Dell DX Object Storage Platform

Simple, scalable and affordable fixed-content storage

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The Dell™ DX Object Storage Platform is designed to intelligently access, store, protect and distribute fixed digital content. From web publishing to archiving, the Dell DX Object Storage Platform offers a powerful combination of data and storage management features, and an elegant, self-managing, peer-scaling architecture.

Simple — Simple to implement, manage and adapt
Scalable — Scalable from a few terabytes to multiple petabytes; store billions of files and get broad access through HTTP
Affordable — Self-managing and self-healing with x86 hardware and integrated software

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What is object storage?

Object storage is the intelligent evolution of disk storage — creating, storing and distributing variable-sized data objects, and their associated metadata, rather than simply placing blocks of data on tracks and sectors. Each object has its rich metadata inextricably linked to it, enabling long-term preservation while ensuring data remains safe and accessible over time.

Simple architecture
A flat-address-space design removes file-system complexity and the need to manage logical unit numbers (LUNs) and RAID groups.

Cost-effectiveness
Automated management, serial ATA- (SATA) and near-line SAS based storage and a modular scaling approach result in low total cost of ownership.

Metadata
By incorporating metadata into objects, object-based storage enables you to apply preservation, retention and deletion policies — thereby reducing lower management resources — and to facilitate enhanced discovery.

Enhanced scalability
An extremely large number of available addresses means a common storage pool can support literally billions of objects.

Powerful data management

Information is only valuable when it can be accessed, but keeping it readily available can be cumbersome and expensive. With the Dell DX Object Storage Platform, you can streamline data management while easily expanding capacity.

Object-based and metadata-aware disk storage lets you identify and retrieve information quickly; better leverage your data for decision-making; automatically manage that data from creation through deletion; and minimize your dependence on complex and sometimes unreliable tape storage.

Policy-based management provides automated, object-level retention and deletion based on metadata, eliminating the human errors, access and preservation problems that increase risk and drive up costs.
Self-healing functionality continuously self-manages the integrity of stored objects to detect and repair errors and automatically reconfigures and regenerates objects without the need for IT intervention.
Easy interface employs simple HTTP and offers a native API SDK integration toolkit.
Dell ProConsult Services* offer collaborative consultation to help you design a system that fits your specific needs.

You can reduce your storage footprint and improve storage utilization and optimization with the DX6000G Storage Compression Node (SCN). This feature can transmit compressed or decompressed data, using policies to intelligently move archived objects based on your need for high compression or fast rehydration.

The Dell DX Object Storage Platform is also supported by a large and ever-growing number of independent software vendors (ISVs) who can help maximize your investment with a common object-storage pool for multiple applications.

Dell is developing integrations with partners in areas such as medical archiving, file, email and SharePoint archiving, as well as eDiscovery, enterprise content management and cloud storage spaces. Information for ISV partners who would like to be a part of this program can be found here.

Dell DX Object Storage Platform: Billions and billions

• Massively expand your system — scaling in amounts as small as 2TB up to multiple petabytes and billions of objects — without the complexity or limitations of a traditional file system.
• Flexible, peer-scaling architecture enables you to scale at your own pace, ensuring a perfect balance between capacity and output.
• Cloud enabling DX Object Storage enables users to build a digital content cloud that can be leveraged across an organization for governance, discovery and business intelligence.
• Multitenancy with named objects enables customers to store and retrieve objects using a single name. As a result, it means that DX Object Storage can support multitenancy, which is the ability to separate data from different users on one big pool of storage, maintaining access to different sets (domains and buckets) of data by only certain users. This is a technology that is appealing to cloud storage providers and users who are looking to implement private clouds in their organization.
• Transparent read cache DX nodes can cache frequently read objects in memory using a configurable amount of RAM leading to greatly reduced latency in providing data to the user. This provides improved performance for accessing content that is in high demand — similar to how content delivery networks operate.
• Foundational storage tier provides access to unstructured data for multiple applications — securing data in one place for risk and cost management, and enabling enhanced discovery and decision-making capabilities.

Superb cost management

DX Object Storage can help cut storage costs versus traditional performance storage methods, allowing you to affordably store and access your digital content without locking yourself into a costly, inflexible strategy.

Standards-based x86 hardware
DX Object Storage is built on Dell’s rack-based server platforms that have been optimized for storage.
End-to-end solution
The fully integrated hardware and software solution comes with available design, implementation and support services.
Transparent upgrades
As storage needs evolve, you can easily add, replace or retire nodes without any manual migration requirements.
Power optimization
Configure power-optimization features, such as drive spin-down, to meet specific use-case and cost priorities.
Scaling options
Storage nodes are available in either 4-drive or 12-drive configurations to meet your initial capacity needs, provide flexible capacity upgrades and achieve your unique performance requirements.

