Messaging and document collaboration platforms are mission-critical for

many enterprises. Rich feature sets in applications such as Microsoft Exchange

Server 2010 have significantly changed the way in which employees utilize

messaging, evolving from standard desktop e-mail access to messaging and

collaborating from any office and with any device. Fueled by anytime, anywhere

access, expanding bandwidth, and increasingly rich media types, data storage

requirements for messaging applications have experienced compounded

growth. These shifts have resulted in many organizations rethinking their

storage strategies to meet these demands.

Exchange 2010 can greatly expand the demand for storage resources by

increasing the size of mailboxes, centralizing mailbox archives with a new

personal archive capability, easing recovery of accidentally deleted items with

a redesigned dumpster, and the simplification of high-availability management

with the introduction of Database Availability Groups (DAGs). In planning

their deployment of Exchange 2010, Exchange administrators need to define

a decisive storage strategy that can manage email storage growth and

performance demands,

protect vital communications

for compliance, and control

complexity and costs. As

a result, many Exchange

industry analysts argue that a

storage area network (SAN)

is almost always a more

efficient and effective storage

strategy for medium to large

Exchange installations.

Microsoft Exchange 2010 with Dell Compellent: An efficient, agile, and resilient storage solution.

Solution Brief

Dell Compellent Benefits

• Improve Exchange storage efficiency – Dell Compellent Data Progression automatically moves frequently used data to higher performance tiers of storage while moving infrequently used data to lower cost, higher-density disks.

• Seamlessly grow Exchange environments – Using Dell Compellent Dynamic Capacity (Thin Provisioning), storage resources are only consumed as the Exchange database grows, deferring storage purchases until required.

• Simply protect Exchange databases – Use Dell Compellent Instant Replays and Replay Manager to shorten recovery times, offload backups, and simplify disaster recovery planning while providing business continuity.

• Consolidate Exchange into agile, efficient enterprise architecture – Dell Compellent SANs are a natural component of consolidation and virtualization strategies within the enterprise datacenter.

A Dell Compellent SAN seamlessly manages Exchange Data Growth

Dell Compellent Storage Center, based on the Dell Fluid Data

Architecture™, can lead the way in transforming how Exchange

data is stored and managed. Dell Compellent provides a flexible,

resilient and agile SAN solution that dynamic Exchange 2010

infrastructures require. Features such as Compellent Data

Progression, Dynamic Capacity, and Replay Manager, help

simplify storage operations and data protection for Microsoft

Exchange 2010 environments, and offers flexible, cost-effective

expansion to seamlessly accommodate e-mail growth and

retention requirements.

Increase Exchange storage proficiency with Dell Compellent

A significant challenge faced by an Exchange administrator is how

much storage to allocate and configure. Given the possibility of

dramatic increases in storage use and the potential challenges

in reconfiguring DAS and JBOD storage, Dell Compellent can

provide a more flexible and cost-effective alternative.

Using Dell Compellent Dynamic Capacity (Thin Provisioning),

storage is allocated automatically only as it is written by

Exchange. By creating virtualized data volumes, unused physical

storage space is allocated from a common pool for use by

all Exchange volumes on an on-demand basis. This flexibility

allows you to pay only for storage resources as they are actually

consumed and reduce ongoing power and cooling expense. As

storage needs grow over time, storage resources are seamlessly

added without incurring downtime. Dynamic Capacity

provisioning process not only improves Exchange storage

efficiency, it also increases storage agility.

Data Progression intelligent storage tiering automatically stores

frequently accessed Exchange data on high performance

Tier-1 storage and migrates less frequently accessed data from

Tier-1 resources to low-cost, high-capacity Tier-3 storage. A

Dell Compellent storage platform with Data Progression can

provide unmatched flexibility that allows for an incremental,

pay as you grow approach for additional storage. And since

almost 80 percent of Exchange data is inactive, Compellent

Data Progression helps ensure agility and flexibility in designing

Exchange storage architecture; it leverages higher performance

drives where they are needed without breaking the bank.

Snapshots functions are critical for point-in-time Exchange

volume recovery and can help remove the often lengthy

and arduous recovery process from tape backups. Dell

Compellent Replay Manager™ snapshot consistency software

helps Exchange administrators avoid time consuming manual

recovery operations, ensure governance using automated

Microsoft Windows PowerShell™ scripting, and complement

current data center backup policies with a granular Exchange

recovery process. Replay Manager seamlessly integrates with

Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to quiesce or

pause I/O between the Exchange server and storage volumes.

It takes space-efficient storage area network (SAN)–based

snapshots of Exchange data without taking the application

offline. And instead of depending on full volume clones to back

up server applications, Replay Manager leverages Compellent

Data Instant Replay to enable space-efficient point-in-time

copies of Exchange data sets. Replay Manager ensures that

up-to-date copies of Exchange datasets are always ready in

the event an Exchange volume recovery is required and helps

safeguard the Exchange database resiliency.

Efficient, agile and resilient Exchange storage

Microsoft® Exchange 2010 presents many compelling

benefits to enterprises today, while significantly increasing the

need for efficient, agile, resilient storage. Dell Compellent SANs

help enterprises transform the way in which their messaging

application data is stored and managed, is designed to make

the best use of available storage and provides a solid foundation

for shared resource architecture. Dell Compellent is the right

choice for an enterprise Microsoft® Exchange 2010 deployment.

© 2012 Dell Inc. All Rights Reserved. SB204_USA_040912

For more information, visit http://www.dellstorage.com/application-integration