Dell Compellent Software Suite
Automated, integrated enterprise storage software

Overview:

Data has become the fuel that drives business acceleration, making organizations today extremely reliant on data storage. And that makes the storage decision strategic, far-reaching and full of risk. Limited-point products, dead-end growth paths and bolt-on software applications create rigid boundaries around data storage. With an integrated software feature set, Dell Compellent enables enterprises of all sizes to move beyond simply storing data to actively, intelligently managing data. Powerful storage software with built-in automation optimizes the provisioning, placement and protection of data throughout its lifecycle.

Dynamic Capacity™

Dell Compellent Thin Provisioning delivers the highest enterprise storage utilization possible by eliminating pre-allocated but unused capacity. The software, Dynamic Capacity, completely separates allocation from utilization, enabling users to provision any size volume upfront yet only consume disk space when data is written. Thin Write technology assesses the incoming payload and designates capacity for each write on demand, leaving unused disk space in the storage pool for other servers and applications.

How to Optimize Disk Utilization with Dynamic Capacity

• Eliminate the pre-allocated but unused disk capacity inherent to traditional network storage systems
• Expand volumes online and add capacity on the fly to accommodate change without disruption or downtime
• Convert legacy volumes to virtual volumes when introducing them to the storage pool using Thin Import
• Use Free Space Recovery to reclaim disk space after files are deleted in Windows® environments
• Automate storage consumption monitoring and trend analysis with capacity threshold alerts and history reports
• Reduce the capacity needed to store existing data up to 40% when migrating to Dell Compellent

Data Progression™

Dell Compellent Fluid Data storage dynamically moves enterprise data to the optimal storage tier based on actual use. The most active blocks reside on high-performance SSD, Fibre Channel or SAS drives, while infrequently accessed data migrates to lower-cost, high-capacity SAS drives. The result is network storage that remains in tune with application needs, with overall storage costs cut by up to 80%.

How to Optimize Enterprise Storage with Data Progression

• Automated tiering eliminates manual data classification and migration while lowering drive counts and power/cooling costs
• Write active blocks of data to Tier 1 storage with performance-optimized RAID levels such as RAID 10
• Automatically migrate inactive blocks of data to lower-tier storage with higher-overhead, high-protection RAID 5 or 6
• Mix SSD, FC and SAS drives in the same system, and SAS drives with varied rotational speeds in the same enclosure
• Deploy SSDs to maximize write performance and data availability for mission-critical applications
• Automatically restripe volume data across all drives when adding capacity on demand

Data Instant Replay™

Dell Compellent network storage delivers continuous data protection using space-efficient snapshots called Replays. With Data Instant Replay, once a base snapshot of a volume is taken, only incremental changes in data need to be captured. This not only saves disk space, but speeds local recovery of lost or deleted files. A high number of Replays can be scheduled in short intervals for recovery to a previously known state.

How to Protect Data Efficiently with Data Instant Replay

• Create frequent Replays (snapshots) using minimal capacity and system overhead
• Recover most volumes to a server in less than 10 seconds for high availability
• Leverage Consistency Group technology to ensure integrity of data spanning multiple volumes
• Roll back to any previously known state using a simple point-and-click interface

Remote Instant Replay™

Remote Instant Replay leverages space-efficient snapshots between local and remote sites for cost-effective disaster recovery and business continuity. Following initial site synchronization, only incremental changes in enterprise data need to be replicated, minimizing capacity requirements and speeding recovery. Known as Thin Replication, this unique approach enables network storage administrators to choose between Fibre Channel or native IP connectivity for data transfer.

How to Replicate Cost-Effectively with Instant Replays

• Replicate data with less bandwidth and disk capacity using space-efficient Replays (snapshots)
• Use Portable Volume, a preconfigured set of external hard drives, to sync sites in days instead of months
• Choose traditional Fibre Channel or cost-effective IP-based transfer links for remote replication
• Optimize network utilization and increase replication performance with bandwidth simulation and shaping
• Eliminate the need for identical system configurations at local and remote sites with Thin Replication
• Implement a robust disaster recovery solution in six clicks using a step-by-step setup wizard

Live Volume

Live Volume acts as a storage hypervisor, actively mapping one volume to two Dell Compellent arrays at the same time. This allows organizations to shift volumes between systems for high availability and continuous access to data. With Live Volume, data is not physically bound to any particular array or data center. Instead, all volumes can be accessed and shared from multiple locations, making Live Volume a key enabler for virtualization and the cloud.

The Live Volume Advantage

• Fully integrated platform feature that supports Thin Provisioning and Automated Tiered Storage
• Fraction of the cost of other solutions, with no additional hardware, server agents or costly appliances required
• Works with multiple hypervisors, including VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer
• Imposes no limit on the number of volumes that can be created, shared, deleted or updated
• Allows organizations to scale out cost effectively, laying the foundation for a grid of arrays operating as one