A Principled Technologies report: In-depth research. Real-world value.

Finding the path toAI success with theDell AI portfolio
A comparison of the Dell AI
portfolio vs. similar offerings
from Supermicro
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the new frontier, poised toreshape business operations across industries. Whileorganizations across the spectrum explore how they canleverage AI to enhance their business operations, it’s
important to remember that implementing AI and reaping
its benefits doesn’t happen overnight. Because every
business is unique, each must assess their data and theirbusiness goals to see how using AI with their data canbring about their specific desired outcomes. Engaging
with a company such as Dell that offers a comprehensive
AI portfolio including planning, data preparation,
appropriate hardware selection, AI model design, proofof-concept testing, reference architectures, and end-toend support can translate to successful AI projects.
With the myriad options available on the market, finding apartner who can assist with all these decisions could mean
the difference between a successful AI implementation
and an expensive mistake. In this paper, we take a closer
look at the AI portfolios of Dell and Supermicro withthe aim of educating readers on the advantages Dellcan provide throughout a customer’s AI journey. We’ll
first focus on server and compute options, where eachcompany has large and varied offerings for customers.
Next, we’ll explore how Dell goes beyond hardware
considerations for companies seeking education,planning services, partner ecosystems, and more.

Finding the path to AI success with the Dell AI portfolio

February 2024

Servers and performance results for AI workloads
Servers, the base computing infrastructure that powers AI workloads, can use CPUs, GPUs, or both ascomputational resources depending on the size or type of workload. For larger or more demanding workloads
like HPC or AI, GPUs provide top performance. GPUs come in a variety of form factors, including universal PCIe,
Open Compute Project Accelerator Module (OAM), and proprietary NVIDIA SXM architecture, which currently
offers top performance.1 Large memory capacities and server design features such as cooling architecture andpower efficiency also affect performance. Most data centers still use air cooling, which means that AI workloads
need servers built to cool with air as effectively as possible. Below, we highlight Dell PowerEdge server offeringsin terms of components, cooling options, and more, along with their published MLCommons® MLPerf® scores.

Test results
MLPerf® is a benchmark suite that tests AI performance for both training and inferencing. For an organization
to publish official MLPerf® results, the results must be compliant with specific conditions set by the benchmark
developer, MLCommons®.2 These compliance guidelines provide standards that make it easier to compare
performance. For inference testing, MLPerf® uses Datacenter, Edge, Mobile, and Tiny datasets, and reports AI
scores and watts of power consumed during testing. The inference benchmark suite includes testing for many
common AI, ML, and DL models (see Table 1).
Table 1: AI, ML, and DL models that MLPerf® includes, with testing and typical use cases for each. Source: Principled Technologies.

Common AI models

Typical use cases

ResNetAn image classification model that helps computers learn, remember, and identify
different images for use cases such as medical imaging, social media content
moderation, and facial recognition

RetinaNet

A type of object detection that can handle more complexity than ResNet. It helps
computers to identify and locate objects within images or video frames, and canclassify them by importance. Used for things like autonomous driving, vehicle
auto-assist technology, surveillance, facial recognition

3D-UNetSpecific to medical image segmentation

RNN-T

Speech recognition for use cases such as automated language translation

BERT

Natural language processing for use cases such as text summarization, languagetranslation, and autocompletion of tasks

DLRM-v2-99.9

Recommendation model for use cases such as targeted ads and personalized productrecommendations

GPTJ-99 and 99.9

LLM for natural language processing that excels at text generation for use cases suchas chatbots and chat-based AI tools

Finding the path to AI success with the Dell AI portfolio

February 2024 | 2

About MLPerf
MLPerf® results include several parameters in addition to the AI models themselves, which can makefor a lot of data to parse in a single chart or table. Here’s a quick reference to these parameters:• 99.0 and 99.9: These numbers refer to the accuracy to which the model was trained. The moreaccurate you need the output to be, the more complex the model and the longer it can taketo process data.
• Offline samples/sec: Mode where the benchmark sends all queries at the beginning of the test,
simulating data already present on the system.
• Server queries/sec: Mode where the benchmark sends queries throughout the test duration,
simulating analyzing a live stream of data.
For more about MLCommons® and MLPerf® results, see
https://mlcommons.org/benchmarks/inference-datacenter/.

