Note that Dell's foray into the SAN space actually started six years ago when it partnered with EMC to develop the Clarion AX150 iSCSI/Fibre Channel SAN. While the Clarion is still sold today as part of Dell's product portfolio, the MD3000i is being brought to market to round out the PowerVault line and to fill a gap where the features of the EMC AX150 end and the CX Enterprise-class series begin. Thus, the MD3000i is not positioned by Dell as a direct competitor to EMC's Clarion line.
Who You Calling SCSI?
We can forgive some omissions because The MD3000i does strike an even balance between features and price. Automated I/O path failover, automatic array failure detection and rebuild using a standby hot spare are available out of the box. Premium features like snapshot technology and volume-copy functionality can be purchased as software upgrades.
In the lab, we were very impressed with the simplicity of Dell's MD Storage Manager application. The Java-based management GUI was very simple to navigate and performed as quickly as a well-written client/server application. As for setup, we managed to rack and configure the device and get a server connected to an array in just one hour. We opted to read the manual, but if you're pressed for time, Dell offers a Remote Implementation Service in which a technician connects to your management station via WebEx and guides you through configuration of your array and host servers. Best of all, RIS is free. Who needs training when you can see a live implementation in your own environment?
Although we were comfortable installing the SAN ourselves, we decided to put RIS to the test, and we were very impressed with how quickly an engineer completely configured our SAN and trained us on product functionality. This is definitely a major value-add, especially for smaller organizations with over-stretched IT staff. On-site installation is also available for a fee.
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