom-designed solutions.
Customers will be able to purchase products from these partners through their Dell sales representatives and you can find out more information at dell.com/cloud-partner-program.
Private Cloud and Project Sputnik
On the Private Cloud front nothing has changed. We are still huge supporters of OpenStack and will continue offering our Open Stack-based private clouds. Additionally we will continue to provide cloud-to-on-premise connectivity via Boomi.
On the Project Sputnik front the cloud launcher that we continue to work on is being designed to provide access to a host of clouds.
Extra-credit reading
Dell to Deliver Public Cloud through Partner Ecosystem – Press Release
During last week’s DevOps Days here in Austin, Matt Ray of Opscode and Charles Lowell of the Frontside did a demo showing the status of the Project Sputnik profile tool and the cloud launcher. The profile tool is still at a very early stage, and while the Cloud Launcher exists today in the form of LXC + JuJu, we are working on a version that works using Chef.
After Matt and Charles’ talk I grabbed sometime with them as well as Chris McClimans of Opscode to talk about where we’re at, where we’re going and what’s a spice weasel.
Last week at DevOps Days Austin, I did a couple of interviews with John Willis (aka @botchagalupe), VP Client Services and Enablement at Enstratius. The first video dealt with devops and the idea of culture as a secret weapon in the war of hiring. The second one was about Enstratius the company, which coincidentally today Dell announced it was acquiring.
DevOps Days Austin took place earlier this week here in our fair city. Kicking off the festivities was Mr. John Willis who delivered the DevOps state of union.
I grabbed sometime with John on day two to discuss what he talked about:
Some of the ground John covers:
Culture as the secret weapon in the war of hiring
Comparing and contrasting the cultures of Netflix, Gighub and Etsy
Yesterday and today DevOps Days was held here in Austin and it was quite the event. The number of attendees seemed to really have increased from last year with at least half the attendees coming from outside our fair city, including representatives from Europe and Asia.
One of those European attendees was none other than Patrick “Don’t-call-me-the-godfather-of-Devops” Debois. It was Patrick who organized the original DevOps days back in 2009 in Belgium.
Take a listen to a talk I had with Patrick at the end of the first day covering where DevOps started, what it means and the importance of culture.
Here are the slides from Patrick’s presentation that kicked off day two.
Last week, during the OpenStack Summit that was held in Portland, Oregon, a 55 year-old soviet satellite was spotted a various indoor locations. Rumor has it that the satellite was named after a project at Dell to create a developer client-to-cloud platform.
Sputnik satellite streaks through warehouse where Mirantis/Dell party is held during OpenStack summit.
Sputnik satellite spotted hovering above Dell booth on the expo floor at the OpenStack summit.
Last week Dell’s cloud group was out in force at the OpenStack Summit in Portland, Oregon. Its amazing to see how the event has grown since the first design summit back in July of 2010.
I got to catch up with a bunch of people, and attend a few sessions and some parties. I also got to spend a fair amount of time in our booth and was impressed by the amount of interest we had in the XPS 13 developer edition.
Near the end of the first day I joined John Furrier and Jeff Frick in the Cube for a chat. We talked about the growth of OpenStack, DevOps and Project Sputnik.
If you’re thinking about getting a Dell XPS 13 developer edition you might want to check out the comprehensive review published by Ars Technica this weekend:
In an effort originally known as Project Sputnik, Dell dedicated resources into doing Linux on an Ultrabook “right”—writing code where necessary (and contributing that code back upstream like a good FOSS citizen) and paying attention to the entire user experience rather than merely working on components in a vacuum. The result is a perfectly functional Ultrabook with a few extra tools—that “Developer Edition” moniker isn’t just for show, and Dell has added some devops spices into the mix with this laptop that should quicken any developer’s heartbeat.
Ubuntu has been available on Dell business laptops for quite awhile, including the recently introduced XPS 13 developer edition. A few weeks ago we announced that we were expanding our Ubuntu certification beyond our cloud servers to include Dell’s 12G servers.