Results in this report come from MLPerf® v3.1 Inference Datacenter results published on the MLCommons®
website in November 2023.3 These results include submissions from technology manufacturers and cloud service
providers and cover a range of configurations. Compared to publicly available submissions from Supermicro,
Dell PowerEdge servers produced comparable results. Table 2 provides server details.
Table 2: Dell and Supermicro servers included in the MLCommons® MLPerf® 3.1 results published as of November 2023.
Source: Principled Technologies.

Submitter

Dell4

Supermicro5

Server model# and model of GPUs

Description

PowerEdge XE9680

8x NVIDIA H100 SXM

For AI training and inference with large workloads
such as large language models

PowerEdge XE9640

4x NVIDIA H100 SXM

For training large AI models in high density andliquid cooled datacenters

PowerEdge XE8640

4x NVIDIA H100 SXM

For driving traditional AI training, HPC, and data
analytics apps in a 4U form factor for air-cooleddata centers

AS-8125GS-TNHR

8x NVIDIA H100 SXM

For large-scale AI training and HPC workloads with
AMD processors

SYS-821GE-TNHR

8x NVIDIA H100 SXM

For large-scale AI training and HPC workloads withIntel processors

SYS-421GU-TNXR

4x NVIDIA H100 SXM

Modular design for flexibility for supporting HPC
and AI workloads

Because both Dell and Supermicro have submitted results with apples-to-apples GPU configurations, comparing
performance is straightforward. As Figures 1 and 2 show, commonality between configurations from both
vendors leads to results that are largely on par with one another. For other configurations, such as those weshow in Figures 3 and 4, Dell outperformed Supermicro on the gptj-99.9 model in the 4-GPU testing. Note thatwhile Dell has submitted results for all available models with all three servers, Supermicro did not. We compare
only the models for which both servers have results. To see the full set of Dell results, visit MLCommons®
MLPerf® results.

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February 2024 | 3

Eight-GPU server results
The Dell PowerEdge XE9680 offers support for up to eight NVIDIA H100 SXM5 GPUs for AI acceleration and
up to two 4th Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors. The PowerEdge XE product family has a modular
architecture supporting SXM4 or SXM5 NVIDIA GPUs or Open Compute Project Accelerator Module (OAM)
GPU assemblies, which can boost performance compared to a standard PCIe GPU. The Dell PowerEdge XE9680
also offers the AMD Instinct™ MI300X accelerator.6 Taking up only 6U of rack space, the PowerEdge XE9680 is acompact eight-way NVIDIA H100 SXM5 server.
In contrast, the 8-GPU Supermicro server requires 33 percent more rack space at 8U while also offering the SXM
form factor for NVIDIA GPUs. The size difference means you could fit seven Dell PowerEdge XE9680 servers in a
rack versus only five Supermicro servers. In Figures 1 and 2, we compare the Dell PowerEdge XE9680 results to
those of two configurations of the Supermicro 8-GPU server: the SYS-821GE-TNHR with Intel processors and theAS-8125GS-TNHR with AMD processors. Note that Supermicro did not submit results for RNN-T on the SYS821GE-TNHR, so we exclude this model from the chart in Figure 1.

Normalized MLPerf® Results: Dell PowerEdge XE9680 with H100 SXM5
vs. Supermicro SYS-821GE-TNHR with H100 (Larger is better)
Model

Accuracy

1.04
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.95
1.00
0.99
1.00
0.98
1.00
0.98
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.99
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.99
1.00
1.01
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.01
1.00
0.94
1.00
0.94
1.00
0.95
1.00
0.95
1.00

ServerResNet99
OfflineRetinanet

99

Server
Offline99

Server

3D-UNet99.9 Offline
Server99
Offline
BERT
99.9

Server
Offlinedlrm-v2-9999Server
Offlinedlrm-v2-99.9

99.9

Server
Offlinegptj-99

99

Server
Offlinegptj-99.9

99.9

Server
OfflineDell PowerEdge XE9680

Supermicro SYS-821GE-TNHR

Figure 1: Published MLPerf results for the Dell PowerEdge XE9680 and Supermicro SYS-821GE-TNHR as of 11/29/23. Both systems equip
the SXM form factor of the NVIDIA H100 GPU. Source: Principled Technologies using data from MLCommons®.7,8®

