Huh. So there is a power distribution midplane and one for the storage. So there's 2 smaller things to worry about instead of one - any guesses as to whether they made it easier to get to compared to the current "unrack-teardown-and-swap" midplane setup on the M1000e enclosures? Because if it requires another derack-and-swap, then that renders the whole exercise rather moot.
The interconnect is now theoretically upgradeable by swapping out the interconnect switch, huh. Wonder if that makes the enclosure more expensive on the initial spend, and how much of a limiting factor is the actual electrical/data connectivity in the chassis wiring that switch to the blades...
Anyone have access to the service manual for the PowerEdge MX chassis? I kinda want to take a look at the service procedures and see how the rank-and-file will think about it...
The difference is Dell (and technology in general's) core focus does not use a mid-plane. Composable environments are leveraging File based, and Object based storage technologies. Fiber and SAS are still needed to support and be usable in a great number of today's infrastructures, but FC has remained relatively flat, or decreasing in most markets, while file-based NAS Services continue to climb steadily in offerings. Because NAS and Object based storage gets to ride the wave of aggressive growth in the Ethernet Market, it gets to take advantage of Converged Infrastructure and speeds that completely overshadow even the most expensive of FC Standards. Combined with the port-based licensing model still common in the Block realm, it gets more and more difficult to recommend these block based storage methodologies.
Power Planes are almost always going to be a SPOF. I'm not aware of a design out there where it isn't. But a Power plane failing is also extremely rare (I've read about it, but I've never seen one happen).
The Storage mid-plane could fail, and will also limit upgradeability, but this core of this design is not based around that, but instead being able to scale the Ethernet, RoCE, and Gen-Z standards.