Dell expands enterprise server and storage range with virtualisation push

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 18 June 2009 11:31

IT Industry - Strategy

Dell is continuing its enterprise push with another wave of services, virtualisation software, servers, and storage units. Dell's announcement has placed a strong emphasis on virtualisation, consulting, software and support, as well as its server and storage hardware offerings for the enterprise.

On the services side, Dell claims to be able to help its customers with virtualisation consulting services including workload analysis, disaster recovery planning, data management improvements, and facilities efficiency planning.

Support is offered for VMware vSphere 4 on 37 PowerEdge models. Citrix Essentials for XenServer 5.0 is also supported, with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V set to join the list.

As for software, Dell OpenManage and EqualLogic storage management work with management platforms from companies including Dell, Microsoft, Symantec and VMware to tie together virtual and physical environments.

Dell EqualLogic Auto-Snapshot Manager 2.0 for VMware vSphere 4 helps provide data protection and recovery in virtualised environments using EqualLogic arrays.

The list of new storage devices comprises the EqualLogic PS4000 storage array (from $A17,966) and PowerVault NX3000 NAS aimed at SMEs and branch offices.

In a branch office environment, the PS4000 delivers virtual storage to virtual servers, with automatic load balancing. It incorporates data protection and data recovery features, including the ability to replicate data to a central backup site.

What about the new servers? See page 2.