Finding the path to AI success with the Dell AI portfolio

February 2024 | 4

Normalized MLPerf® Results: Dell PowerEdge XE9680 with H100 SXM5 vs.
Supermicro AS-8125GS-TNHR with H100 SXM5 (Larger is better)
Model

Accuracy

1.05
1.00
0.99
1.00
0.96
1.00
0.99
1.00
0.98
1.00
0.98
1.00
1.03
1.00
1.06
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.99
1.00
1.01
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.01
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.96
1.00
0.96
1.00
0.96
1.00
0.96
1.00

ServerResNet99
OfflineRetinanet

99

Server
Offline99

Server

3D-UNet99.9 Offline
Server
RNN-T

99
OfflineServer99
Offline

BERT
99.9

Server
Offlinedlrm-v2-9999Server
Offlinedlrm-v2-99.9

99.9

Server
Offlinegptj-99

99

Server
Offlinegptj-99.9

99.9

Server
OfflineDell PowerEdge XE9680

Supermicro AS-8125GS-TNHR

Figure 2: Published MLPerf® results for the Dell PowerEdge XE9680 and Supermicro AS-8125GS-TNHR as of 11/29/23. Both systems equip
the SXM form factor of the NVIDIA H100 GPU. Source: Principled Technologies using data from MLCommons®.9,10

As these results show, choosing the Dell PowerEdge XE9680 will give you similar performance on a myriad of AI
inference workloads while taking up less data center space.

Finding the path to AI success with the Dell AI portfolio

February 2024 | 5

Four-GPU server results
When minimizing data center power usage or space is of top importance, the 2U Dell PowerEdge XE9640
could provide the answer. With up to four NVIDIA H100 SXM GPUs, the PowerEdge XE9640 offers half the GPU
computational power of the PowerEdge XE9680 in one-third the space.11 The densely packed Dell PowerEdge
XE9640 server incorporates Dell Smart Cooling technology, providing an array of thermal technology including
direct liquid cooling for CPUs and GPUs.12 The 2U chassis of the PowerEdge XE9640 accommodates improved
airflow mechanisms, including larger fans and heatsinks, to help cool the other vital components, such as PCIe
cards and memory.13
Supermicro offers an older SYS-220GQ-TNAR+ server that provides four NVIDIA A100 HGX GPUs in a 2U form
factor, but we were unable to find any 2U Supermicro servers with four of the more recent H100 HGX GPUs thatwould match the PowerEdge XE9640.14 The 4-GPU server with HGX H100 NVIDIA GPUs from Supermicro in the
MLPerf® submissions is the SYS-421GU-TNXR, which is a 4U server. As we mentioned previously, Supermicro
submitted MLPerf® 3.1 results for only the SYS-421GU-TNXR on the gptj-99.9 AI model, so we cannot compare
it to the PowerEdge XE9640 on the other models. However, in the published results, the PowerEdge XE9640
outperformed the Supermicro server in the offline tests, achieving up to 1.37 times the score (see Figure 3).

Normalized MLPerf® Results: Dell PowerEdge XE9640 with H100 SXM5 vs.
Supermicro SYS-421GU-TNXR with H100 SXM5 (Larger is better)
Model

Accuracy

1.02
1.00

Servergptj-99

99
Offlinegptj-99.99

99.9

1.00
1.02
1.00

Server
OfflineDell PowerEdge XE9640

1.00

1.37

1.37

Supermicro SYS-421GU-TNXR

Figure 3: Published MLPerf results for the Dell PowerEdge XE9640 and Supermicro SYS-421GU-TNXR as of 11/29/23. Both systems equip
the SXM form factor of the NVIDIA H100 GPU. Source: Principled Technologies using data from MLCommons®.15,16®

We can also compare the Supermicro SYS-421GU-TNXR server results to the Dell PowerEdge XE8640, a 4U
4-GPU server that also supports NVIDIA H100 HGX GPUs. While larger than the PowerEdge XE9640, thePowerEdge XE8640 does not require direct liquid cooling, making it a compromise between density and coolingtechnologies for data centers that don’t have access to water cooling. The PowerEdge XE8640 has air coolingfor processors and a Liquid-Assisted Air Cooling Radiator for the GPUs, which does not require facility water-torack availability.17 The Dell PowerEdge XE8640 features the latest 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors
and up to 4 TB of memory to handle the large datasets and complex computations common in AI and data
analytics.18 With its 4U form factor, the PowerEdge XE8640 is similar to the Supermicro SYS-421GU-TNXR inboth density and GPU capabilities. However, much as we saw with the PowerEdge XE9640, the Dell PowerEdge
XE8640 gets better gptj-99 scores in the offline tests than the Supermicro server (Figure 4).

