Data&Storage Asean spotlight on Dell Storage

DELL STORAGE STRATEGY - COMING OF AGE

DSA SPOTLIGHT ON DELL STORAGE IN ASEAN

A CAPABILITY ANALYSIS PAPER WRITTEN AND PREPARED BY DATA&STORAGE ASEAN

© ASIA ONLINE PUBLISHING GROUP SDN BHD 2014

1 HOW HAS DELL INTEGRATED ITS STORAGE ACQUISITIONS INTO A COMPREHENSIVE DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS PORTFOLIO?

2 WHAT HAS DELL DONE WITH ITS STORAGE ACQUISITIONS TO DEVELOP A NEW STRATEGY?

3 DOES DELL HAVE THE RIGHT TO CALL ITSELF A MAJOR PLAYER IN THE STORAGE SPACE?

SPOTLIGHT ON DELL STORAGE

The Storage Group at Dell Asean opened its doors to Data & Storage Asean and asked us to critically assess the progress they have made in rounding out the Group’s storage offerings.

We were given access to key people who run the storage business across Dell Asean and in so doing allowed us to determine the extent to which Dell has built its storage portfolio, the progress Dell has made in managing and integrating the various storage acquisitions of the last 7 years, and potentially the future direction of the company.

Data & Storage Asean took this opportunity to make this assessment and focused on answering three main questions:

EDITORS INTRODUCTION




Dell’s first major foray into the storage arena started seriously in November of 2008 with the purchase of EqualLogic. Back then, there were 8,000 EqualLogic units installed across 4,000 customers globally. By November 2012, Dell expanded this piece of their storage business by more than eleven fold to 45,000 customers.Today Dell continues to invest heavily in every storage technology they have acquired. Dell has worked hard to tightly integrate the entire storage portfolio and it is clear that these investments in storage technology will continue into the future. Dell is taking a building block approach to becoming a serious storage player. The success of the EqualLogic acquisition cemented Dell’s intent to build a comprehensive storage portfolio. We expect subsequent purchases will strengthen the vendor’s future position in the burgeoning storage market.

These acquisitions included:2008 – EqualLogic (iSCSI storage area network)2010 – Exanet (network-attached storage software and foundation of the Dell Fluid File System or FluidFS)2010 – Ocarina Networks (file-aware storage optimization and data compression/data deduplication)2011 – Compellent (modular, scalable, iSCSI, Fibre Channel and FCoE SAN Storage)2012 – AppAssure (backup software)2013 – Quest (security, data protection, BakBone)

Certainly when viewed alone, each acquisition raised more questions than answers. Why did Dell acquire Equallogic when it would eventually enter into a 10 year reseller relationship with EMC? What we have observed, and this is to Dell’s credit, is that the company has been good at taking the time to discover and understand the technologies it acquired, and invest even more into integrating these acquired IP into solutions that make business and technology sense. Indeed, six years on, we are starting to see Dell come out with a storage portfolio that should earn it the respect of its competitors and the ears and minds of its customers. Data&Storage Asean will be the first to admit that the end is not yet here for Dell. Storage remains a moving target that hasn’t stopped or slowed down since the days when punch cards or even drum memory.

DELL STORAGE ACQUISITION HISTORY

AppAssure 2012

EXANET 2010

Purpose Built Backup

Appliance

ISCSIFC/

iSCSI/FCoE

DE DUPLICATION

FLUID FILE SYSTEM

BLOCK STORAGE

Data Protection & Backup

VM Data Protection

EQUALLOGIC 2008

OCARINA 2010

COMPELLENT 2011

NetVault 2013 vRanger

2013



We have categorised these acquisitions into three groups:Building Block End ProductPoint End productIngredient Product

Building Block End ProductEqualLogic and Compellent form the foundation of what we would consider as the basic building blocks of Dell’s Block-based primary storage portfolio.

Point End ProductsAppAssure and Quest provide point technologies that boost Dell’s Data Protection Portfolio.

Ingredient ProductsExanet and Ocarina bring in technologies that have been developed to add functionality to the total storage range. Exanet provides the technology for what is today Dell’s Fluid File System and Ocarina for deduplication and compression technology.

Data&Storage Asean has observed Dell through a number of these acquisitions and we see a common cycle. Following each acquisition is a period of silence from Dell with no obvious proactive marketing or product announcement. When that happens Dell has often been open to criticism with industry pundits questioning the “point” of the purchase and wondering if Dell understood what or why it had made the purchased.

However in each case, the reality is that Dell has taken the technology and intellectual property, learned what they had, applied significantly more R&D resources to ongoing development, and only then shift marketing gears when new products are ready to go out to market.

