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Dell is expanding its APEX Data Storage Services portfolio with a new option that lets customers retain effective control of file and block storage solutions. Dell provides upgrades and maintenance for a subscription fee.

The announcement continues the growth of APEX as Dell’s version of configurable infrastructure, wherein device resources are viewed as services, allowing users to purchase them without incurring substantial initial costs.

The customer-managed alternative gives enterprises better control over their resources compared to the fully managed APEX service, with savings ranging from 19 percent to 33 percent. Dell offers a price calculator that calculates expenses depending on data service, performance level, base capacity and subscription period.

Dell’s managed options

Since the introduction of APEX, Dell has provided a customer-managed alternative for all parts of its infrastructure stack via the APEX Private Cloud and APEX Hybrid Cloud hyperconverged infrastructure products.

The alternatives are intended to be used by IT departments that want to transition to an adaptable consumption-based storage model and already have the resources for utilization tracking, infrastructure management and resource management, among other things.

Devon Reed, vice president of product management for APEX, said the company will still configure the underlying infrastructure for users with APEX Data Storage Services.

The customer Dell is aiming to convince

Reed says the customer chooses the performance levels and methodology, but Dell chooses the underlying infrastructure, delivers on-site and gets them up and running. He stated that Dell is still accessible for support and provides some lifecycle services such as patching and upgrading.

According to Reed, the target market is customers that have expert teams in place and are used to handling storage, but are not eager to make the jump to fully managed infrastructure. He calculated that 40 percent to 60 percent of buyers matched the description.

Tip: PowerStore, PowerMax, PowerFlex, PowerScale, Object Scale; Dell storage has many flavours