Finding the path to AI success with the Dell AI portfolio

February 2024 | 6

Normalized MLPerf® Results: Dell PowerEdge XE8640 with H100 SXM5 vs.
Supermicro SYS-421GU-TNXR with H100 SXM5 (Larger is better)
Model

Accuracy

1.02
1.00

Servergptj-99

99
Offlinegptj-99.99

99.9

1.00
1.02
1.00

Server
OfflineDell PowerEdge XE8640

1.00

1.36

1.36

Supermicro SYS-421GU-TNXR

Figure 4: Published MLPerf results for the Dell PowerEdge XE8640 and Supermicro SYS-421GU-TNXR as of 11/29/23. Both systems equip
the SXM form factor of the NVIDIA H100 GPU. Source: Principled Technologies using data from MLCommons®.19,20®

As we have seen, the MLPerf® performance results of the Supermicro and Dell GPU-based server offerings
are similar overall, with a notable advantage for the Dell PowerEdge XE8640 and PowerEdge XE9640 servers
on one AI model.
Because performance is only one aspect of the AI implementation journey, we also looked at the rest of the AI
offerings from Dell and Supermicro, from workstations, storage, and networking to services, support, education,and more. We found that the Dell AI portfolio is broader than the Supermicro offering and offers solutions tomany of the obstacles companies face beyond compute performance.

Client workstations and storage offerings
Additional compute options with workstations
Some AI use cases require a different compute approach, and not everyone who needs access to AI-capable
hardware can remain tied to the data center. Scientists working in labs may not have room for a rack of servers,
and it’s impractical for those working at the edge to lug around a large, heavy desktop system. That’s where
workstations come into play. The Dell AI portfolio includes several AI-ready Precision workstations—including
tower, mobile, and rack configurations—to meet a variety of needs.21 In contrast, Supermicro does not offer
mobile workstations for easy, on-the-go access. Its GPU workstation offerings consist of several different tower
configurations, some of which Supermicro claims users can rack mount.22 Our research uncovered two rackmountable workstations, but they appear to be older, available with only NVIDIA A100 GPUs, and possibly nolonger for sale.23 If your company needs flexibility in the type and mobility of GPU workstations it deploys, theDell AI portfolio is better suited to those needs.

Storage considerations
Storage may be just as vital as compute when running AI workloads. Having more data improves AI model
accuracy, but storing and managing massive datasets can challenge the capabilities of many data centers.
Additionally, because models typically train using unstructured data, AI-ready storage systems must handle
many different data types with ease.24 To provide capacity and scaling for AI, ML, and DL datasets, Dell offers
the PowerScale™ series for file storage and Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) or software-defined ObjectScale forobject storage.

