Dell Technologies Inc. today announced an update to its lineup of PowerVault entry-level storage arrays.

The new PowerVault ME5 systems are optimized for storage area networks and direct-attached storage and designed to address the needs of small and medium-sized businesses that are struggling to keep pace with data growth or want to support newer, higher-value workloads.

Dell said PowerVault ME5 is powered by its PowerVault Manager software. It delivers twice the performance, throughput, capacity and memory of the previous generation ME4 system.

The arrays also support Dell’s Open Management Enterprise framework, making them compatible with the company’s computer servers, networking equipment and other data center infrastructure. For customers that are signed up to Dell’s ProSupport Services, there’s also free access to CloudIQ, a cloud-based artificial intelligence operations platform. It uses telemetry, machine learning and other algorithms to provide users with insights on the operational health of the arrays, as well as remediation advice and capacity projections.

Dell said PowerVault ME5 is designed to support a broad range of application workloads, among them high-performance computing file systems, Microsoft and VMware virtualization for up to 500 virtual desktops, and edge use cases such as oil and gas exploration and cloud gaming. The arrays are also a good fit for original equipment manufacturing, meaning they can be rebranded by its OEM customers.

“Many SMB customers, like their enterprise counterparts, want to simplify their IT operations, reduce risk and deploy faster and more scalable storage platforms to keep up with modern applications and data growth,” said Dell Vice President of Product Marketing Shannon Champion. “They’ll be glad to know that the new PowerVault ME5 arrays remain the simplest, most cost-effective way to meet their infrastructure requirements and desired outcomes.”

Customers can choose from an all-flash array or a hybrid configuration for use cases that don’t demand such low latencies, with available configurations starting at $12,000 per array.

Photo: Dell