Dell Continues to Simplify Storage for SMBs

Dell today announced the availability of the AX4-5, an entry-level storage area network (SAN) solution specifically designed to meet the growing storage needs of small and medium-sized organizations. Detailed technical information can be found at Dell AX4-5.

• New SAN array offers enhanced ease of use features, allows new capacity provisioning in as little as a minute


• Navisphere Express simplifies deployment and maintenance

According to IDC, demand for storage capacity continues to grow at a rate of nearly 60 percent per year. Small to medium-sized entities, including branch offices of larger organizations, increasingly face challenges related to data growth and management while IT budgets remain flat.

The Dell AX4-5 array can meet the needs of rapidly growing data capacity with the ability to expand up to 60 drives and soon support up to 60TB of data. The AX4-5 array can be configured for Fibre Channel or iSCSI networks and supports mixed drive configurations to suit customer-specific needs: SAS drives for high performance and SATA drives for capacity.

“This is the latest step in the strong partnership between Dell and EMC,” said Darren Thomas, vice president and general manager, Dell storage. “We’ve worked closely with EMC to define, design and deliver this system tailored to SMBs. Together we are delivering capabilities not previously seen in entry-level SANs.”

Additional features of the Dell AX4-5 include:

• Excellent Data Availability and Reliability: AX4-5 controllers provide end-to-end data integrity, through continuous background disk consistency checking, mirrored cache, and cache destaging in the event of a significant failure. The array is designed to protect data in the controller, on the drive, and throughout the data path.


• Simple Deployment and Advanced Management: The AX4-5 comes with EMC Navisphere Express, an intuitive user interface that simplifies installation and operation. The AX4-5 has also inherited many demonstrated software capabilities that have only been available on the more advanced Dell/EMC CX3 arrays. This allows for “single pane of glass” management for users with multiple EMC arrays, as well as optional data replication and migration tools which will be available soon.


• Scalable Architecture: The AX4-5 will be able to support up to 64 hosts and 60 drives across five enclosures to help keep up with data growth. With the simplified wizard-based management users can allocate additional capacity in as little as a minute.


• Flexibility and Drive Options: AX4-5 iSCSI arrays support cost-effective IP networks, while Fibre Channel arrays utilize high performance 4Gb/s connections. The AX4-5 can also easily mix SAS drives geared for performance with SATA drives that deliver cost-effective capacity.