As a follow-up to my blog Microsoft SQL Server Reference Architecture and Appliances, Dell recently announced the future availability of Dell Quickstart Data Warehouse Appliance based on SQL Server 2012.  Right now only HP has a Business Data Warehouse appliance (BDW).  Basically these are pre-built appliances for data warehouses up to 5 TB based which are Fast Track Data Warehouse compliant.  HP is based on Fast Track 3.0 and Dell will be based on the upcoming Fast Track 2012.  HP has SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Data Warehouse candidate reference architectures with plans to expand the portfolio of SQL Server 2012 configurations in the future.

It’s good to see other companies besides HP creating these appliances, and hopefully others will follow suite.

UPDATE 7/11/2012: This has been released.  See the press release, Dell info, datasheet, and SQL Server Team Blog.  The Dell Quickstart Data Warehouse Appliance 1000 combines Dell’s PowerEdge™ 12th generation servers, Microsoft’s SQL Server® 2012 Data Warehouse Edition, Dell Boomi® cloud-based data integration software and Dell’s world-class services in a single package.