Today we are announcing that Ubuntu is coming to another member of the Dell family, the Alienware X51 gaming desktop.
You can easily install Steam on to the X51 and although there aren’t tons of games supported yet, the list is continuing to grow and now includes classics such as Team Fortress 2 and Serious Sam.
To learn more and get a first-person account of using Ubuntu on the X51 check out the Direct2Dell blog post.
Back in September I posted an entry about the Modular Data Center that we set up in the Dell parking lot. Here is a time lapse video showing the MDC and the location being built out.
The MDC allows customers to test solutions at scale. It is running OpenStack and various Big Data goodies such as Hadoop, Hbase, Cassandra, MongoDB, Gluster etc…
Customers can tap into the MDC from Dell’s solution centers around the world and do proof of concepts as well competitive bake-offs between various big data technologies so they can determine which might best suit their environment and use case.
Last week we announced the arrival of the 1080p version of the XPS 13 developer edition, code name Sputnik 2. At that time the system was available online in the US and Canada and from Dell reps in Europe. Today the system is available online in the following European countries:
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK (see below for the links to the individual product pages). Norway will be coming online next week.
The Ubuntu logo graces the base plate of the XPS 13 developer edition
Product pages for XPS 13 developer edition by country/language
In the following three countries you get your hands on an XPS 13 developer edition by calling your local Dell office:
Finland +358 (0)207 533 533
Luxembourg +352 26 30 47 1
Poland +48 22 579 59 99
Working on
We are currently working out a strategy to try and support the following countries. Stay tuned for updates.
Israel
Morocco
Russia
Saudi Arabia
South Africa
Turkey
UAE
With regards to the Asia Pacific region, we currently do not have plans to introduce the XPS 13 developer edition in that region. We continuously listen for customer feedback and demand and will reevaluate accordingly.
On Monday, we announced the new 1080p display for the XPS 13 developer edition and its upcoming availability in Europe and beyond. To support that launch, here is the official spec sheet as well as a brief presentation on the project and resulting product.
When we launched the Ubuntu-based XPS 13 developer edition at the end of November we got a lot of great press. That being said, the two complaints we heard loud and clear were 1) the resolution is too low, and 2) it needs to be available outside the US and Canada. Since that time we have been working hard to address both.
As of today the XPS 13 developer edition comes with a Full HD (FHD) display (1920 x 1080) and has begun rolling out in Europe.
On beyond North America
For those in the USA and Canada Sputnik 2, the XPS 13 developer edition with the FHD display, is now available online. Across the pond Sputnik 2 has started rolling out and will be available online next week. I will post the links when they become available but here is the list of the countries where Sputnik 2 will be landing:
Available online – France, Germany, UK, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
Available from your Dell rep – Israel, Luxembourg, Morocco, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, UAE
With regards to the Asia Pacific region, we are currently evaluating options to introduce the XPS 13 developer edition in Australia and other countries in Asia, but don’t have details to share at this time. That being said, if you would like to help with the introduction, share your opinion in the comments
Product specs
The new FHD version of the XPS 13 developer edition will replace the existing unit. All other specs of this client-to-cloud solution will stay the same.
Here are the highlights:
Processor: 3rd generation Intel i7
Display: 13.3″ Full High Definition (1080p)
System memory: 8GB
Graphics: Intel HD graphics 4000
Hard drive: 256GB SSD drive
Standard Service: 1 year Dell ProSupport and onsite service after remote diagnostics
Operating system: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Community projects: Cloud launcher and Profile tool
To reflect the upgrade to the improved display the new price for the solution will be $1,549.
What about the Cloud Launcher and Profile Tool?
Ever since we first announced that we were launching a project to explore the creation of an open source developer laptop, we talked about two associated community beta projects: The Cloud Launcher and the Profile Tool.
Profile Tool: The idea behind the profile tool is to provide access to a library of community created profiles on github, such as Ruby and Android, to quickly set up your development environments and tool chains.
Cloud launcher: The cloud launcher enables you to create “microclouds” on your laptop, simulating an at-scale environment, and then deploy that environment seamlessly to the cloud.