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February 2024 | 7

The Dell PowerScale all-flash NAS portfolio offers capacity options ranging from 3.84 TB up to 720 TB of raw
capacity per node, with clustered all-flash capacities reaching 186 PB of raw capacity. The flexibility and scale ofPowerScale can support a wide variety of customers and AI use cases.25 All three all-flash PowerScale models—F200, F600, and F900—include inline data compression and deduplication to improve storage efficiency.26 EachPowerScale storage model uses the Dell OneFS™ file system, which takes advantage of advanced tiering policies
to ensure the most frequently accessed data resides on the highest performing storage tiers.27 Dell also offers
OneFS software in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) marketplace with APEX File Storage for AWS. Customers
can leverage OneFS with their AWS compute instances for a consistent user experience with the same features
available in on-premises OneFS arrays.28
Supermicro storage offerings consist of storage servers—rack-mounted, storage-dense servers at various sizes
and densities.29 To obtain file storage from Supermicro, customers must choose from various third-party softwaredefined storage offerings such as WekaIO, Scality RING, or OSNEXUS.30 While Scality RING and OSNEXUS
include file storage options as part of their platform descriptions, WekaIO appears to be the primary option forcustomers seeking basic file storage. Supermicro offers several reference architectures covering a wide array ofuse cases, but customers must have a WekaIO software subscription or license, which can increase the overall
cost of the solution.31
Object storage options from Dell include Dell ECS Enterprise Object Storage, which is “purpose built to store
unstructured data at public cloud scale.”32 Along with built-in compatibility with Amazon S3 object storage forhybrid cloud functionality, ECS storage nodes deliver capacities up to 14PB per rack.33 As with file storage, theSupermicro object storage offerings require third-party configurations. The OSNEXUS platform is a combined
storage platform for file, block, and object storage, while the Scality RING solution combines file and object
storage; both require licenses with the third-party vendors.34,35 For just object storage, customers can buy
the Supermicro solution for Quantum ActiveScale for private cloud object storage with a Quantum software
subscription.36 As of this writing, we could not find any flexible consumption/operating expenditure options that
Supermicro offers.
Because Supermicro storage offerings require customers to engage with third-party software vendors,
they are likely to incur additional licensing or subscription costs and may experience difficulties in support,
troubleshooting, and more. The Dell AI portfolio gives Dell storage customers a single, reliable services-andsupport solution across every aspect of their storage solution.

About Dell APEX
For customers who wish to consume their file storage as a service, Dell offers APEX Data Storage
Services, which includes file, block, and backup storage. Using the Dell APEX Console, customers
can order new subscriptions, adjust and monitor storage capacity, and more. Per Dell, this solution
allows you to “get the ease and agility of the cloud experience with more control over yourapplications and data.”37
To read more about Dell APEX, visit https://www.dell.com/en-us/dt/apex/storage/data-storageservices/index.htm

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Networking options
Networking is another vital component of AI infrastructure. With many
AI workloads running on large clusters of servers requiring constantcommunication between each other and to storage, AI workloads needrobust networking to avoid bottlenecks. If your networking is insufficientfor the AI workload, training and inference times will increase, slowing
data processing and time to insights. Dell offers PowerSwitch Data
Center top-of-rack (ToR) switches and PowerEdge MX I/O modules
for Ethernet and fabric networks.38 The PowerSwitch offerings range
from 1GbE to 400GbE to meet a range of needs. Additionally, the Dell
PowerSwitch Z Series switches offer 100GbE and 400GbE connections
optimized for leaf/spine fabrics.39
Supermicro also offers switches with Ethernet ports up to 400GbE
for ToR and other applications such as Data Center Spine and leaf.40
However, Dell networking services provide several ease-of-use andflexibility benefits that Supermicro does not offer. Services such as theDell Fabric Design Center can help avoid networking mismatches, gaps,
or inefficiencies, helping customers plan and deploy network fabrics with
automation.41 For specific environments such as VMware VxRail, VMware
ESXi, and Dell PowerStore configurations, Dell offers SmartFabricservices, which enable software-defined infrastructure deployment
and lifecycle management. With PowerStore, SmartFabric Services can
automate “up to 99% of LAN connectivity tasks with a plug-and-playfabric.”42 Services such as these, providing automation, guidance, andmore for networking design and implementation, support customers as
they navigate the AI adoption process.

Services, training, and more
The primary non-hardware challenge in implementing AI is the needfor in-house expertise for strategy, planning, data preparation, andmanagement. Managing and maintaining AI workloads requires a uniqueknowledge set, including both more traditional hardware expertise andmachine learning operations and data science. The people designingand implementing the AI strategy also need a deep understanding of
the company’s unique operational goals to ensure the new AI workloads
meet those goals.43
Another significant hurdle can be integrating AI seamlessly into existing
operational systems. This integration demands a strategic alignment of
new AI technologies with current business processes, ensuring that the
introduction of AI keeps established workflows intact. Partnering with acompany such as Dell that provides several optimized, validated solution
reference architectures, training courses, management options, and alarge partner ecosystem can ease your AI adoption journey.

