New Dell EMC ECS hardware, updated software available
The EX500, aimed at midsize enterprises, joins the EX300 and EX3000 within the hardware line. The 3.4 version of the ECS platform aims to improve storage and data visibility.
In an effort to meet the object storage needs of organizations, Dell has launched new Dell EMC ECS hardware and updated its software.
The newest object storage-related hardware is the Dell EMC ECS EX500 appliance. It was designed to provide more flexibility into the EMC ECS portfolio. It has a rack capacity that can scale from 480 TB to 4.6 petabytes (PB), and was created with midsize enterprises in mind.
Full specifications include the following:
- front-accessible and hot-pluggable drives;
- performance via dual 10-core processors;
- scale-out nodes; and
- identical performance characteristics with every node.
The EX500 joins the EX300 and EX3000 as the latest addition of the Dell EMC ECS hardware line. Comparatively, the EX300 is the starter edition and was designed to lower object storage adoption entry barriers. It has 60 TB starting cluster options. The EX3000 is a high-density object storage system with up to 8.6 PB per rack. It was designed for long-term retention, storage consolidation and multipurpose object storage requirements.
The latest software update is version 3.4 of the Dell EMC ECS software. According to Dell, the goal of this update is to enable organizations to ensure enterprise readiness, enhance data visibility, improve storage efficiency and deploy EX500 appliances.
The software now includes capabilities such as security technical implementation guide hardening, external key management support, custom alerts and additional security features. There are also new data monitoring metrics and native Grafana data visualization capabilities.
In an effort to improve storage efficiency, the update reduces metadata overhead per object to increase usable capacity.
The latest version of Dell EMC ECS also makes the full range of EX-series hardware functional.
This software update advances the efforts of the previous one in March, when Dell EMC released the 3.3 version to increase the security, management and search capabilities in its ECS software.
Object-based storage has gained traction recently as the technology has matured. According to an IDC survey, more than 75% of leaders in IT believe object storage has reached a place where it can support leading IT initiatives.
