Dell Software updates DR Series of deduplication appliances

Dell Software has launched a major update to its DR Series of deduplication appliances for enhanced security, improved performance and increased flexibility, enabling companies to implement a more comprehensive backup and recovery strategy. 

Kumar Mitra, GM, Data Backup & Recovery, Asia-Pacific and Japan, Dell Software said: “As the volume and criticality of data continues to grow, companies of all sizes need backup solutions capable of addressing these challenges in a cost-effective manner. 

"Dell’s DR Series of deduplication appliances does just that, providing customers a high-performance solution that can help lower costs and reduce complexity while delivering measurable return on investment. The added security, performance and flexibility features delivered in the latest release provide just another compelling reason for customers to consider the DR Series as a means to get more from their backup investments.”

The update to the Dell DR Series of deduplication appliances includes performance and scalability upgrades, encryption at rest capabilities, as well as virtual tape library (VTL) and network data management protocol (NDMP) backup support. 

Key features and capabilities in the latest release include:

· Performance and scalability upgrades – Dell has addressed customers’ need to tackle aggressive data growth by using 6TB drives to increase the maximum capacity of the DR6000 to 252 terabytes (TB) of usable capacity. The new release also boosts the DR6000’s ingest performance to up to 25TB per hour. In addition, with delivery on the DR4100 of Rapid Network File System (NFS) and Rapid Common Internet File System (CIFS) – the industry’s first source-side deduplication capabilities for NFS and CIFS backup – Dell has boosted its ingest performance up to 17TB per hour, a 150% performance increase.

· Encryption at rest – This feature ensures data is encrypted both during the backup process and while stored on disk. Existing DR Series customers can download the latest software release to encrypt the data already stored on their DR systems.

· VTL support – DR Series customers can now leverage disk-based VTL as a backup target, improving the speed of backups and reducing the risk, cost, and complexity issues commonly associated with legacy tape backup processes. Additionally, DR Series appliances now also support VTL backups using Microsoft Data Protection Manager.

· NDMP support – The enhancement enables organisations currently backing up network attached storage (NAS) systems to save time and lower costs by sending data directly from their storage device to a Dell DR Series target appliance, thus freeing up network resources by using the standard NDMP protocol. This allows customers to move backups directly to the DR backup device, and frees up network resources.

The Dell DR Series OS 3.2 is available now to all customers free with the latest software download. The DR Series appliances are available direct from Dell or through the channel.

Dell’s DR Series of deduplication appliances includes the DR6000 for enterprises, DR4100 for mid-sized companies, and DR2000v for remote offices. All DR Series appliances feature built-in, variable blocked-based deduplication and compression technology, enabling customers to speed backup and restore times while minimising storage requirements.