Dell Advances End-to-End Storage Portfolio

In Paris Thursday Dell unveiled a series of end-to-end storage portfolio updates during its EMEA Storage Forum customer and partner event.

A new 6.3 version of Compellent Storage Center array software offers enhanced scalability and performance for Dell Compellent arrays. With the new release Storage Center 6.3 can increase performance over previous versions and provide end-to-end 16Gb Fibre Channel capability - from server to switch to storage.

Dell partner QLogic (QLGC) announced that its 2600 Series Fibre Channel adapters will be used as a part of Dell solutions to deliver end-to-end 16Gb Fibre Channel storage area networks. The Qlogic 2600 will be available in both mezzanine and standard PCIe formats, and will provide 16Gb connectivity for 12th generation Dell PowerEdge rack, tower and blade servers.

Brocade (BRCD) announced availability of the Brocade M6505 16 Gbps FC embedded SAN I/O module by Dell, which enables Dell PowerEdge M1000e Blade Enclosures to directly connect to the higher bandwidth-capable Compellent storage arrays. It is configurable in 12 or 24 ports and supports 4, 8 or 16 Gbps speeds. It complements other members of the Brocade SAN family offered by Dell, which includes the Brocade 6510 Switch, configurable between 24 and 48 ports, and the Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone, available in 4- and 8-slot configurations.

Additional enterprise enhancements in Storage Center 6.3 include synchronous replication enhancements, expanded Microsoft integration with Windows Server 2012 support, enhanced security, improved federal government security by support USGv6/IPv6 requirements, and the ability to intelligently alert and recommend replacement of volumes across multiple arrays based on proactive performance and capacity monitoring.

“The nature of IT and what a data center should do for an organization is changing rapidly as customers face multiple and often competing models of how technology is delivered — from client to cloud to converged,” said Darren Thomas, vice president and general manager, Dell Storage. “Dell is best positioned with an end-to-end storage architecture that can optimize data at every point in its lifecycle through intelligence and automation. Dell’s Fluid Data Architecture enables new capabilities that power the data center, so customers can drive real business results.”

Data Protection portfolio updates

Dell's growing data protection portfolio has added new appliances and software. The Dell PowerVault DL4000 targets small to medium enterprises and remote offices as a backup appliance based on Dell AppAssure software. The 1U turnkey appliance offers 5.5 terabytes of internal storage and features snapshot, replication, de-duplication and compression software. The Quest NetVault Backup 9.0 software integrates with NetVault Extended Architecture (NetVault XA), featuring a new graphical user interface and a set of shared services to unite multiple Quest data protection technologies for simpler management. A new PowerVault DL2300 enterprise-class data protection appliance combines Dell PowerEdge 12th generation servers with CommVault Simpana 9 modern data protection software to offer large enterprises with data backup, recovery, replication, archiving and de-duplication for both physical and virtual servers in one easy-to-set-up, pre-tested solution.

Dell World 2012 kicks off in Austin, Texas on December 11, with keynotes from Michael Dell and President Bill Clinton.