With the mad rush to get Sputnik and then Sputnik 2 out the door we haven’t focused as much attention on the associated projects as we would have liked. Now that the systems are going out the door we are looking to kick them up a notch. We will soon be taking the Profile Tool effort off of pause.
With regards to the Cloud launcher, we have big plans for it (its what puts the “cloud” in “client-to-cloud” solution). Today the launcher uses Juju to jettison application environments from the laptop, to the cloud. Recently though we have been working with Opscode to create another version that leverages Chef and that will connect to the Dell Cloud on Demand. We should have a demo and more available soon!
Last week I was out in the Bay Area attending the Open Compute (OCP) Summit. The event was packed and full of energy. My employer Dell was a platinum sponsor and we were showing off some pretty cool stuff:
At today’s Open Compute Summit in Santa Clara, California, Dell showed off a new generation of X-Gene 64-bit ARM-based servers that the company is developing for data center customers. It also demonstrated new management software based on Open Compute Project standards allowing remote control of both Intel and ARM-based servers. The software and server designs Dell demonstrated would allow Intel and ARM-based systems to run in the same chassis. – Ars Technica
Here is the schematic of the management system (check out the client running the ipmitool
As part of the first day plenary sessions, Dell VP and Senior Fellow Jimmy Pike gave a brief historical overview of computing and management, leading up to the above solution.
The next Open Compute Summit will be in Vegas in the fall. Look for us there.
Happy New Year! Right before we left for break Dell held Dell World here in Austin. Thousands of our customers make the trek here for three days of BBQ, bands and technology. We also had a great line up of speakers from Bill Clinton to the Freakonomics guys.
I was on the floor showing our brand new XPS 13 developer edition and met with customers. At one point I broke away and did an interview with Dave Vellante on the Cube along with Michael Cote. Check it out:
Some of the topics we tackled
How project Sputnik went from project to product
DevOps
OpenStack
VMware’s spin out of Pivotal labs
Hadoop and Big Data and Dell’s second innovation project, RIPtide
Pitching Sputnik at Dell World (photo credit: Ryan the lawyer)
I wanted to get one more quick post in before I head out for the holidays. Things have been crazy since the XPS 13 Developer Edition launched almost three weeks ago.
In fact no sooner did we start to catch our breath from the product’s launch that Dell World took place. We had a lot of interest at the event and Im looking at following up with the folks I met.
Launch response
For the actual launch we had fantastic press, see the list below. That having been said, there were two areas where we got dinged by folks:
Price — This turned out to be due to an internal pricing inconsistency and we were able to jump on it right away and dropped the price by $100 by the afternoon.
Monitor resolution — We have heard the community loud and clear and are looking at ways to address this, stay tuned.
Partial Media Coverage
Dell launches Sputnik Linux Ultrabook – The Register
Dell releases powerful, well-supported Linux Ultrabook – Ars Technica
Dell ships lightweight XPS 13 laptop with Ubuntu Linux – IDG
Dell’s ‘Sputnik’ Ubuntu Linux ultrabook: First in a new line? – PC World
Dell launches Ubuntu-powered Sputnik for developers – The H-Online
Dell’s Ubuntu Ultrabook goes on sale in the US – PC Pro
Dell Ships High-End Ubuntu Laptop for Cloud Developers – The Var Guy
Dell Unveils Powerful Linux Ultrabook for $1,449 – Mobile Magazine
Dell Launches XPS 13 Ultrabook Developed Edition, Comes With Ubuntu Linux – StudentNews.ie
Dell’s $1,549 Ubuntu-based XPS 13 goes on sale, $50 more than Windows variant (update: $100 price drop) – Engadget
Dell is selling a nicely configured version of its XPS 13 ultrabook with Ubuntu Linux – CNET
Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook With Linux Ubuntu Almost Ready For Launch – iTech Post
Thanks to everyone for helping to turn this idea from project to product. Stay tuned as we we continue to refine and expand on developer offerings in 2013
Posted by Barton George 
