Storage News: Dell Rolls Out Storage Blade Arrays

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Here’s our review of some of today’s noteworthy links for the storage sector of the data center industry:

Dell launches EqualLogic storage blade. Dell announced it has begun shipping its first enterprise-class storage blade arrays that simplify and consolidate data centers by combining with Dell blade servers and networking switches inside a single blade chassis. Dell commissioned a study from Forrester Consulting that shows storing and managing data is viewed as complex, and there is a high demand for solutions that are simpler to manage and use more automation.  Dell EqualLogic PS-M4110 Blade Arrays provide customers all of the functionality and enterprise-class features of traditional EqualLogic arrays inside a Dell PowerEdge M1000e blade chassis. The blade arrays combine with Dell 11th or 12th generation Dell PowerEdge blade servers and Dell Force10 or PowerConnect networking, enabling customers to run an entire data center within a single, compact blade enclosure that can help streamline IT management and operations. “These research findings are in lock step with what our customers have been telling us and are a fundamental reason why Dell is focused on delivering all of the benefits of enterprise class storage without users needing a doctorate degree in storage to master our solutions,” said Darren Thomas, vice president and general manager, Dell Storage. “Dell leads the industry in embedding automation and ‘ease of use’ into our portfolio to improve storage simplicity and efficiency. Combine this focus with Dell’s development of broader, end-to-end data center solutions, and we’re in a unique position to help customers become more efficient, agile and responsive to the organizations they support.”

Virident names CEO and closes $26 Million funding.  Flash-based storage provider Virident announced that is has raised an additional $26 million in a Series D round of funding The company also announced the appointment of Mike Gustafson as CEO and a member of its Board of Directors. Former CEO and co-founder Kumar Ganapathy will remain with the company and work closely with the executive team on business strategy, new product development and strategic partnerships. The investment will be used to fuel the company’s rapid growth by expanding in the areas of sales and marketing as well as new software and solutions development to capitalize on the big market disruption caused by server-attached flash, which is leading to software-defined storage in datacenters. “The flash storage market is predicted to grow to $4 billion by 2015, and this investment only strengthens our conviction that Virident will become the primary industry provider of the fastest storage class memory solutions to the world’s leading enterprise datacenters,” said Sanjay Pichaiah, investment director at Mitsui Global Investment.

Panasas introduces ActiveStor 14.  Panasas  announced Panasas ActiveStor 14, a fully integrated parallel storage solution. Through its unique application of Solid State Drive (SSD) flash technology, ActiveStor 14 achieves a dramatic leap forward in small file performance without the prohibitive cost of SSD-only solutions. “As big data workloads become pervasive within the enterprise, a parallel architecture is a necessary weapon to address critical analysis in a timely manner in order to drive competitive advantage,” said Faye Pairman, president and CEO at Panasas. “ActiveStor 14 broadens the appeal of our fully integrated parallel file system appliances by supporting a diverse set of workloads and applications—all from a single scale-out NAS solution.”