Compellent Adds NAS to SAN

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Compellent is adding file server consolidation capabilities to its storage area network with a new network-attached storage system introduced today.

The new Compellent Storage Center SAN version 3.6 with NAS now supports both block- and file-level storage access to simplify management and reduce overall storage cost and complexity. Storage Center with NAS enables growing and large organizations with file serving needs to attain Compellents enterprise-wide storage management benefits, including rapid recovery, continuous snapshots, automated tiered storage, thin provisioning and remote replication. Deployment is simplified by booting the diskless NAS system from the SAN using Compellent-provided setup tools.

Compellent collaborated with Microsoft to marry the file sharing features of Windows® Storage Server 2003 R2 with Compellent’s dynamic block architecture to deliver a unified, highly scalable platform for storage consolidation. With file de-duplication, Storage Center with NAS stores only one copy of a file even though several copies of the same file might exist, such as an e-mail attachment, which can save more than 35 percent in disk space and further reduce storage management costs. From the NAS Compellent also enables administrators to manage SAN volumes and multiple Fibre Channel or iSCSI connections to the Compellent SAN to enhance system management and availability.

“Microsoft’s Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 platform is designed to enable end-to-end enterprise storage solutions that are easy to deploy, reduce storage complexity and scale to meet the needs of any organization,” said Bala Kasiviswanathan, director of storage solutions marketing at Microsoft. “Our partnership with Compellent and the seamless integration with the Storage Center SAN delivers the ease of use that small enterprises demand, as well as the enterprise-class availability and performance that larger organizations require.“

Compellent Technologies Inc.