Hailing New Hardware: Dell Wants In On SMB Market

Taking Care Of Business

Dell Thursday introduced two PowerEdge servers, a PowerVault NAS appliance, PowerConnect wireless LAN products and an expanded relationship with Microsoft on its System Center Essentials 2010 management software. The introductions are part of a move to help SMBs update their technology infrastructures with scalable, easy-to-integrate technologies that increase business performance.

Dell Wants Part Of Fast-Growing SMB Market

Dell's SMB hardware portfolio is aimed at an SMB IT market that research firm Gartner estimates is worth $836 billion in 2010, up 5.3 percent over 2009.

James Browning, vice president and research director at Gartner, said that as the market moves past the recession, IT budget constraints will keep SMBs focused on strategic spending and products that produce fast ROI.

The changing economic environment is pushing SMBs to pursue new opportunities such as leveraging social media to expand their businesses globally, said Erik Dithmer, vice president and general manager for SMB at Dell (pictured).

"Our focus has been on making those companies more efficient ... and bringing new solutions to play," Dithmer said.

PowerEdge R415

Dell's new PowerEdge rackmount servers are based on the AMD Opteron 4100 series processors. The servers are aimed at helping small but growing businesses increase productivity, improve security and continuity and reliability, and reduce complexity and costs. Both servers offer fully redundant power supplies and hot-swap hard drives.

The PowerEdge R415 is a two-socket, 1U server targeting such business applications as file and print, e-mail, Web services, IT infrastructure and small virtualization deployments. Pricing starts at $1,200, and shipping is slated for Oct. 11.

PowerEdge R515

Dell's PowerEdge R515 is a two-socket, 2U server that can be configured with eight or 12 hard drives for total storage capacity of up to 25 TB.

The PowerEdge R515 can host a variety of applications, from e-mail to databases, and can be use to consolidate server environments using virtualization technology.

The R515 is scheduled to ship Oct. 11 with a starting price of $1,600.

PowerVault NX200

The PowerVault NX200 NAS tower appliance for SMBs features an Intel dual-core Celeron processor and room for up to four 2-TB SATA hard drives. Data is protected via RAID 5 technology and hot-swap hard drives.

The NX200 is designed to offer consumerlike deployment and support to SMBs. For that reason, customers can just specify the capacity of their NX200, and the appliance's software automates the rest of the installation. It can be up and running within 15 minutes.

The NX200 is available now with list prices starting at $1,600.

PowerConnect W-Series WLAN

Dell's PowerConnect W-series of wireless networking solutions aims to help SMBs scale their networks with mobile workers in mind. The devices are integrated into existing networks and offer indoor access points and dual-radio, dual-band models based on 802.11n technology.

The W-series products are available now, with wireless LAN controllers starting at $1,645 and wireless access points starting at $395.