This year is the 10-year anniversary of both iSCSI and 10GbE technology, and the team here at Dell Storage is bringing 10 new Dell™ EqualLogic™ iSCSI SAN 10GbE arrays to the marketplace! I’d say that is a “perfect 10” in style for marking these two significant events in high-tech history. (For more information on today’s announcement and how Dell is delivering the power to do more faster with PowerEdge™ Servers, Force10™ networking, and EqualLogic storage, visit www.Dell.com/DoMoreIT.)
The iSCSI specification was finalized by The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in August of 2002 and Dell EqualLogic has emerged as the leader in the iSCSI SAN marketplace with the PS Series of storage arrays. When 10GbE technology standards were published by the IEEE in 2002, it was a “solution looking for a problem” according to Gary Gumanow, Dell EqualLogic Product Manager. (Check out what else Gary has to say in this video that features our new Dell™ EqualLogic™ PS6110 and PS4110 Series iSCSI SAN arrays.)
Many organizations—government, healthcare, and companies using bandwidth-intensive applications such as streaming video and data warehousing—need to push huge amounts of data quickly. At Dell, we’re building storage solutions around the Fluid Data™ architecture, and the PS6110 and PS4110 Series iSCSI SAN 10GbE arrays are prime examples of Dell Storage innovation—moving the right data to the right place at the right time for the right cost.
In August 2011, we were excited to bring you the PS6100 and PS4100 Series arrays. These 1GbE iSCSI arrays offered an exceptional level of capacity in a dense footprint. Now, you can get this capacity and density with the advantage of a whopping 10GbE pipe as well as the flexibility to use either traditional SFP+ cabling or cost-effective 10GBASE-T (copper) cabling—ensuring you can best leverage your existing resources. In fact, Dell EqualLogic PS6110 arrays can provide up to 69% higher performance than the previous generation 10GbE arrays.[1]
When you invest in equipment, we know you want the best value for your long-term needs—storage that grows with you and meets your needs not just today, but into the future. That is why we remain committed to the concept of growing your enterprise with no rip-and-replace requirements or forklift upgrades. Once you update your older 10GbE EqualLogic arrays to the new EqualLogic firmware version 5.2, you can combine these new arrays into the same pools as the older arrays. And, with EqualLogic firmware version 5.2 you get all of the incremental improvements that have been introduced with version 5.1 and earlier, including iSCSI over Data Center Bridging (DCB). Dell EqualLogic was the first to market with an end-to-end iSCSI over DCB solution in 2011 (with the release of firmware 5.1)—offering an exceptional level of reliability.
Anniversaries are traditionally celebrated with all sorts of hoopla…parties, champagne, and the promise of better things to come in the future. And, at Dell, we are looking for ways to give you the power to do more. Inspired by the users of our storage technology, we strive to make EqualLogic enhancements that offer the best enterprise-class features—enabling you to protect, virtualize, optimize and simplify the management and operations of your EqualLogic SAN.
Today, we also announced the upcoming release of Host Integration Tools (HIT) for Linux 1.1. HIT/Linux 1.1 provides enhanced reliability and availability with a new Auto-Snapshot Manager (ASM) for Linux® file system and expanded Linux distribution support for CentOS, RHEL and SLES operating systems. Visit the EqualLogic Software page for more information about HIT/Linux 1.1, as well as other Host Integration Toolkits, SAN Headquarters, and EqualLogic firmware.
Speaking of anniversaries, I’m celebrating my first year with the Dell EqualLogic team. It has been a busy and exciting year, and I am proud to be part of the team that brings you enterprise power with everyday simplicity. Stay up to date with the Dell Storage community via Facebook and Twitter. Join our Tech Center Chats (every Tuesday afternoon from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. CST) so you can connect with our technical experts and provide input that will help us learn how to better enable your enterprise. And, there is no place better to be this summer than Dell Storage Forum Boston June 10–13, where you will learn more about the future of Dell Storage and the ever-expanding EqualLogic product line!
[1] Performance may vary depending on the workload and drive type. Based on January 2012 internal Dell testing comparing the PS6110 to the PS6010 at RAID 50 with both sequential and random I/O workloads.