Dell, Microsoft Team for Flexible NAS-SAN Solution

Published: December 13, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Dell and Microsoft unveiled a new storage system last week that should provide small and mid size businesses with an affordable entry into high-end storage.

Under the deal, customers will be able to purchase Dell's PowerVault NX1950 preloaded with Microsoft's new iSCSI-based storage software, Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 software. By including all the features and protocols that users will need--such as data "snapshot" capabilities, replication, and resource management--the new offering will decrease costs and simplify licensing and deployment, the companies say.

Dell characterizes the PowerVault NX1950 as a melding of NAS and SAN capabilities. In one configuration, the NX1950 can be hooked up directly to PowerVault disk storage arrays for a relatively straightforward NAS set-up. Alternatively, it can be configured as a SAN gateway to control banks of Dell or EMC disks. In either configuration, it supports file sharing via NFS and CIFS protocols, enabling it to work with Windows, Linux, Unix, and Mac applications. It also supports the iSCSI protocol for data application storage, and Fibre Channel connectivity for higher-end environments.

Underneath the PowerVault NX1950's covers are two Intel Xeon processors, 4 GB of memory (it can handle up to 8 GB), and two mirrored 73 GB SAS drives, which are used to run Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003. The device can be deployed by itself or in two-node cluster configurations. On the back-end, the NX1950 can drive up to 45 SAS disk drives in PowerVault disk subsystem. Users have their choice of 10K RPM or 15K RPM drives, giving it a maximum capacity of 4.5 TB.

Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 is based on Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, and provides IP SAN (iSCSI) capabilities

The PowerVault NX1950 is available in NAS mode now. Pricing starts at $17,000 for an entry-level system, while a fully outfitted configuration with 4.5 TB start at about $24,000. Dell says that "integrated solutions" supporting clustering, drive expansion, and SAN gateway capabilities, won't be available until the first half of 2007

For more information, see www.dell.com/nx or www.microsoft.com/storage.