Storage

Six 3.5" SATA (7.2K) Hard disk drives
Available capacities: 1TB

Maximum Internal Raw Capacity
6TB

RAID Controllers

RAID 5 through PERC H700 (6Gb/s) with 512MB battery-backed cache

Communications

Communication (Standard)
Four embedded Broadcom NetXtreme II 5709C GBE NIC ports with failover

Communication (Optional)
Broadcom NetXtreme II 5709C Quad-port GBE Adapter

Power

Two hot-plug 870W power supplies

Chassis

2U
Height: 8.64cm (3.40")
Width: 44.31cm (17.44")
Depth: 68.07cm (26.80")
Weight (maximum configuration): 26.1kg (57.54lb)

Peripheral Bay
DVD-ROM

Rail Support
ReadyRails™ sliding rails for 4-post racks, static ReadyRails™ for 4-post and 2-post racks, and optional support for cable management arm

Availability Features
Hot-plug hard drives, Hot-plug redundant power, Hot-plug redundant cooling, ECC memory, Spare Row Single Device Data Correction (SDDC), iDRAC6 Express or iDRAC6 Enterprise (optional), Tool-less chassis, Cluster support

Management

System Management:
Dell OpenManage featuring Dell Management Console
Lifecycle Controller
iDRAC6 Enterprise (Optional)
VFlash (Optional)

Regulatory

Regulatory Model: E02S
Regulatory Type: E02S001

Product Safety, EMC and Environmental Datasheets
Dell Regulatory Compliance Home Page
Dell and the Environment

Dell Services IT Consulting

Dell Services leverages a targeted consulting methodology based on experiences gained through thousands of customer engagements keeping projects on time and on task. Dell can collaboratively help you plan, assess and implement data management projects, and provide the training and knowledge handoff to help ensure your storage system's effectiveness.

PHASE	DESCRIPTION
Storage Simplification Workshop Understand the potential
	Approximately 1/2 day free consultative white boarding session Accelerated diagnosis through unique Measureable Rapid Insight approach to quickly outline the current state and highlight potential high-value activities Identification of storage optimization opportunities to match the right technology with the specific needs of your business Best practice summary and next steps outline
Backup, recovery & archiving assessment Make informed decisions	Comprehensive 35-day engagement that provides an extensive review of your storage infrastructure data Insightful data collection and analysis in context of your business and operational environment Actionable recommendations, with cost models, once assessment has been completed
Design Lay the path for success	Seasoned consultants provide industry best-practice solutions design tailored to your specific data archiving business and technical needs A design is clearly defined at the project onset to help ensure effective and efficient use of resources as well as to solidify the costs and timeline
Implementation Capture the value	Facilitates a well-planned solution implementation in any storage environment to reduce risk and downtime Includes discovery, analysis, deployment planning and acceptance testing

Data archiving and Dell Services

By leveraging proven experience and methodology, Dell Services can help you identify, design, implement and maintain the right data archiving solution for your environment.

Backup, recovery and archiving assessment

Dell assesses the customer’s data archiving needs and provides actionable recommendations.

Data archiving design

Data archiving solution designs are tailored to meet customer needs with solutions that include DX Object Storage, Symantec™ and CommVault® products.

DX Object Storage solution design

DX Object Storage-specific data archiving design services help ensure successful implementation and deployment in complex environments.

Dell ProSupport

Dell breaks the mold of traditional IT support with Dell™ ProSupport™* — a 100 percent configurable suite of professional support services that can simplify your IT from the desktop to the data center.

With Dell ProSupport you can customize your support services based on who you want supported, how you want them supported, and your preferred speed of response. Customize your support even further for specific needs such as asset and data protection or proactive support.

The Dell ProSupport portfolio can provide:

Expertise for specialized applications and technology, such as virtualization, systems management, Microsoft® Exchange and more
Proactive problem avoidance services to help ensure you achieve maximum uptime
Rapid response to help reduce unplanned downtime
Tech-to-tech support with Fast-Track Dispatch for certified IT professionals
Laptop tracking and data protection services help enable your mobile workforce while helping to protect your investment

To get started, simply choose the Dell ProSupport for IT service model designed for IT professionals like you, and then take advantage of the Dell ProSupport Options and recommended solutions that align to how you use your technology.