Dell Inc introduced a new computer data-storage system on Monday targeted at small businesses, one of the storage market's fastest-growing segments.
Dell said the devices, which start at about dollars 7,000 and run to 13,000 dollars are less expensive and easier to use than rivals' models. They address the growing backup needs of small businesses grappling with ever-increasing amounts of data.
The systems use existing network connections, eliminating the need to install more complicated connections used by larger companies. The technology is known as iSCSI, an Internet-enabled alternative to other methods for connecting computers to data storage.
Small businesses, defined by Dell as employing 20 or fewer people, have "poor choices when it comes to storage," founder and Chief Executive Michael Dell told a briefing in San Francisco. "It either costs too much or it doesn't do what you want it to do." Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, had the fastest storage revenue growth of major data-storage vendors in the second quarter, increasing nearly 24 percent to an estimated $405 million, industry researcher IDC said last week.
Dell, the world's second-largest personal computer maker, in the second quarter ranked fourth in the world-wide external disk storage revenue market, behind EMC Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and International Business Machines Corp HP is the world's biggest PC manufacturer.
Overall industry revenue growth of 6.2 percent in the second quarter was fuelled by systems selling for less than 300,000 dollars, IDC said, with some of the strongest growth in the segment Dell hopes to address with the new storage product. Dell earns about 85 percent of its revenue from businesses, with consumers accounting for the rest. The new system, called the MD3000i, complements higher-end equipment made by EMC and re-sold by Dell.
"What you are starting to see emerge is a bit of a different focus where we are pointing the company into different areas," CEO Dell said. "We're making a number of long-term investments," which include the new storage system.