Dell focuses on the Data Centre with Fluid Data

Dell South Africa has reconfirmed its dedication to growing its enterprise environment solutions offering, with a fresh outlook on its Fluid Data Storage range.

At a press and client event held in Morningside on 26 July 2011, Dell Storage and Solutions Director for Emerging Markets, Tony Wand, stated that the company is aggressively attacking the enterprise market and has seen significant growth in recent years. “I think we’ve made some very smart investments along the way and we’re using great IP. In addition, Ocarina Networks [one of Dell’s acquisitions] is developing some of the best compression software I have ever seen.”

Dell’s Fluid Data infrastructure has been developed to address the need for dynamic storage solutions within the data centre which provide ROI (return on investment) for businesses while embracing new technologies such as virtualisation and the cloud. According to Wand, the vast majority of data centres spend 80% of their capital on simply keeping the lights running.

In an environment where the amount of data is growing at an enormous rate but is being underutilised (Dell estimates that 66% of all data is only ever opened by a single user), the company is placing heavy focus on technologies which do not simply improve the status quo, but change the way information is managed. A good example of such an offering is Dell Compellent, through which enterprise data is actively and intelligently managed throughout its lifecycle so CIOs can easily adapt to changing business conditions.

New solutions include the company’s first unified Dell EqualLogic platform, updated Dell EqualLogic software capabilities, a Dell Compellent demonstration of 16Gbps Fibre Channel, and the introduction of Fibre Channel on its PowerVault product line. Wand stressed that a Fluid Data architecture, storage virtualization, intelligent software and modular hardware can be combined to bring greater efficiency to the data centre without compromising on cost and security. In addition, Dell is focusing on the development and acquisition of storage intellectual property that delivers productivity and efficiency gains for highly-virtualized data centres.