Technology experts agree that Dell has taken each acquisition with the same degree of measured planning reflecting the gravity of its intent to become a serious player in the storage arena. Dell has developed and improved most of the technologies they have inherited. Take for example the backup software Netvault from the Quest that Dell acquired in September 2012. By adding more R&D resources into the mix, Dell is able to not only enhance the point solution it acquired, but integrate it into an existing portfolio to deliver a significantly enhanced technology – the Dell Fluid File System (FluidFS) technology which offers advanced management platform for File, block and SAN based primary storage.

DELL STORAGE ACQUISITION HISTORY CONT.



Dell has amalgamated all of its developed and acquired storage technologies to deliver a strategy which in their words:

Provide users and applications with access to the right data at the right time in the right place for the right cost.This is a wide ranging strategy and, in our opinion, Dell is delivering against and stands alone in breadth of offerings that have been developed to match this mantra – the right data at the right time in the right place at the right cost.

Strategy is Key

Our assessment of the storage portfolio led to one overarching conclusion: an overarching strategy is more important than components. The components (or products) are in themselves compelling, with a truly enviable breadth of products that we will outline in the next section. However it is the glue that brings the components together that cements Dell’s place as a significant and major storage vendor.

So what is the “special sauce”?We looked at some of the catchy marketing phrases and some of the “cutely” named products that Dell is touting and delved a bit deeper. We wanted to see if things like “Flash at the price of Disk” and “FluidFS” are real differentiators or just creative marketing without technical substance behind them.

Flash at the Price of Disk

Many companies market their all flash arrays at prices comparable to traditional HDD-based arrays, but they do so after applying compression and deduplication so their comparison is not necessarily like for like. Dell has used clever technology to place a much higher percentage of cheaper MLC flash into the arrays, meaning that even with a true like for like comparison the price of the Dell all flash array really does compare to traditional disk.

Further the Dell all flash array is built on Compellent technology meaning that many enterprise features like replication, snapshot and thin provisioning that may not be available with some of the new Flash only vendors are already embedded in the Dell solution.

Verdict – Dell offers real unique features and its claim is real.

DELL STORAGE STRATEGY

Data centers need to handle many types of diverse application workloads



Fluid File System Architecture

Every enterprise storage vendor has a “scale out file system” offering and for Dell, it is the FluidFS. The FluidFS architecture allows customers to manage information more effectively, responding to three of the greatest challenges facing IT today: the exponential growth of data, the different requirements which arise from changes in IT, and the rigidity of the traditional storage architecture.

Fluid File System has been developed specifically to enable:Capacity and ScalabilityEfficiency InteroperabilityManageabilityPerformanceResilienceSecurityData ProtectionArchive and Tiering

Dell is not unique in creating a comprehensive scale out file system with enterprise features. However by delivering the Fluid File System Dell brings itself head to head with all other major storage vendors. By enabling storage solution that scale and deliver blistering fast performance, Dell has done an excellent job of developing FluidFS as a single consistent file system across every Dell storage Platform.

Verdict - Where Dell scores high in our view is creating an architecture that lends itself to the goal of the right data at the right time in the right place for the right cost. It is a hugely scalable file system that is sensitive to the underlying storage architecture. This combined with the distributed and clustered architecture of Fluid File System, results in an architecture that can easily leverage future technology enhancements.

Data ProgressionIntelligent Tiering virtualizes the placement of data on the optimal storage tier and RAID level using a technology called Data Progression. Based on the actual use of data, Data Progression intelligently determines if a block is heavily accessed and how often access typically occurs. If a block is heavily used, Data Progression automatically moves that block to a high-performance disk. If the block is inactive, it is migrated to lower cost, high-capacity disk. Data Progression automates the placement of data to the correct storage tier based on frequency of use.

Data Progression drives efficiency and is a key technology that enables Dell to make the claim and deliver Flash at the price of Disk.


Dell have continued to build on their Fluid FS and are integrating their products together to create joined up solutions like FluidCache for SAN



The answer is Yes!Data&Storage Asean bottom line recommendation is that any IT department looking for a storage technology partner must include Dell in the mix.

This is particularly true in South Asia where the depth of product and technology is accompanied by a strong storage focused team that manages the business across the region. In our opinion the Dell Storage Team in South Asia has depth of knowledge with deep roots in storage that are not just restricted to their experiences within Dell – but have strong understanding of competing and complementary technologies to provide holistic advice.

Dell has built a deep and strong storage portfolio with comprehensive offerings that cover the needs of SMEs all the way through to the much more sophisticated and feature-rich requirements of large enterprises. With some unique features that give them unique competitive edge in management, efficiencies, reslience and redundundancy.

