Dell delivers ‘next-generation’ storage and networking

Dell has announced new enterprise technology to help customers architect new data centers and modernise campus networks, while meeting increasing IT performance and network access demands. The new solutions include the highest-performing Dell EqualLogic storage solutions to date and higher-speed wireless and simplified campus networking switches. The new products announced today help customers architect and build future-ready data centers which address customer expectations for instant access to information no matter if they are in the office or working remotely.
New Dell EqualLogic releases include the PS6210 storage arrays, which extend Dell’s ability to deliver flash at the price of disk solutions for customers seeking both faster performance and higher cost efficiency for their data-intensive virtual environments. The new suite of Dell Networking campus solutions enables customers to rapidly deploy and scale campus networks and maximise efficiency with visibility into the network environment from a single console. The networking solutions also secure the devices and information at the network edge, leverage existing investments, and can reduce capital expenses by more than 50 percent. Dell also unveiled new systems management capabilities for Dell OpenManage, including intelligent auto-configuration of servers, which are infrastructure-aware, to further simplify IT management tasks, deliver optimal workload and server performance, and to provide additional time and cost-savings to customers.

“Dell continues to be an increasingly important partner for enterprises of all sizes as we deliver innovative products to help customers solve problems in new ways,” said Marius Haas, chief commercial officer and president, Dell Enterprise Solutions. “Today’s announcements further redefine data center economics with technology that provides unsurpassed product functionality and lower total cost of ownership to power modern workloads through storage and networking innovation. Dell’s approach offers intelligent solutions that prepare customers with a future-ready data center built on a scalable architecture to support their data center growth.”

New Dell Storage Platform Offers up to Three Times Performance Improvement
The new generation of industry-leading Dell EqualLogic storage technologies allows customers to scale from small environments to large data centers while addressing their needs for enterprise-class storage that is easy to manage and optimised for highly-virtualized environments. The simplicity and virtualization support designed into EqualLogic has helped the company remain the overall market leader of iSCSI-based storage for more than the past five years, according to IDC.6 Dell storage customers can benefit from offerings announced today that seamlessly integrate into existing environments without requiring downtime or a storage overhaul:
· Dell EqualLogic PS6210 Series arrays – With six models, including all-flash, hybrid and all-HDD options, the new arrays offer increased throughput, up to three times higher performance and four times the memory of prior generations with a faster, more powerful storage controller. New flash-enabled arrays can support 2.4 times the virtual desktops7 and double the OLTP database workload performance with half the latency of prior-generation arrays.8 The scale-out architecture enables organisations to minimize I/O bottlenecks and address growing workloads with flash-enabled SANs that can achieve more than 1.2 million IOPS with less than two millisecond latency.9
· Dell EqualLogic Array Software 7.0 – Dell continues to simplify storage management, accelerating customers’ virtualization efforts by streamlining ongoing administration with new policy-based access controls and an improved user interface, available, like all EqualLogic software, at no additional charge for customers with active support contracts. Dell makes major technology transitions easy to adopt, by offering, for example, a new 64-bit software version for new arrays that works seamlessly with a 32-bit version for older arrays.
· Dell EqualLogic SAN Headquarters 3.0 – Dell’s SAN monitoring software provides in-depth reporting and analysis and robust performance and event monitoring across multiple EqualLogic groups. The new release includes Array Software 7.0 features support and Dell SupportAssist enhancements that improve Dell’s customer support with expanded automated support case creation and new case tracking.
· Dell Fluid File System (FluidFS) v3 on EqualLogic FS7610/7600 – Dell’s latest file system software decreases the capacity needed to store common enterprise file data by up to 48 percent by deduplicating and compressing redundant data when no longer needed.10 FluidFS v3 offers expanded protocol support and more third-party certifications, growing the ecosystem of industry-specific supported solutions, including leading healthcare picture archiving and communications system (PACS) vendors.

