Dell Launches Dynamic Storage System to Help Growing Businesses Handle the Data Deluge

Storage is the Next Linchpin in Company's Strategy of Simplifying IT

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Exponential data growth affects businesses of all sizes, but Dell CEO Michael Dell believes the IT industry has under-served small and medium-sized business customers in meeting their storage needs.

Speaking at an SMB customer town hall today, Mr. Dell said, "Growing businesses are quickly reaching a breaking point in their ability to store and manage all this data being created. Historically, the industry has presented SMBs with two options for storage: either buy a rudimentary storage solution that lacks capacity and basic software or buy a 'de-featured' product originally designed for large businesses. So it either doesn't do enough, or it costs too much. We will change that."

Mr. Dell introduced the company's newest storage area network (SAN) array, the MD3000i, a simplified storage consolidation solution designed specifically for SMB customers.

"We are committed to simplifying IT for our customers and changing the economics of storage," he explained. "The MD3000i is a perfect example of how we drive out costs, drive up functionality, and drive industry adoption of technologies and standards to meet customer needs."

According to Steve Duplessie, senior analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group, "The storage industry always reacts to new 'lower-end' market opportunities by taking their high-cost products and dumbing them down so they can reach a lower price point. They do this to protect their high-end customer who pays a premium for high-end function, but the end result is always disappointing to the new market."

SMB Customer Pain Points

Data growth continues unabated, yet research shows less than 20 percent of small businesses and less than one-third of medium-sized businesses use advanced storage technologies such as SANs(a). While 41 percent of small businesses say expanding storage capacity is a top priority for the next 12 months(a), Fibre Channel SANs are seen as too costly, too complex, and require special skills that many SMBs do not have.

Delivering Simplicity and Performance to SMB Storage

The Dell MD3000i is an easy-to-use, expandable iSCSI SAN array leveraging the modularity and availability of the Dell Modular Disk series. It provides a simplified solution -- from installation to ongoing maintenance and management to powerful performance and the ability to grow as a business grows.

"iSCSI is a breakthrough technology revolutionizing storage for SMBs," said Darren Thomas, vice president and general manager, Dell Storage. "The MD3000i delivers features that a few years ago would have only been found on systems costing five to 10 times more. Complexity is the bane of the SMB customer's existence, and iSCSI cuts right through it."

    MD3000i - Product Details

    Simplified Installation and Management

    --  Task based configuration and management software.

    --  Shares same hard drives as Dell PowerEdge servers so customers
        only need to stock and order one type of drive.

    --  Snapshot and virtual disk copy capabilities to support hourly,
        real time backups.

    --  Does not require specialized IT skills to install.

    Simplified Networking with iSCSI

    --  Runs over existing Ethernet networks by delivering storage
        (SCSI) commands over IP networks -- facilitating low-cost SAN
        deployments.

    --  No special equipment required (Fibre Channel, NICs).

    --  iSCSI provides lower TCO compared to Fibre Channel with
        comparable performance on many applications.

    --  Demystifies virtualization for SMBs -- makes it as easy to
        connect shared storage to a virtual machine as it is to a
        physical machine.

    Simplified Availability and Flexibility

    --  Supports SAS or SATA Hard Disk Drives(b).

    --  Dual Active/Active RAID controllers.

    --  Dual 1Gb Ethernet host ports/controller.

    --  Redundant power and fans.

    --  Mirrored cache w/72 hours of battery backup.

    --  Supports up to 16 redundant servers and up to 18TB of data
        across 45 drives.

    --  Supports Microsoft(R) Windows(TM) and Linux operating systems.

    --  Available in single controller and dual controller models.

    Simplified Pricing

    --  Equipped with full management capabilities as a standard
        feature of the array.

    --  No hidden licensing charges for adding capacity.

    Meeting Customers' Needs

Tellurian Networks, a Dell PowerVault MD3000i beta tester, is a nationwide provider of electronic practice management and medical records hosting solutions. Tellurian has more than ten thousand clients around the world to which it provides Internet connectivity, email hosting, spam protection, web hosting, co-location and managed hosting services. "For us, the snapshot capability was one of the key selling items," said Robert Boyle, CEO, Tellurian Networks. "We were pleasantly surprised to find such a high-end capability in an iSCSI-based system."

"With the Dell PowerVault(TM) MD3000i system, we can give the college's many small departmental environments a quantum leap in storage reliability, without having to invest in a large, expensive Fibre Channel infrastructure," said Jeff Wolfe, IT director, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Pennsylvania State University.

"At Dell, our goal is to provide the SMB customer with a complete iSCSI-based infrastructure. This includes our PowerEdge servers, our PowerConnect network switches and PowerVault storage options that are all designed specifically for iSCSI. This solution makes it easier for our customers to get and grow the capacity they need," said Thomas.

Pricing and Availability

Available immediately on a global basis, a richly configured MD3000i supporting up to 16 hosts, snapshot and volume-copy software capabilities and no penalty for expansion is available for under $10,000 (USD), nearly 40 percent less than a comparably configured system.(1) For additional information, please visit www.dell.com/MD3000i.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell is a leading global systems and services company and No. 34 on the Fortune 500. For more information, visit www.dell.com, or to communicate directly with Dell via a variety of online channels, go to www.dell.com/conversations. To get Dell news direct, visit www.dell.com/RSS.

(1) Pricing, specifications, availability, and terms of offers may change without notice. Taxes, fees, shipping, handling and any applicable restocking charges are extra, and vary. U.S. new purchases only. Dell cannot be responsible for pricing or other errors, and reserves the right to cancel orders arising from such errors.

    Dell, PowerVault and the Dell logo are trademarks of Dell Inc.

Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

Microsoft, Windows and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

For hard drives, GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating environment and will be less.

(a) IDC, US SMB Storage 2006: The Move to More Advanced Features, March 2006

(b) SATA capability available Q42007

Source: Dell Inc.

Released September 10, 2007