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February 2024 | 9

Professional services for AI
To cover education and planning, Dell offers a variety of services specifically for AI.44 Dell services supporting
AI implementation encompass consulting, data preparation, deployment, support, and education, eachtargeting specific aspects of AI adoption. Dell Advisory Services for Generative AI help customers create a road
map identifying use cases and helping companies streamline their processes.45 Similarly, Adoption Services
for Generative AI provide workshops with Dell professionals to review your needs and unique challenges todetermine a pretrained model for your business and conduct knowledge-transfer sessions to train your IT staff.46
Dell also offers Implementation, Scale, and Managed Services for Generative AI that provide varying levels of
support and training, up to a fully managed AI infrastructure, that free your IT staff to focus on the models anddata while Dell manages the hardware.47 ProSupport services ensure optimal system performance and provide
essential hardware and software assistance for ongoing AI operations, addressing technical issues.48
Educational services are integral in fostering the necessary skills and knowledge for AI utilization. Dell training
offerings include comprehensive training programs in data science, advanced analytics certifications, andworkshops on specific AI technologies, such as machine learning.49
Supermicro services, on the other hand, are mostly limited to troubleshooting, manuals, return merchandise
authorizations (RMAs), and warranties.50 We could not find any design, implementation, management, or
educational services in the Supermicro AI portfolio. For companies that seeking a training partner in navigating
the complexities of AI adoption, Dell is the clear choice of these two.

Third-party partnerships for AI workloads
Dell Technologies and NVIDIA collaborate to offer Dell Validated Designs, which aim to provide a comprehensive
solution for generative AI in business settings. This project creates a scalable, high-performance infrastructure
based on Dell and NVIDIA technologies and software along with an AI model framework that enables businesses
to build and run custom AI models. The solution enables customers to get GenAI workloads up and running
quickly.51 To learn more, read the Dell Validated Designs section below.
Dell has partnered with several companies to enhance AI technology applications. With Hugging Face, Dellmakes setting up large language models (LLMs) on site easier. This partnership combines Hugging Face AI
expertise with Dell servers and storage systems. A Dell-specific Hugging Face portal will provide tools forstraightforward, secure deployment of Hugging Face open-source AI models. The ongoing goal is to keep
improving these models for Dell systems, boosting performance and supporting new AI applications.52
Dell and Starburst are working on a high-performance, scalable data lake that integrates Starburst analytics with
Dell computing and storage technology, looking to offer a single point of access to all data sources for AI and
ML tools. Customers will be able to take advantage of this partnership to help eliminate data silos.53
According to our research, Supermicro has much more limited partnerships for AI. SiMa.ai and Supermicro havecollaborated to develop the Supermicro SYS-E300-13AD, a compact Edge ML Server designed for multi-stream
video analytics processing. This server, equipped with SiMa.ai ML pipeline on a chip, efficiently handles multiple
video channels, reduces the total cost of ownership, and improves reliability and security. The server offers acomputational setting designed for the processing and analysis of numerous video streams, delivering edge
intelligence suitable for various enterprise applications.54

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February 2024 | 10

Dell Validated Designs
To help take the guesswork out of AI hardware solutions,
Dell offers lab-validated reference architectures optimized
for several AI and other workloads. These Validated Designs
include architectural concepts, full solution overviews, andperformance and other lab validations proving the solution’s
capabilities on the workload for which it was designed. These
workloads include virtualized environments, MLOps, machinelearning, conversational AI, GenAI Inference, GenAI model
tuning, NVIDIA Fleet Command, and OpenShift AI.55
As one example, the AI for Virtualized Environments
Validated Design combines VMware-enabled AI withNVIDIA AI Enterprise on Dell infrastructure, optimizing AI
in virtual settings.56 The Validated Design Guide includes
performance results showing ResNet model training proving
to customers that the design works and showing what kindof performance they could expect to see.57 These validations
provide customers value beyond simply listing hardwarethat work together by explaining concepts, recommending
configurations, and walking customers through considerations
and performance expectations.58
Supermicro does offer solutions on a use-case basis, but stops
short of the level of reference architecture we saw with theDell Validated Designs. Rather than recommend a purposebuilt solution for specific workloads, Supermicro organizes
its servers and GPUs into categories, such as AI inference
and training, HPC/AI, visualization and design, and more.59
In their brochures and datasheets, these categories consistof a few servers and GPUs they recommend as best suitedfor the task, several use cases, and lists of key technologies
at play and software suggestions.60 Unlike the Dell Validated
Designs, they do not appear to include network architecturesand performance or validation data. Supermicro also provides
several Reference Designs that offer a more detailed referencearchitecture for some AI solutions, such as a large-scale AI
training with liquid cooling solution brief Supermicro publishedwith NVIDIA.61 Customers may be able to find a more indepth reference architecture for a specific scenario, but at thetime of our research, we found only three: the liquid coolingarchitecture we previously mentioned, an AI workstationarchitecture, and a RedHat OpenShift architecture.62
Overall, we found that Dell Validated Designs covered more
AI workloads and offered more in-depth guidance than the
Supermicro offerings.

