Introducing the new Dell EMC ECS EX-Series

One of the favorite parts of my role at Dell EMC is that I get to speak to our incredible customers almost every day. It is apparent from these conversations that data is playing an increasingly important role in determining whether organizations will thrive in a digital-first world or not. To truly unlock the value of their data, however, organizations need a fundamentally different approach to IT, as traditional infrastructure was not built to handle the magnitude of data that is generated by businesses today. This is precisely why we built Dell EMC ECS, the modern object-storage platform that brings cloud scale and economics to our customers’ datacenters.

Today, at VMworld 2018, we are introducing the EX-Series, ECS’ next-generation platform. The EX-Series enhances the flexibility of ECS through two brand new offerings that are designed to meet the needs of an expanded set of use cases and organization sizes:

  • EX300: With a minimum starting capacity of just 60TB (83% lower than previous ECS platforms), the EX300 is the perfect storage platform for cloud-native initiatives, such as apps built using Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF). As these initiatives gain traction and need more storage capacity, ECS can scale seamlessly with them. The EX300 is also well suited for modernizing Dell EMC Centera environments.
  • EX3000: Packing up to 8.6 PB in a single rack, the EX3000 is designed to support organizations with a large data footprint. This makes it the ideal solution for archiving warm and cold data, building internal cloud-storage portals, and supporting large cloud-native apps as well as Internet of Things (IoT) or analytics initiatives. Due to its superior storage density (almost 50% higher than previous ECS platforms), the EX3000 is a great fit for datacenter consolidation efforts.

Over 1,000 organizations around the world are utilizing ECS for their digital initiatives. As an example, the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, a leading research and engineering firm, has been able to reduce capital expenditures by 30% and improve IT efficiency by 75% thanks to ECS. You can check out their story in this video.

ECS has been recognized by the analyst community as well. Gartner has recognized Dell EMC as a leader in the Magic Quadrant for Distributed File Systems and Object Storage. Scott Sinclair, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), also acknowledges the value ECS can bring to customers: “Organizations today require more from their data storage infrastructure in terms of capacity, performance, and resiliency than ever before. The real challenge, however, is addressing these needs, staying in budget, and simultaneously positioning the organization for success as a more emergent set of workloads like Machine Learning, IoT, and Analytics come online. With the new ECS EX-Series, I believe Dell EMC will help organizations overcome these challenges with an affordable, flexible, and scalable unstructured storage solution.”  

The ECS EX-series provides organizations with unparalleled flexibility in starting with just the capacity they need, and growing as their needs change in the future. Additionally, an investment in ECS is protected by the Dell EMC Future-Proof Loyalty Program, which provides benefits like the 3-year Satisfaction Guarantee, Hardware Investment Protection, Never Worry Data Migrations and All Inclusive Software.

To learn more about how ECS can support your digital initiatives, visit the ECS website, or follow @DellEMCStorage on Twitter.

About the Author: Manuvir Das

Manuvir Das is the Senior Vice President & General Manager of Dell EMC’s Unstructured Storage Division, where he is responsible for the Isilon and ECS product lines as well as key aspects of Dell EMC’s cloud strategy. Manuvir has extensive experience leading R&D organizations, including key roles in the development of Microsoft Azure and Dell EMC ViPR Controller, ECS and Nautilus. With a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin and dozens of publications and patents in his name, Manuvir’s focus is applying world class computer science to build best-in-class, disruptive cloud products that push the boundaries of technology and delight customers.