The following post was authored by Sarah Cook, Dell EqualLogic Product Consultant
I’m not a big fan of reality TV, so why did I spend an entire Saturday glued to the A&E series Storage Wars? I became fascinated with the parallels between junk dealers bidding on abandoned storage lockers and the way they find valuable items mixed in among pure junk and the concepts of storage in the technology industry. Whether it is a storage locker, your closet, or a storage array—physical or virtual—storing and retrieving items can be challenging if you do not have a strong infrastructure and reliable network connections. Quite often, when you store something, you are not sure when or even if you will need it again…much less what the value of it could be at that junction. For businesses and organizations, being able to store data securely and retrieve it at will is imperative in today’s world.
Having launched EqualLogic Firmware v5.1 and the EqualLogic PS6100 and PS4100 arrays in my first six months on the Dell Storage launch team, I’ve come to understand the solid functionality and benefits of the firmware and just how slick the hardware is (call me simple, but I love the easy removal of disks and power supplies). Yet, I keep hearing that what sets EqualLogic apart from the competition is the sophisticated host software offerings (SAN Headquarters and the Host Integration Tools for VMware®, Microsoft® and Linux® products). So, I’m now immersing myself in the world of EqualLogic host software offerings and understanding how they contribute to Fluid Data™ solutions. In that quest for knowledge, I’ve been working to understand a few key complexities:
- Just what does it take to make sure that your data is stored securely, and yet readily available when you need it? (This is where the Dell Fluid Data strategy pays off.)
- How do you meet today’s needs while making sure you are ready for tomorrow? (The scalability of EqualLogic storage solutions make this a simple exercise as you can easily add storage on an as-needed basis.)
- What does the future of storage look like? (The exponential growth expected by technology experts is astounding! Check out this Gartner study.)
To learn more, I’ve been taking EqualLogic classes, talking to product managers, and watching the many videos in the Dell Storage Video Library that feature a variety of topics and talent. My favorites are the white-boarding sessions by Dell’s own Will Urban on the topics of Virtualization and Application Integration. Will covers a number of topics in easy-to-follow lecture style complete with whiteboard and markers.
This week, the SAN Headquarters v2.2 and Host Integration tools for VMware (HIT/VMware) v3.1.1 were released. Check out blogs on SAN HQ and HIT/VMware by Shanky Gowri, EqualLogic Product Manager, to learn more about the new features in these releases and the value they can deliver to your organization.
These updates are available on the EqualLogic Support website at no cost for customers with a valid support contract. Later this calendar year, Dell will be releasing Host Integration tools for Microsoft (HIT/Microsoft) v4.0. Make sure you are getting the most from your EqualLogic storage arrays by staying up to date with the rest of the Dell Storage community via Facebook and Twitter!
Now, if only there was a Dell Storage solution for my closets!