Primary storage options from Mid Range NAS through to Direct Attached Disk Arrays for well suited to SMB right through the enterprise SAN Block storage compellent solutions.

A complete range of data protection technologies including:vRanger for virtualised environments;

Netvault enterprise backup software;

AppAssure end to end application data protection appliances; Deduplication Appliances; and

One of the industry’s most comprehensive tape portfolios from single LTO drive to a 409 cartridge tape library.

IS DELL A MAJOR PLAYER IN THE STORAGE SPACE?



Key to our assertion that Dell should be viewed as a potential storage vendor of choice is its level of maturity in this space.

At this point it is a given that they have a comprehensive storage hardware offering that covers every aspect of storage that 95% of IT departments are ever likely to need.

Dell’s Fluid File System, Fluid Cache and Data Progression Technologies take the company into the realms of Storage Solution Provider.

Companies can choose to partner with Dell to build storage-based business solutions not just buy storage products. In addition to the products and technology, Dell have the skills and resources in human capital to provide project management and implementation resources. Dell Service storage capability has matured considerably in the ASEAN region. Companies looking to supplement their own in house capabilities can work with Dell Services and find that they are backed by highly experienced teams throughout ASEAN consisting of Project Managers, Principal Consultants and Implementation Engineers that work within a an efficient project management framework that can deliver highly scalable and manageable storage solutions.

Of particular note are the Service Assess and Design Accelerators that Dell offer. Dell Services has designed a methodology using discovery, analysis and design to find the quickest path to solving Storage, backup and Archive issues. This level of technical capability is desirable when choosing a storage technology partner.

Recent announcements that demonstrate Dells’ intent in this space include:NetVault 10 – a renewed commitment to developing enterprise class backup software with tight integration into Dell’s disk based appliances.

DR6000 – introduces the industry’s first source-side deduplication for NFS and CIFS backup by way of its Rapid NFS and Rapid CIFS technology. DR6000 offers faster backup speeds and 120tb or raw backup capacity.

SC4000 array series – brings all flash at the price of disk to the mid-market and delivers on the promise of the right data at the right time in the right place for the right cost. The SC4000 series genuinely redefines the economics of storage, offering enterprise scale and features to the mid-market at true mid-market prices.

XC Series Web Scale Converged Infrastructure Appliances – Announcing an OEM partnership with CI leaders Nutanix, XC Series demonstrates Dell’s strength at developing a software defined approach while already hinting that in the future such appliances will have the ability to scale storage capacity with logical links to external Dell Storage Arrays.

Dell is now pushing the boundaries and truly innovating in the storage space, delivering storage solutions that include:Solutions for Big data built on Cloudera Hadoop;

Software Defined Storage with Nexanta;

Solutions for Virtualised environments optimised for VMware, Hyper V and Citrix;

Solutions for VDI using scale out technology perfectly suited to the demands of Virtual Desktop; and

Solutions for OLTP and Critical workloads and HPC

DELLS STORAGE BUSINESS MATURITY



Storage is an important part of Dell’s transformation from a PC and server vendor to a full solutions partner to its customers. Beginning with the acquisition of EqualLogic in 2008, the company has been meticulous about the technologies it acquired and developed. Storage is clearly part of a larger integrated enterprise initiative that Dell is following, but at the same time the storage strategy is well defined executed and self-contained. Dell is staying true to its promise of delivering enterprise storage functionality to the mid-market at the right price points.

Large companies can and should now consider Dell as one of the possible storage vendors they can partner with across all their storage needs.

Mid-market companies should perhaps be most receptive to what Dell has to offer, with unique technologies and a disruptive approach to the price-versus-function equation. More important Dell provides enterprise class storage technology to the mid-market in a package that will to grow and scale to meet even the most robust growth demands.

Dell provides customers with solutions to help manage the growing complexity of information technology and the accelerating explosion of data. Dell offers a comprehensive portfolio of networked storage – SAN or NAS based on its Fluid File System Architecture, and complements these offerings with security, data compression and backup, and recovery capabilities.

Dell has stated that its goal is to deliver solutions that solve complex business challenges while making it simple for IT to build, manage and maintain these complex systems. It recognizes that for years, only the very large enterprises with deep pockets have benefited from the best of advances in information technology.

Dell’s storage acquisitions are a signal that it wants to change all that. It wants to bring enterprise-class innovations at price-points that meet and exceed the need of mid-market companies.

CONCLUSION

Data&Storage Asean spotlight on Dell Storage

Technology

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