Dell Advances in Unified Block and File Storage

At Dell Storage Forum, Dell Inc. announced solutions that continue to advance its Fluid Data architecture to help customers manage their data and protect business information.

The advancements include updates to the Dell Fluid File System for a common, enterprise-class distributed file system across the companys three primary storage solution families, a new Compellent platform that dynamically unifies block and file, a new version of its AppAssure backup and recovery software to address larger data sets, and a new entry-level Brocade 16GB FC switch to support next-generation applications.

"The Dell Fluid Data architecture is designed to manage the growth of our customers data, so they can manage the growth of their business," said Darren Thomas, VP and GM, Dell Storage. "We are delivering a new customer experience across a tightly integrated set of products and solutions with shared capabilities across our portfolio – driving up optimisation, driving out the cost of forced end of life, and driving forward the speed and flexibility required by IT."

Fluid File System Spans
Compellent, EqualLogic and PowerVault
Following the introduction of the Dell Fluid File System in 2011, the company unveiled the latest release of the Fluid File System with the new Compellent FS8600 NAS. The integration of the Dell Fluid File System within the Compellent architecture represents the final step in offering customers file capabilities across each of Dell’s primary storage platforms – Compellent, EqualLogic and PowerVault. This provides customers with a common, enterprise-class distributed file system featuring snapshots, replication and built-in data protection features, and the ability to manage file and block information on a single enterprise storage platform.

SAN and NAS Scale on a Single Compellent Platform
The next generation Compellent array, comprised of the SC8000 and FS8600, is designed to lower the TCO by managing a virtualized, scalable pool of disks to expand up and out across block and file without forklift upgrades. The new array includes new 2U, 6GB SAS enclosures that provide 12 3.5" or 24 2.5" disk drives per enclosure.

The Compellent SC8000 is based on the 64-bit Compellent Storage Center 6.0 OS and 12 generations of design experience for a resilient platform that scales to meet business and data growth.

As a single platform for both block and file data, the SC8000 helps eliminate the costs and complexity of supporting separate solutions. Additional savings may be achieved through SC8000 advancements that enable energy efficiency as well as the ability to operate at higher temperatures, supporting fresh air initiatives.

The SC8000 builds on the existing SC40 Compellent architecture that gives customers 99.999% availability across 26 million hours of continuous operation (Results based on January 2012 internal Dell testing with actual MTBF calculated from a run time total of 26 million+ hours – accumulated by 6724 systems -. Run time and availability impacting failures for a 6 month period from 8/2011 thru 1/2012. Estimated weighted average MTTR of 7.2 hours for 12 hour part SLA, 4.5 hours for 4 hour part SLA.. Based on high level hardware platform comparisons it is expected that the SC8000 will experience similar availability performance as Series 30/40. Actual SC8000 availability performance data will be available approximately 6 months post GA release.).

The new unified solution allows businesses to grow with a storage environment that provides greater agility for customers to expand their business and existing storage environment simultaneously.

The Compellent FS8600 delivers performance, scale-out file storage that integrates with Compellent automated tiering to enable SAN and NAS within a single solution. This helps provide performance and a low TCO across a single, scalable platform. The Compellent unified solution helps manage data growth and control costs by scaling up to one petabyte of automated tiered storage capacity within a single namespace.

The FS8600 is available in two options that support 8GB FC connections and a choice of 1 or 10GBE connectivity to the network. The Compellent solutions are protected by the Copilot support team, which maintains a more than 96% customer satisfaction rating (Results based on Dell survey, April 2012).   

Fluid File System to Updated EqualLogic and PowerVault
Dell also introduced the second generation of EqualLogic and PowerVault NAS solutions featuring Fluid File System – the EqualLogic FS7600 and FS7610 and the PowerVault NX3600 and NX3610.

The FS7600 (1GbE) and FS7610 (10GbE) systems integrate with new or existing EqualLogic PS Series environments with scale-out unified storage for 1GbE and 10GbE EqualLogic environments, and new support for asynchronous replication. File and block storage are managed through the EqualLogic Group Manager and can scale to 509TB within a single namespace.

The PowerVault NX3600 (1GbE) and NX3610 (10GbE) are second generation PowerVault NAS and unified storage systems that offer support for 10GbE SAN connectivity and expand the capabilities of the earlier NX3500. As with the NX3500, this NAS platform manages the file workload with files and file metadata stored on MD iSCSI arrays, leveraging a single pool of disk capacity for block and file data. One PowerVault NX3600 system can scale to 576TB raw capacity. A dual-NX3610 solution can scale across two appliances to support up to 1PB capacity within a single namespace.

Improving Data Availability
and Recovery with AppAssure 5
Less than four months after its AppAssure acquisition, Dell introduced AppAssure 5 to help customers continuously protect business information and move and recover data anywhere with high levels of scale, speed and efficiency.

New AppAssure capabilities include greater scalability and performance using a newly-architected object based data repository to backup and protect larger data sets as well as big data applications. The solution also uses built-in, block-level de-duplication and compression across data sets to automatically reduce the storage capacity required for backups and decreases WAN bandwidth requirements for replication by only transmitting optimised data. Additional support for Linux and localised language support is expected later this year.

AppAssure goes beyond traditional backup solutions by leveraging snapshot and replication technologies that allow the software to provide incremental backups that provide efficient use of network and storage resources while providing quick recovery.

Unlike legacy backup products, AppAssure images the entire software stack, protecting the entire application – not just the files. Snapshots can be taken every five minutes and replicated to virtual, physical or cloud environments, enabling systems and data to potentially be brought back online in minutes in any location. If an application or server fails, the entire application can be started up on a standby environment or run real time during a data recovery scenario. It also automatically tests and verifies backup integrity daily to validate and ensure complete recoverability.

Brocade 16GB FC Switch   
Dell is introducing the Brocade DCX 6505, a new entry-level 16GB FC switch to complement the mid-range Brocade 6510 and the Brocade 8510 SAN backbone. Certified for Dell Compellent arrays, the series helps simplify scale-out network design to reduce network complexity, management, and costs, while helping maximise overall port density and space utilisation through massive consolidation of legacy SANs.

By combining the Dell Fluid Data architecture with Brocade’s 16GB FC infrastructure, Compellent customers can help improve the flexibility, reliability and simplicity of their SAN environments to support next-generation applications and services within virtualized, cloud-optimised environments.

Availability:

• The Compellent FS8600, EqualLogic FS7600 and FS7610, and PowerVault NX3600 and NX3610 will be available in the second half of this year.
• The Dell Compellent SC8000 will be available worldwide this month.
• AppAssure 5 is available in English language beginning today.
• The Brocade DCS 6505 will be available this month.