Dell Rolls Out All-Flash Array Cost Cutting Technology

Dell will support TLC (triple level cell) 3D NAND flash drives for its SC Series storage appliances, becoming the first storage vendor to implement the technology for its customers.

The move lowers the cost of storage-for-performance benchmark, according to Dell, with the firm partnering with Samsung to roll out the so-called ‘Mainstream Read-Intensive’ drives.

Cost reduction

“With these advancements, we can substantially reduce the cost of high-performing, flash-optimised arrays while also cranking-up the performance of affordable, general purpose arrays,” said Alan Atkinson, vice president of Dell Storage.

Dell claims to have effectively doubled its SC Series storage array flash density, now offering offering up to 90 terabytes of raw flash capacity per Dell Storage 2U array, allowing customers to support twice as much data in the same space. With the new technology in the SC Series, Dell now offers all-flash arrays for $1.66 (£1.07) per GB.

“Dell removes the cost barrier to enterprise flash adoption across the full portfolio of Dell Storage SC8000, SC4020 and SCv2000 Series with hybrid flash or all-flash array configurations,” said the company.

Earlier  month, TechWeekEurope reported the cost of storage is one of the main barriers to adoption customers are having in the data centre. Two thirds of firms quizzed in a survey said that cost is one of their biggest problems.

Dell’s news will give comfort to some, highlighting the advancement of cheapening flash storage whilst the performance and storage size exponentially increase.

Dell’s new drives will be available in capacities up to 3.8 terabytes, and will be available from August this year.

With the new drives, available in capacities up to 3.8 terabytes, flash becomes more practical at any scale. The Dell Storage SC4020 can provide a complete 90 terabyte array in only 2U of rack space. Additionally, Dell Storage SC8000 arrays can support 62 percent more flash for a total of up to 3 petabytes of raw flash capacity in a single array. “>Take our data centre quiz here!