eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Technology giant Dell unveiled what it is calling its densest-available storage array, the PowerVault MD3, which can store up to 180 terabytes of data in a 60-drive, 4U rack enclosure and is aimed at small and midsize businesses. The company also added features to its DR4000 disk-based backup and recovery appliance, now designed to include tighter integration with Symantec OST (OpenStorage) support for the ability to replicate from multiple appliances to one.
The PowerVault MD3 is paired with zero-percent fair market value (FMV) financing from Dell Financial Services (DFS), and is also available as a 12U configuration, with one MD3 dense array combined with two MD3 dense expansion enclosures, the storage solution can scale up to 180 hard drives, store up to 540TB of data, and supports Fibre Channel, SAS and iSCSI protocols. The MD3 line also includes Dynamic Disk Pools (DDP), which helps improve data protection by restoring failed drives faster than traditional RAID environments.
“Dell continues to invest in its SMB and midmarket storage solutions to help customers looking for the right balance of performance and value,” Brett Roscoe, general manager of Dell data management solutions said in a prepared statement. “The dense array design of the new MD3, combined with enhanced software capabilities across our MD and DR products, provide the power to do more with a growing set of features and capabilities that provide new levels of efficiency and performance.”
The MD3 dense array, which offers businesses the same features of the PowerVault MD platform but in a smaller design, comes with the same software, firmware and management features as the PowerVault MD3 series. The appliances come with a zero-percent PowerVault offer, a 36-month zero-percent FMV lease on PowerVault storage, PowerEdge servers and PowerConnect switches with a minimum purchase of $5,000. The promotion runs from Aug. 4 to Nov. 2 in the United States, according to Dell.
Dell’s DR4000 disk-based backup and recovery solution, which features deduplication and compression capabilities from the company’s Ocarina Networks acquisition, supports the ability to replicate from multiple appliances to one. The appliance’s tighter integration with OST makes the backup application aware of the properties and capabilities of the appliance, and can better control backup images. The DR4000 already offers built-in data-protection safeguards in both hardware and software to verify backup integrity, designed to ensure data protection in case of power loss and detect corruption due to faulty hardware.
“To keep up with larger competitors, small and medium-sized organizations need flexible systems equipped to address changing market dynamics and the demands they put on IT,” Antonio Julio, executive director of commercial enterprise solutions at Dell said in a company release. “From financing to storage, Dell equips our customers with the flexible and agile solutions they need to drive innovation on a much larger scale.”