The new generation of EqualLogic storage extends Dell’s cost competitive all-flash offerings on the heels of Dell being recognised as the overall preferred vendor for flash-based enterprise solutions among IT leaders globally, according to independent research from ITIC and Storage Strategies NOW.11 The new arrays unlock the power of flash, allowing customers to achieve up to 3 times the IOPS performance compared to the previous generation of flash-enabled arrays. 1 One EqualLogic PS6210 all-flash array can provide higher performance and capacity compared with four all-15K disk arrays while delivering 64 percent lower latency, 75 percent less rack space and 11 percent lower total cost.

Dell Networking Introduces New Campus Solutions to Connect the Modern Workforce
Just as network architectures in the data center are transforming to accommodate new workloads, applications and delivery models, so too are campus network architectures. Rising end-user expectations for a rich multimedia experience, increased mobility, bring-your-own-device (BYOD), and access to cloud services are often incompatible with previous-generation campus network architectures. Most current campus network designs were never intended to provide today’s “everywhere” wireless access. As Bob Laliberte, Senior Analyst for Enterprise Strategy Group, notes, ESG research indicates that the majority of respondents (60 percent) from a recent campus network survey were actively moving to a 10GbE core campus network to meet these new demands.

Dell Networking W-Series - Modernise the Wireless Edge with Wired-Like Speeds
Dell W-Series Gigabit Wireless Access Points deliver unprecedented data rates up to 1.3 Gigabits per second (Gbps) for end-to-end wireless infrastructure solutions utilising the 802.11ac standard. Unlike other solutions that require an add-on module, these new access points were designed to simplify .ac wireless implementations.
· The new Dell W-AP224/225 are the first purpose-built 802.11ac enterprise access points shipping in the market, allowing customers today to deploy the highest performing Gigabit wireless access points available - up to three times faster than 802.11n access points.
· Unique ClientMatch™ technology the W-AP224/225 access points ensure predictable Wi-Fi performance.
· Dell 220 series enterprise access points offer centralised configuration, data encryption, policy enforcement and network services, as well as distributed and centralised traffic forwarding.

Dell Networking N-Series - Grow as Needs Change
Many customer campus networks still employ 10/100Mbps speeds at the edge and 1GbE in the core. The Dell Networking N-Series is a family of energy efficient, cost-effective 1GbE and 10GbE switches designed for modernising and scaling campus network infrastructures with a comprehensive enterprise-class feature set.
· New enterprise-class operating system redefines simplicity using a familiar command-line and user interface which means configuration and processing is identical across the N-Series switch families, allowing for consistent configurations, management, and troubleshooting.
· Achieve high availability and full bandwidth utilisation with multi-chassis link aggregation and support firmware upgrades without taking the network offline.
· For greater interoperability in multivendor networks, all N-Series switches offer the latest open standard protocols and include technology to interface with Cisco protocols.

Dell Networking C-Series - Manage Expansion with Optimum Uptime for the Enterprise
The Dell Networking C-Series delivers a robust, highly-available foundation with versatile, high performance modular switches for demanding enterprise and end-user environments. The Dell Networking C-Series are modular, fully-redundant 1/10/40 GbE switches designed with flexible connectivity, dependable operation and proven software for enterprises, mid-market, and data center environments. Customers can achieve high-performance aggregation and back-end infrastructure for end-user mobility, reducing bottlenecks and congestion with high density 10GbE and 40GbE operation.
· Readily support unified communication and collaboration and virtual desktop infrastructure across a global workforce with scalable user density and performance on-demand.
· Mix-and-match easily and pay-as-you-grow with flexible Ethernet expansion and deployment options, to deliver agile functionality and operate efficiently.

Dell OpenManage Delivers Advanced Automation to Optimise Infrastructure and Workloads
IT is under constant pressure to optimise infrastructure for the workloads that matter most to the business, monitor and manage the full stack of hardware within their environment, decrease deployment time and simplify operational tasks. With enhancements to Dell’s industry-acclaimed agent-free embedded server management technology, iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller, customers can now automate server deployments and configurations for optimal workload performance and availability. The new automation features simplify systems management operations for environments of any scale – from one server to thousands – allowing administrators to decrease time from setup to production by more than 90 percent.