Dell Redefines the Economics of Enterprise Storage, Unveiling New Mid-Tier Storage Arrays for Asia-Pacific Region

• Dell enters the mid-range fibre channel storage market with full-featured, enterprise storage arrays first launched throughout the Asia-Pacific region
• All-flash and hybrid array options offer enterprise-class performance for mid-tier deployments with all-flash solution costing up to 76 percent less than competing arrays1
• Dell extends innovative offer of all-flash performance for the price of hard disks to a new class of storage arrays2
• New arrays, designed to support various workload demands, can host up to 10,000 Microsoft Exchange user mailboxes in a single 2U SAN3

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 15, 2014 — Dell today announced in Malaysia it is seizing a new market opportunity with the unveiling of 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 arrays demonstrate Dell’s continued innovation to bring full-featured, enterprise-class storage to cost-efficient, high-performing, smaller-scale solutions.

The new storage array series, with an all-flash solution that can cost up to 76 percent less than competing pure flash arrays1, is the latest addition to Dell’s customer-driven enterprise data center portfolio of purpose-built solutions designed to make IT more efficient and practical.

(From L to R) - Sumir Bhatia, Enterprise Solutions Director, Dell South Asia; KT Ong, GM, Consumer & Commercial Business, Dell Malaysia; William Tan, Country Leader, Enterprise, Dell Malaysia.

“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 KT Ong, general manager, Consumer and Commercial Business, Dell Malaysia. “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 organizations become more competitive, while enabling Dell to address an entirely new storage market segment with our world class solutions and support.”

In 2014 and 2015, mid-tier, fibre channel-networked storage arrays and networked attached storage are expected to represent an estimated $5.5 billion market worldwide4, an opportunity previously untapped by full-featured Dell Storage technology. 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 percent), compared to 39 percent in North America.4 With the new Dell Storage arrays launching first in Asia-Pacific countries, Dell can help support the storage needs of the region while also opening new doors for business growth.

New Dell Storage Arrays Bring Large-Scale, Enterprise-Class Features to Smaller Deployments
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. The arrays are designed to offer the same advanced capabilities as larger SANs in a solution sized and priced for mid-sized deployments. Launching with fibre channel connectivity, the new arrays complement the Dell EqualLogic iSCSI-based solutions and enable Dell to offer full-featured arrays that address both networking demands for mid-sized storage needs.

The new Dell Storage SC4020, which can scale to 408 terabytes of raw capacity, supports a wide range of workloads for organizations across all industries and sizes seeking a high-performing, mid-sized SAN entry point or a remote or branch office storage solution. For example, the Dell Storage SC4020 can host up to 10,000 Microsoft Exchange 2013 user mailboxes in a single 2U SAN with 24 hard disk drives, and, with only 12 drives, the same 2U SAN can achieve up to 129,000 Oracle database workload IOPS (input-output operations per second) with less than one millisecond latency.3

The new arrays offer interoperability with proven Dell Compellent storage solutions and the same ability to intelligently tier data across traditional rotating drives, write-optimized flash (SLC), and read-optimized flash (MLC) drives. Users can achieve all-flash performance for the price of 15K disk technology2 by tiering between flash drive types, thereby reducing total storage costs and gaining from all-flash performance to support applications, such as OLTP database workloads, where previously all-flash storage could have been cost prohibitive.

The Dell Storage SC4020 provides an excellent replication partner for Dell Compellent SC8000 arrays, allowing customers to seamlessly connect and manage arrays together with a single, centralized management interface that can help simplify operations and reduce total cost of ownership. The Dell Storage SC4000 Series also offers customers:

• Unprecedented value with a highly efficient SAN and compact size, making it ideal for mid-sized needs or remote/branch office deployments 
• Enterprise-class performance with dual controller capability and SAN optimized for all-flash or hybrid SSD/HDD configurations
• Flexible networking with fibre channel connectivity and iSCSI support available for replication
• Best-in-class intelligence with advanced levels of automation and control to auto-tune the customer’s storage environment
• Advanced software capabilities such as automated tiering, replication, thin provisioning, snapshots and centralized management for multiple local and remote SANs
• Perpetual software licensing that enables customers to pay only once for software features, even across hardware upgrades 
• Unified storage with the ability to manage both block and file storage, with the Dell Fluid File System, from a single management console
• World class Dell Copilot support services that provide a combination of centralized support and 24x7 active system monitoring to help improve system performance and stability

Availability:
The Dell Storage SC4000 Series will debut with the Dell Storage SC4020 throughout the Asia-Pacific region in May 2014. Worldwide availability is planned for later this year.