Dell expands services with focus on storage

The company has also updated its PowerVault DL2000 backup appliance, which includes built-in deduplication capabilities.

The company introduced its consulting services last year, and the new storage-focused capabilities are intended to help customers get a better understanding of how to optimise their storage infrastructure, with a particular focus on deduplication and where to make the best use of the technology.

"Given that de-dupe is a hot topic at the moment, our new services are designed to cut through the confusion around this technology so customers don't look on it as just an isolated solution. We see de-dupe fitting into an overall storage optimisation strategy," said Paul Kaeley, practice leader for Dell's Infrastructure Consulting Services.

While deduplication can help to reduce the total amount of storage a customer requires, it should not be seen as a cure-all. Companies need to ensure that they are making optimal use of the storage they already have, before starting to consider deduplication, according to Kaeley.

"Customers are struggling with archive data. A lot of the time we find rarely accessed data sitting on expensive tier one storage," he explained.

The new offerings include a Backup, Recovery and Archive assessment, an Optimisation and Deduplication Design service, and a free half-day Storage Simplification Workshop.

These are available to firms of all sizes, from small-to-medium sized businesses up to large enterprise and public sector organisations, according to Dell.

Kaeley claimed that unlike its rivals', Dell's consultants can rapidly assess a customer's requirements and produce fully costed recommendations.

"The classic consulting model is to use an army of consultants who take months to generate a huge report. We use automated discovery tools to gain a rapid insight into the customer's infrastructure," he explained.

To complement the new services Dell has updated its PowerVault DL2000 network backup appliance, which ships with CommVault's Simpana 8.0 software pre-installed, including integrated block-level deduplication support.

The DL2000 performs centralised disk-based backups with optional archive to external tape-based storage.

An optional Email Archiver licence also lets an organisation move infrequently-accessed data from production mail servers to cheaper DL2000 disk storage or PowerVault tape, while retaining normal access to the archived items at all times, Dell said.

Pricing for the DL2000 starts at £7,019 for a model with 8GB memory and dual 250GB drives in a Raid configuration. The price includes a three-year next business day warranty and MD1000 external drive expansion shelf.