Dell launches new generation of Dell EqualLogic storage solutions

The company also released details of new integration across its storage portfolio with the forthcoming VMware vSphere^® 5 virtualisation and cloud infrastructure platform.

Today’s announcements represent another milestone in the continued evolution of Dell Fluid Data solutions, designed to help customers more effectively manage valuable business information in virtualised data centers.

"Organisations of all sizes continue to place a priority on boosting IT asset efficiency while improving IT responsiveness to business pressures. Ever greater exploitation of virtualisation is a key element in these efforts, and the deployment of flexible and intelligent storage systems is frequently the key to successful efforts," said Richard Villars, vice president of storage and IT Strategies at IDC.

"Dell's continued investment in advanced yet cost effective storage solutions along with a continued expansion of its enterprise service and solutions organisation, puts the company in a strong position to help IT organisations get the most from their data centers, today, and in the future."

In support of customers’ growing storage demands, Dell introduced the EqualLogic PS6100 and PS4100 family of virtualised, IP-based storage offerings. Together with new Dell EqualLogic firmware version 5.1, Dell offers customers its next generation of EqualLogic storage solutions that seamlessly integrate into existing environments without downtime or a major overhaul. This helps customers to focus on managing their storage and not the manual process of upgrading infrastructure.

This launch marks the introduction of 2.5-inch drive support for the EqualLogic product line, providing greater density that enables users to store more in less space. Additionally, customers can gain up to 60 per cent performance improvement on typical workloads with the EqualLogic PS Series compared to the previous generation EqualLogic arrays.

EqualLogic PS Series arrays, regardless of generation, work together to automatically manage data, load balance across all resources, and expand to meet growing storage needs. Dell provides these capabilities without requiring customers to “rip and replace” their storage environment during each upgrade cycle as they would with other vendors.

“The new EqualLogic capabilities mark a significant next step in the evolution of the Dell Fluid Data architecture and extend Dell’s leadership in virtualised IP-based storage solutions that are easy to manage,” said Darren Thomas, vice president and general manager, Dell Enterprise Storage. “The new storage arrays and virtualization tools can help our customers run highly optimized and efficient data centers by automating configuration and improving performance without forcing forklift upgrades.”