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February 2024 | 11

Management services and iDRAC
According to an April 2023 report by Principled Technologies, the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller(iDRAC) offers several advanced features over the Supermicro Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI),
particularly in automation, security, and configuration.63 Table 3 presents a comparison of Dell and Supermicro
management features from that report that shows how iDRAC could provide easier deployment, easier firmware
updating, and more security features than Supermicro IPMI. Note that some findings may have changed sinceoriginal publication.
Table 3: Summary of April 2023 Principled Technologies comparison between Dell and Supermicro management tools. Some findings may
have changed since publication. Source: Principled Technologies https://facts.pt/V5fDf06.

What’s different with Dellmanagement tools

How much better• Automated online updates with
iDRAC9, with scheduling options• OME allows for the creation ofcustom firmware repositories andcan update firmware of BIOS,
BMC, and other server components
without additional tools or agents• We set up automatic updates in
iDRAC in just 74 seconds• Supermicro IPMI has no automatic
update function available, so
admins must update manually• SSM supports only BIOS and BMC
firmware updates and requires SUM
to update other components• iDRAC9 offers MFA and dynamic
disabling of USB ports withno system downtime• OME offers both role-based
access control (RBAC) and scopebased access control (SBAC) torestrict device management toa subset of device groups• Supermicro IPMI has no MFA features• Supermicro IPMI requires asystem reboot and entering BIOS
configuration to disable USB ports• Supermicro SSM offers RBAC but
not the more restrictive SBAC

• Full, agentless lifecycle
management via OME to easemanagement and monitoring• SSM requires the SuperDoctor5 agent
for detailed local system health metrics
and Supermicro Update Manager (SUM)
to update additional components• Import a complete Dell server profile
in just 12 steps using iDRAC9• Robust BIOS configuration options
with iDRAC9 with 52 BIOS features andsupport for components configurationsuch as RAID NIC & iDRAC• Supermicro IPMI allowed us to saveand restore only the IPMI configuration
rather than the whole server profile• iDRAC9 has 52 BIOS features, while IPMI
offers no BIOS configuration options

More options for reporting
and analytics
iDRAC9 vs. Supermicro IPMIOME vs. Supermicro SSM• iDRAC9 offers telemetry streaming,
which lets users easily send serverdata to analytics tools such as Splunk• OME sends telemetry data directly
to CloudIQ for easier monitoring• IPMI offers only a SYSLOG featureadmins can use to send messages for
aggregation and eventual analysis• SSM has no cloud-based management
solution equivalent to Dell CloudIQ

More sustainability features
OME vs. Supermicro SSM• More metrics for monitoring in
OME Power Manager, including
carbon footprint data

• SSM has less robust utilization metrics
and no way to track carbon footprint

More ways to monitor
OME vs. Supermicro SSM• Manage Dell servers from anywhere
via the OpenManage mobile app• Monitor third-party devices with OME
using server IPs and credentials withsupport to import 3rd party SNMP MIBS

• SSM has no mobile app• SSM does not allow monitoring ofthird-party devices with server IPs

Easier firmware updates
iDRAC9 vs. Supermicro IPMIOME vs. Supermicro SSM

More security features
iDRAC9 vs. Supermicro IPMIOME vs. Supermicro SSM

Easier lifecycle management
OME vs. Supermicro SSM

Easier server deployment
iDRAC9 vs. Supermicro IPMI

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February 2024 | 12

Conclusion
When it comes to designing, implementing, managing, and maintaining AI solutions in your business, there aremany factors to consider. To help you invest wisely and get the most out of your AI solution, you may wish tolook for a vendor that can be more than a hardware supplier. Our research indicates that Dell offers services that
can help you as a partner throughout the entire journey, so consider investing with Dell as you dive into AI.

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This project was commissioned by Dell Technologies.

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