• Software Defined Storage

    • Improving performance with software-defined storage

    • With the rise of next-generation applications driven by trends like big data and the Internet of Things, organizations are turning to software-defined storage solutions to achieve greater agility, resilience, scalability and cost-efficiency. This approach to storage architecture uses a layer of software to provision, orchestrate and manage physical data storage capacity on industry-standard servers. By decoupling storage management software from hardware, software-defined solutions enable hardware and software to be acquired independently rather than locking organizations into proprietary platforms.

      The key to making software-defined storage work is choosing solutions that are fast to deploy and simple to manage, that support multiple workloads and a variety of use cases, and that relieve IT teams of the complexity of managing a heterogeneous collection of storage media. For organizations seeking superior software-defined storage options, Dell provides an array of industry-leading choices. 

    • Object Storage Solutions for Next-Gen Workloads

      Deployable in a software-defined model or as a turnkey appliance, ECS is the leading object-storage platform from Dell

    • The need for software-defined storage

    • The evolution of storage media has produced a wide array of options, each with distinctive characteristics, benefits and limitations. Yet many of these current generation storage solutions fall short in their ability to support the needs of next-generation applications. From big data, social, mobile and cloud computing to robotics, 3D printing and the Internet of Things, new technologies require storage media that delivers more speed, flexibility, scalability and capacity. But even as new technologies emerge to address these needs, IT teams are facing pressure to constrain costs and to get more done with existing resources, requiring new storage media to also be cost-efficient and easy to manage.

      Software-defined storage solutions satisfy these requirements for performance, flexibility, scalability, ease of use and cost efficiency by separating the management services (control plane) from the infrastructure (data plane) of storage media. Storage defined systems create a single pool of storage from a heterogeneous set of storage arrays and enable administrators to create virtual storage arrays through policy. Unlike traditional storage arrays, software-defined storage enables new arrays to be added quickly and easily, and administrators can give users self-service tools that lets them access storage immediately rather than waiting days or weeks for help from IT.


    • Software-defined storage solutions from Dell

    • Dell provides software-defined storage solutions that enable organizations to reduce TCO, optimize IT operations and automate the deployment of IT services. Dell solutions are available as scale-out file storage and object storage deployments and include:

      • VxRail, a software-defined storage, hyperconverged system engineered to lower TCO and simplify VMware environments. VxRail transforms HCI networking and simplifies VMware cloud adoption, while meeting any HCI use case, including support for many of the most demanding workloads and applications.
      • IsilonSD Edge, a software-defined scale-out network attached storage system for a wide range of file workloads. IsilonSD Edge is highly efficient with up to 80% storage utilization and supports multiple workloads with a single storage solution.
      • ECS, a cloud-scale globally distributed object storage solution with a low total cost of ownership. ECS offers infinite scalability, a simple infrastructure and 48% lower TCO than public cloud deployments.
      • UnityVSA, a software-defined unified storage system which can be installed on a VMware ESXi system as a vAPP in order to provide a fully Unity-compatible instance, including HA capability. UnityVSA provides the same UI and full suite of snapshot and replication tools included with Unity hardware systems and supports up to 50 TB of storage.
      • Unity Cloud Edition, a software defined version of the Unity platform that can be installed and run in a public cloud environment using the services of VMware Cloud Foundation on AWS. 

    • Benefits of software-defined storage

    • While each software-defined storage option has its own strengths and benefits, collectively, these solutions enable organizations to:

      • Manage storage more effectively. Software-defined storage enables smarter interactions between workloads and storage, provides dynamic storage provision and helps storage better adapt to the needs of the organization.
      • Improve control and efficiency. With software-defined storage, organizations can optimize infrastructure to more successfully meet rapidly changing business requirements.
      • Enable agile consumption. Software-defined storage supports both traditional and emerging models of IT consumption, enabling IT teams to increase agility across infrastructure for cloud, mobile, social and analytics platforms.
      • Scale in real time. Software-defined storage provides optimal capacity based on current business requirements and enables IT teams to provision tiered storage on demand. 

    • Future-proofing your software-defined storage solutions

    • Dell’s Future-Proof Loyalty Program enables organizations to move forward with deployment of software-defined storage solutions with the confidence they will get the most from their investment. This customer program is designed to protect investments in Dell technology with a set of world-class capabilities and programs to ensure that storage, data protection and hyperconverged products provide value over their lifecycle.

      The Future-Proof Loyalty Program includes:

      • Hardware investment protection that enables organizations to trade-in existing or competitive systems for credit toward next-generation storage, data protection or HCI products from Dell.
      • A three-year satisfaction guarantee for storage, data protection and hyperconverged products (the industry standard is a mere 30 days).
      • Worry-free data migration.
      • Data protection deduplication guarantee, with up to 55x data reduction for data protection appliances. 
      • Storage data reduction guarantees.

      The Future-Proof Loyalty Program is available for all storage products, including NVMe and flash storage as well as network storage products and software-defined options.


    • FAQs: What is software-defined storage?

    • What is software-defined storage?

      Software-defined storage is an approach to managing data storage that decouples storage software from storage hardware components. Using a layer of software to provision, orchestrate and manage data storage on industry-standard servers, software-defined storage gives administrators more choice and flexibility, enabling them to achieve the speed and agility they need to support next-generation workloads. With software-defined solutions, storage becomes a heterogeneous pool of hardware resources where administrators can mix and match hardware and media.

      What are the benefits of software-defined storage solutions?

      The two biggest benefits of software-defined storage are cost and efficiency. Storage-defined solutions enable all existing hardware to be used and leveraged optimally before needing to purchase new storage media. New storage arrays can be added quickly and easily, and users can access storage more easily with self-service tools. Ultimately, software-defined storage enables IT administrators to spend more time managing data rather than the hardware it resides on.


    • Explore Enterprise Data Storage Solutions

      Unlock the value of your data capital and turn data into your most valuable asset with flash storage, cloud storage and data protection from Dell.

    • Object Storage Solutions for Next-Gen Workloads

      Deployable in a software-defined model or as a turnkey appliance, ECS is the leading object-storage platform from Dell

    • Unity XT All-Flash Unified Storage Solutions

      Unity XT midrange storage is built new from the ground up to deliver unified storage speed and efficiency and built for a multicloud world.