Dell Computer has delivered on its promise to provide open-standard storage systems yet again, with the introduction of its latest storage solution, the CX200 fibre channel storage array.
Marking a year of partnership with leading storage solution company EMC, the CX200 brings EMC`s technology capabilities and Dell`s cost-effective manufacturing and delivery model to the enterprise.
"Dell has optimised its manufacturing process to drive down costs. Dealing directly with the customer also helps us reduce the cost to the enterprise, allowing us to offer this turnkey solution at a highly affordable price," says Tony Bogatie, director of the Enterprise Systems Group, Dell South Africa.
This storage solution boasts the same high-end design as the CX400 and CX600 storage arrays, but comes in at an entry-level price point. The CX200 Dell/EMC Das costs R228 000 excluding VAT (inc delivery). The CX200 Dell/ EMC SAN costs R410 000 excl VAT (inc delivery) Upgrades on both options are available.
Featuring the exceptionally high performance of fibre channel, the system is ready to plug into a storage area network or run as a standalone solution. And with its modular standards-based design and two gigabit per second fibre channel connection, it ensures a long lifespan in any business environment, small or large.
The choice of fibre channel not only offers the user a seamless upgrade path to a storage area network, but also offers connectivity, performance and reliability enhancements over traditional SCSI interfaces (see table 2: Fibre channel vs SCSI).
The CX200 can handle up to 4.4 terabytes of storage in a tight 7U (12.25 inches) footprint. And if the enterprise`s data needs outgrow the CX200`s capabilities, the system can be upgraded to the high-end CX400 or CX600, with no change to the Navisphere Manager management software.
"The standards-based CX200 solution is simple to set up, deploy, and manage," says Bogatie. "The future upgrade path is ensured with its shared design with the CX400 and CX600."
Almost a SAN in itself, the CX200 features hot-swappable redundant disk drives and hot spare drives, ensuring fast correction of any fault. The system also includes multi-path failover and non-disruptive firmware upgrades, meaning that downtime - planned or unplanned - is minimised.
The CX200 boasts superior performance with a 200 megabyte per second throughput. The fibre channel connection can link to two host servers, or alternatively be connected to one host with a redundant link. In a SAN environment, the CX200 can connect to a total of 15 redundantly connected servers.
Overall, the CX200 is the perfect solution for a smaller organisation needing to fulfil a serious storage requirement, while looking to protect its investment in the future.
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