Dell forges into the SMB storage space

Storage in the Enterprise This newsletter is sponsored by Emerson Network Power Enhance Data Center Operating Efficiency Data center professionals continue to be squeezed as they seek to optimize operational readiness, availability, and risk management. Learn ways to enhance your data center's efficiency through virtualization, digital system controls and emerging monitoring capabilities that has a potential net result of reducing your operating expenses on the order of 20% to 30% or more. Click here now. Network World's Storage in the Enterprise Newsletter, 09/18/07 Dell forges into the SMB storage space By Deni Connor Dell forged further into the SMB storage space last week with the announcement of an iSCSI storage array. The company, which competes with IBM and HP for the SMB market, introduced the Dell PowerVault MD3000i SAN array, a storage array that starts at a price most SMBs can afford – $7,000. Dell’s newest array uses the iSCSI networking protocol, which makes it possible to transport block-level storage-area networking data over the Gigabit Ethernet network. Because many SMBs don’t have dedicated IT staff, use of iSCSI, which runs on top of Gigabit Ethernet, makes installing, configuring and managing the array easy and familiar for those organizations. Network World Storage Buyer's Guide If you're in the market for anything from a tape library to an on-line backup service to a complete, drop-it-in-place SAN Solution, check out this Buyer's Guide with close to 200 products divided among specific, storage market segments. Click here to research products now! The MD3000i features as much as 18TB of storage capacity and has redundant active/active controllers, power supplies and fans. The array uses serial-attached SCSI (SAS) disks and includes snapshot and volume copy software, features common in storage arrays aimed at larger businesses. Additionally the Dell PowerVault MD3000i can connect to as many as 16 host computers. Its capacity can be expanded by adding PowerVault MD1000 expansion enclosures, for a total capacity of 45 10,000 or 15,000 RPM SAS disk drives. The MD3000i comes in two models – a standard edition and a high availability edition. The standard edition has a single controller and two 1Gbit Ethernet ports for attachment to the network. The high availability edition has dual controllers and two 1Gbit Ethernet ports per controller. The software that ships with the MD3000i includes setup wizards that simplify installation and configuration. The Modular Disk Storage Manager software also ships with the MD3000i, along with a Java-based user interface. Multipathing software provides for establishing redundant data paths between host computers and storage. Optional software includes Virtual Disk Snapshots, which supports as many as four snapshots per virtual disk and 128 snapshots per system, and Virtual Disk Copy, which supports as many as eight simultaneous virtual disk copies. The MD3000i competes with Dell’s own Dell/EMC AX150i, which scales to 9TB and also supports Fibre Channel as well as iSCSI. The AX150i also has replication capability for disaster recovery.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Deni Connor is senior editor for Network World magazine covering storage, archiving and compliance, IT in healthcare, Novell and data center-related issues. E-mail Deni.   This newsletter is sponsored by Emerson Network Power Enhance Data Center Operating Efficiency Data center professionals continue to be squeezed as they seek to optimize operational readiness, availability, and risk management. Learn ways to enhance your data center's efficiency through virtualization, digital system controls and emerging monitoring capabilities that has a potential net result of reducing your operating expenses on the order of 20% to 30% or more. Click here now. ARCHIVE Archive of the Storage in the Enterprise Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007