Edge sensors and devices generate data on a massive scale. And much of the data is generated in rugged environments. Heavy machinery used in underground mining operations, for example, can be outfitted with smart sensors to monitor gas concentrations, air quality, and temperature. Once this data is captured by a high-performance edge server, an analytics application processes the data to generate real-time insights.
Prowess Consulting investigated options for organizations looking for rugged edge servers with the performance needed for compute-intensive analytics. We started by evaluating the Dell™ PowerEdge™ XR7620 server, a member of Dell Technologies’ PowerEdge XR rugged servers portfolio. We looked at performance, durability, and compliance to military and telecom industry standards.
We then compared the PowerEdge XR7620 server to the PowerEdge XE2420 server, a previous-generation rugged edge server, and observed significant generational performance gains. Finally, we compared the PowerEdge XR7620 server to another member of the PowerEdge XR family, the PowerEdge XR4000 series servers. This helped us summarize key differences between the PowerEdge XR7620 server and the PowerEdge XR4000 series servers. We found that, for organizations looking for the ideal edge server, the PowerEdge XR7620 server delivers high performance, including excellent virtualization capabilities and VMware vSAN™ performance, whereas the PowerEdge XR4000 series servers deliver excellent density and deployment flexibility.