Dell Brings Object Storage, Snapshot Features to Microsoft SharePoint

BOSTON--This week's Dell Storage Forum event featured several new products and enhancements that will make the company's storage products a better fit in enterprises that leverage Microsoft technologies.

First and foremost is the Dell Solution for Microsoft SharePoint Infrastructure Optimization, which was announced in January and will begin shipping soon. Dell has integrated AvePoint's DocAve software into the DX6000 object storage system to create a SharePoint backup and archiving storage system, something that's sorely needed by large enterprises looking to expand SharePoint into the role of a collaborative content management system.

Dell claims its SharePoint Infrastructure Optimization offers several capabilities to remove many of the pain points associated with deploying large-scale SharePoint solutions, Including:

Backup, restoration and archiving improvements are a direct result of the integration of DocAve software, which transfers data between SharePoint's primary storage and the DX6000. SharePoint data can also seamlessly move between SQL Server databases used by SharePoint and the DX6000. Simply put, the Dell/AvePoint stack migrates, reclaims and interoperates with heterogeneous SQL storage.

Furthermore, storage has been made more efficient with the DX6000's compression engine integrated with the DocAve app. That compression is user-definable via policies, which enable the system to use faster or slower but stronger compression in the object store.

Dell's EqualLogic offers a SharePoint reference architecture that can be used for primary storage, while the DX6000 can be deployed at the back end to handle older data--in the future, Dell plans to add its Compellent storage to the reference architecture.

Dell claims that with 16 identified DX6000 partners, the product is making good progress into the market and expects the DX6000 to see growth in the healthcare, higher education, financial services, engineering and government markets. Partners include AvePoint, CommVault and Symantec. Dell also expects to offer more integration products, composed of Dell's storage offerings with partner software and Dell services, in the near future.