Compellent Ships Preconfigured, Virtualized Storage Bundles for SMBs

Compellent on Sept. 30 launched a series of Fibre Channel storage packages in preset configurations for small and midsize size businesses that have little or no IT staff.

The QuickStart SE bundles consist of storage software and hardware in starter configurations. They include a number of high-end storage features previously unavailable for smaller deployments, according to Compellent, such as automated CDP (continuous data protection), thin provisioning, continuous snapshots and storage resource monitoring.

"We're not introducing anything new—we're finding a more convenient way to package our products," Compellent Senior Product Marketing Manager Bob Fine told eWEEK. "It only takes a few minutes or so to get these up and running.

"We have a seen a lot of preconfigured storage products coming into the market lately, but what sets these apart is that we don't base ours on low-end or midrange-type products that won't scale as well in terms of capacity, interfaces or performance. We base them on our top-tier enterprise products."

Compellent's QuickStart SE is aimed at SMBs that want to upgrade from direct-attached storage to shared storage, in order to support a transition to a fully virtualized data center, Fine said.

QuickStart SE allows companies to later expand their storage solution by adding optional software, such as automated tiered storage or remote replication, and emerging hardware standards like SSD without having to rip and replace existing storage investments, Fine said.

Compellent is offering QuickStart SE through the company's growing international network of channel partners in more than 30 countries, Fine said.

Compellent QuickStart SE bundles start at $25,500, which includes 4.8TB of Fibre Channel storage with Dynamic Capacity thin provisioning, Data Instant Replay snapshots and Enterprise Manager storage resource management applications, Fine said. All pricing excludes maintenance plans and professional services, he said.

For more information, go here.