LONDON, UK: At its first Dell Storage Forum event in Europe, Dell announced advancements in its Fluid Data architecture.

Dell added new offerings into this architecture that include its first deduplication back-up appliance; which integrate intellectual property from Ocarina, a software release for Compellent storage arrays; a new storage optimization solution for Microsoft SharePoint; and broader support for Dell Force10, PowerConnect and Brocade storage networking solutions.

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"Today's IT organizations are moving faster than ever down a road that is constantly changing. That's why their data needs to be as dynamic as their business," said Darren Thomas, vice president and general manager, Dell Enterprise Storage. "With Dell's new primary, archive and back-up storage solutions, the Dell Fluid Data architecture delivers the storage intelligence customers need to deal with a sea of constant IT change without driving up costs, wasting time or continually replacing infrastructure."

Dell DR4000 storage platform with de-duplication and compression

The DR4000 combines the performance and reliability of disk-based back-up with de-duplication and compression capabilities from Dell's Ocarina Networks acquisition.

The DR4000, available in 40TB, 81TB or 135TB effective storage capacities in a single appliance, features inline de-duplication and compression, de-duplicated replication, advanced data protection, and non-disruptive deployment, certified with back-up software applications, says a release.

Dell Compellent Storage Center 6.0

The new Dell Compellent Storage Center 6.0 software includes new 64-bit support that doubles memory size. The Dell Compellent SAN features tiering, thin provisioning and replication features, which enables data centres to improve cost savings by upgrading to the new firmware and implement future product releases without requiring a rip-and-replace process, adds the release.

Storage Center 6.0 also expands Dell and VMware's integration and engineering collaboration to help customers move to dynamic data centres and cloud computing environments.

Extending its existing Dell EqualLogic and PowerVault application integration for VMware vSphere 5, Dell introduced new VMware specific enhancements for Dell Compellent storage customers including:

Dell Compellent VMware vSphere Storage APIs for Array Integration

Dell Compellent Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) for Site Recovery Manager 5

Dell Compellent vSphere 5 Client Plug-In and Enterprise Manager-vSphere 5 Integration