Dell announces new networking and storage solutions

By Digital News Asia April 15, 2014

Z9500 Ethernet fabric switch for scale-out data centre and cloud workload designs
Enters midrange fibre channel storage market with new storage arrays for APAC

Dell announces new networking and storage solutions DELL Inc has announced new networking solutions, as well as mid-tier storage arrays for the Asia Pacific region.

The new networking solutions would help customers deliver faster results, maximise efficiency and modernise and transform operations in scale-out and cloud-based environments, the company said in a statement.

The new products include the Dell Networking Z9500 (pic), an energy-efficient, highest density per rack unit, and the only pay-as-you grow 10/40 GbE data centre core switch available today, Dell claimed.

The new Active Fabric Controller and efforts to accelerate Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) solutions into the sector through industry consortiums and collaboration with industry partners such as Red Hat also can help customers transform and modernise data centre infrastructures, it said.

Dell said it is helping customers upgrade data centre network architectures to meet new demands imposed by virtualisation, changing traffic patterns, and the nature of today’s workload needs including cloud-based and ‘as-a-service’ offerings.

By using standards-based technologies, Dell delivers architectures that help advance legacy systems, prevent vendor lock-in penalties, and future proof infrastructure for an easier transition to software-defined networking (SDN), cloud-based services and emerging technology approaches such as NFV, the company added.

The Dell Networking Z9500 is ideal for workloads such as Web 2.0, high performance computing and virtualisation.

The company also announced the Dell Active Fabric Controller, a purpose-built SDN platform designed to simply and securely configure and deploy networking functionality in cloud and XaaS environments.

It is targeted at enterprise OpenStack deployments and as an optional component of Dell OpenStack-Powered cloud solutions.

The Dell Networking Z9500 Fabric Switch is available in North America in April and worldwide in June. The Dell Active Fabric Controller is available worldwide in the second quarter of 2014.

New storage arrays

Dell also unveiled a brand new series of full-featured, enterprise storage arrays designed for mid-sized fibre channel deployments.

Available first in the Asia Pacific region and planned globally later in 2014, the new Dell Storage SC4000 Series (pic above) arrays, is an all-flash solution that can cost up to 76% less than competing pure flash arrays, the company said.

“The Dell Storage SC4000 Series represents the latest example of Dell redefining the economics of enterprise storage and a huge opportunity for our customers, channel partners and Dell,” said Alan Atkinson, vice president and general manager, Dell Storage.

“Dell now can offer enterprise-class, fibre-channel arrays in a high-performing, affordable solution designed for mid-sized deployments. These arrays offer the advanced capabilities of larger-scale enterprise storage to help medium-sized organisations become more competitive.”

In 2014 and 2015, mid-tier, fibre channel-networked storage arrays and networked attached storage are expected to represent an estimated US$5.5 billion market worldwide, according to IDC.

Additionally, the vast majority of the Asia Pacific region’s mid-tier storage array sales this year are estimated to be fibre channel-networked (79%), compared to 39% in North America.

With the new Dell Storage arrays launching first in Asia-Pacific countries, Dell said it can help support the storage needs of the region while also opening new doors for business growth.

The new Dell Storage SC4000 Series arrays will debut with the Dell Storage SC4020, a 2U, 24-drive storage area network (SAN) based on Dell Compellent Storage Center software. It will roll out in Asia Pacific in May, with worldwide availability planned for later this year.

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