Visit to the Dell Solution Center in Paris

In the IT world, there are not that many certainties. Things are changing and evolving at tremendous speed. What is true today, might be totally different tomorrow. However, there is one fact, one topic, one challenge that is always raised by every single one of our customers: their never stopping data growth.

We literally see an explosion of data. Drivers for this growth are email, log data, sensor data, medical imaging, social media, smart meters, security videos, GPS tracking data, telematics, satellite images, case management etc. This data is the source of the most valuable asset within a company: business information, business intelligence.

The data growth as such is not a bad thing, the important point is that we need to store and manage this data in an intelligent, cost effective way. The efficient storage of data combined with the correct analysis of this data leads to a competitive advantage.

Storage solutions for ‘big data’

Let’s look at some numbers. During this decade, according to IDC, data volumes will grow at a rate of x50, budgets x2 and staff only x1,5. CPU speed, DRAM speed, network speed, disk speed are increasing, but they can’t keep up with the exponential data growth. This results in the need for intelligent, flexible storage solutions.

We decided to visit the Dell Solution Center in Paris, together with Dell and some of our customers. We invited them to see new storage solutions that deliver these enterprise class features, high efficiency and unprecedented value for their business.

State of the art storage virtualization is no longer a luxury, it is a key business requirement.

We discovered how the new Dell SC4000 series gives companies and remote departments the automated flexibility which is necessary to succeed in the big data world.

Dell SC4000 Series

The Dell SC4000 Series redefines the economics of enterprise storage by delivering enterprise performance, best-in-class intelligence and unprecedented value. Some of the characteristics of the technology:

• Flash-optimized to allow hot data to move to the fastest disks.
• Optimized performance for database and OLTP workloads with new storage tiers.
• Copilot support: single point of contact service to provide proactive resolutions.
• Eight 8Gb Fibre Channel or four 10Gb iSCSI network ports, and four additional 10Gb ports for management and replication – all delivered in a space-saving 2U chassis.
• Data Progression—exclusive ability to tier across different SSD types.
• Enterprise Manager—a single plane of glass for ROBO and the data center.
• Space-efficient snapshots, remote sync/a sync and fast track optimization.
• Remarkable price per GB and price per IOPs.
• SAN/NAS interoperability; uses the same drive carriers as SC200/220.
• Seamless expansion up to 120 drives.

Nutanix Hyperconverged infrastructure

Next to the Dell Compellent solutions, we got a great presentation and update on the Dell-Nutanix solution and partnership. You can read more about the benefits of Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure in a blog I wrote a while ago.

The approach of Nutanix is a bit different compared to “classic” storage solutions and this is exactly where ASP, as a partner with long experience and history, can help and assist customers in the choices they need to make. The aim is the same: reduction in overall capex and opex, limitless scalability, fastest time-to-value, smaller footprint. ASP helps his customers in choosing and implementing the right solution for their needs.

Last, but certainly not least, we discovered Paris using a very nice transportation method: the Segway. This was new to most of the participants and I can only recommend this to anyone thinking about discovering a city using an original means of transport. This was a great moment of relaxation after a first day full of new insights in and knowledge on the Dell storage offering.