Dimension Data Introduces Tiered Storage Across Its Global Cloud

NEW YORK, May 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Dimension Data, the $5.8 billion global ICT solutions and services provider, today announced the availability of tiered storage options as part of its enterprise-class Public Compute-as-a-Service (CaaS) offering. Public cloud clients can now access three tiers of block-based storage at $0.07 to $0.44 per GB per month, enabling businesses to increase efficiencies in the cloud and significantly reduce total storage cost by matching the level of protection, performance and accessibility of data to the storage media that best suits an application.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120402/NE80686LOGO )

Based on EMC's VNX storage platform, Dimension Data will offer High-Performance, Standard and Economy tiers tailored to fulfill the precise requirements of workloads and data sets. EMC VNX Series is a high-performing unified storage platform that is optimized for virtual applications in the cloud. Built with simplicity in mind, tiered storage options can be easily selected and provisioned through a Web-based user interface or API, enabling organizations to change the type of storage required for cloud servers on the fly. The new service leverages solid state drives (SSD) to accelerate performance for both the High-Performance and Standard options.

Steve Nola, Cloud Solutions Business Unit CEO at Dimension Data said: "Dimension Data is committed to providing a high-performance cloud that is easy to use and customize. Providing additional options around storage media is an important innovation that enables our clients to leverage the cloud for a variety of applications including high-performance databases, as well as less demanding applications such as archiving, backup and long-term data retention."

Clients can select Dimension Data tiered storage options based on the performance, availability and cost requirement for each application:

• Tier 1 – High-Performance: 600 GB 15k Drives (RAID 5)
  • Use Case: Cloud applications that use online active files, database tables, Web and user files
• Tier 2 – Standard: 2TB 7200RPM (RAID 5)
  • Use Case: Cloud applications that use VM/VDI files, online archive videos, photos, backups and snapshots, OS images
• Tier 3 – Economy: 3TB 7200RPM (RAID 5)
  • Use Case: Cloud applications that use offline master backup, disaster recovery, gold copy, archive, long-term retention

Availability and Pricing
Tiered storage is initially available to clients of Dimension Data Managed Cloud Platforms™ (MCPs) located in the United States (California), Australia and Europe. The service will be rolled out to other Public CaaS environments in the coming months. Existing Public CaaS customer cloud servers will automatically be associated with the Standard tier, which was the previous level of storage offered. The new storage tiers are priced by the hour: Economy – USD 0.0001/GB/hour; Standard – USD 0.0003/GB/hour; and High-Performance – USD 0.0006/GB/hour. For additional information on Dimension Data's tiered cloud storage services, please visit http://nacloud.dimensiondata.com/Cloud-Now/Tiered-Storage.

About Dimension Data
Founded in 1983, Dimension Data plc is an ICT services and solutions provider that uses its technology expertise, global service delivery capability, and entrepreneurial spirit to accelerate the business ambitions of its clients. Dimension Data is a member of the NTT Group. Visit us at www.dimensiondata.com/na and www.facebook.com/DimensionDataAmericas or follow us on Twitter: @DimensionDataAM.  

SOURCE Dimension Data