Dell is addressing the ever-increasing performance requirements of modern workloads with a new flash-based caching solution designed to speed data access in large-scale enterprise environments where application response times are directly tied to the bottom line.

Announced on Tuesday at the European offshoot of the Dell Enterprise Summit, Fluid Cache for SAN is based on technology that the company obtained as part of the 2011 acquisition of Oregon-based memory clustering startup RNA Networks. It combines server-side PCIe flash cards into a shared pool of high-performance capacity that is not only less prone to outages, but eliminates the need for frequently used “hot data” to travel through the network all the way to the storage array as well.

Dell boasts that the software has achieved five million random input/output operations per second in an internal benchmark testing conducted last year, which would put it comfortably ahead of the competition. A separate trial run showed that the solution can handle as many as 14,000 concurrent users at a fraction of the normal cost, the firm said.

Fluid Cache for SAN extends existing the caching capabilities of Dell’s Data Progression tiering software, which comes built-in with its Compellent storage systems and automatically places information in the appropriate tier based on metadata profiles that are updated in real-time. It also takes advantage of the company’s newly unveiled Storage Center 6.5 array operating system, which in turn introduces block-level compression that allows SAN users to squeeze considerably more data into their disk drives.

On top of that, the latest release packs a synchronous Live Volume capability that allows admins to restore data without taking applications offline and self-encrypting drives, functionality that can be especially useful for companies in regulated industries like healthcare and finance. Dell is further bolstering its security portfolio with OpenManage Essentials 1.3, a new edition of its hardware monitoring and management solution that adds integration with AppAssure data protection software to let users schedule backups and keep tabs on their SonicWALL firewall appliances.

OpenManage Essentials 1.3 is complemented by OpenManage Mobile, a freely downloadable mobile client that provides access to the core administrative features of the platform. The app made its debut alongside a new cloud-based threat detection service that scans corporate devices for malicious activity leveraging the Carbon Black server and end-point monitoring platform from Bit9.

Additionally, Dell is rolling out a revamped interface for its suite of EqualLogic Host Integration Tools that aims to simplify the administration of Windows and Linux-based virtualized environments.

The new products and enhancements are joined by a milestone update to iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller, the managment software that ships with Dell’s PowerEdge systems, which brings with it automatic deployment functionality that eliminates the bulk of the manual work associating with setting up server configurations. To make the series even more attractive to customers, the company certified the PowerEdge R920 for SAP’s HANA in-memory database.

The 4-socket, 4U rack server is Dell’s highest performing box, featuring Intel’s latest 15-core Xeon E7 v2 processor and 96 DIMM slots for up to 6 terabytes of memory. The vendor says that this combination delivers 71 percent better overall performance than the previous record holder, Fujitsu’s competing 4-socket E7-4800.