Compellent Technologies
Encyclopedia
Originally named Compellent Technologies, Inc (NYSE: CML), founded in 2002, is a global provider of enterprise storage systems that gained recognition for automating data movement at the block level. The company is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, USA. Compellent's chief product, Storage Center, is a storage area network
(SAN) system that combines a standards-based hardware platform and a suite of virtualized storage management applications, including automated tiered storage
, thin provisioning
and replication
. The company developed its Storage Center software and hardware solution aimed at mid-size enterprises and sells Storage Center through an all-channel network of independent solution providers and resellers.
backgrounds.
The company had its initial public offering on October 15, 2007, became profitable for the first time in Q3 2008 and has been profitable in consecutive quarters since. On February 11, 2010, it announced Q4 2009 revenues had increased 35 percent over Q4 2008, the company’s 17th consecutive quarter of revenue growth, with full year revenue of $125.3 million.
On December 13, 2010, Compellent announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Dell
(NASDAQ: DELL) at a purchase price of $27.75 per share for an equity value of approximately $960M. The purchase was completed in February of 2011 and the name changed to Dell Compellent.
, information about each block of data stored on the Compellent system, including the date and time written, frequency of access, associated volume, type of disk drive used, type of data stored and RAID level. Large amounts of data are stored and managed on a granular level and assigned automatically to high-performance drives or large-capacity drives. Compellent claims this method of data management can "lower storage costs by half and cut power and cooling costs by up to 93 percent."
There is one Storage Center product model. The base configuration of Storage Center includes a disk array controller
, disk enclosure, disk drives, connectivity hardware, and software modules. The operating system, also called Storage Center, is regularly updated. Software modules include:
Compellent’s hardware supports different server/host interfaces (such as Fibre Channel
and iSCSI
) and drive technologies (such as solid state drives, Fibre Channel, Serial Attached SCSI
and SATA
drives). To expand the hardware, users add new drives or I/O
cards to the existing system.
(LEED) designation, now Gold-certified, from the United States Green Building Council
. Compellent’s Eden Prairie campus has sustainable design elements such as waterless urinals and drip irrigation systems for landscaping that cut water consumption by 40 percent, energy-efficient HVAC equipment with carbon dioxide monitors, and low emission paints and adhesives. In addition, 75 percent of the building’s construction waste was recycled.
In 2009, Computerworld magazine honored Compellent as a top green IT vendor for its corporate and technology efforts to reduce power consumption and lower carbon emissions.
Storage area network
A storage area network is a dedicated network that provides access to consolidated, block level data storage. SANs are primarily used to make storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear like locally attached devices...
(SAN) system that combines a standards-based hardware platform and a suite of virtualized storage management applications, including automated tiered storage
Automated Tiered Storage
Automated Tiered Storage is the automated progression or demotion of data across different tiers of storage devices and media. This movement of data is automatic to the different types of disk according to performance and capacity requirements....
, thin provisioning
Thin Provisioning
Thin provisioning is the act of using virtualization technology to give the appearance of more physical resource than is actually available. If you always have enough resource to simultaneously support all of the virtualized resources then you are not thin provisioned...
and replication
Replication (computer science)
Replication is the process of sharing information so as to ensure consistency between redundant resources, such as software or hardware components, to improve reliability, fault-tolerance, or accessibility. It could be data replication if the same data is stored on multiple storage devices, or...
. The company developed its Storage Center software and hardware solution aimed at mid-size enterprises and sells Storage Center through an all-channel network of independent solution providers and resellers.
History
Compellent Technologies was founded in 2002 by Phil Soran, John Guider, and Larry Aszmann. The three have extensive network storage and virtualizationStorage Virtualization
Storage virtualization or storage virtualisation is a concept and term used within computer science. Specifically, storage systems may use virtualization concepts as a tool to enable better functionality and more advanced features within the storage system.Broadly speaking, a 'storage system' is...
backgrounds.
The company had its initial public offering on October 15, 2007, became profitable for the first time in Q3 2008 and has been profitable in consecutive quarters since. On February 11, 2010, it announced Q4 2009 revenues had increased 35 percent over Q4 2008, the company’s 17th consecutive quarter of revenue growth, with full year revenue of $125.3 million.
On December 13, 2010, Compellent announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Dell
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
(NASDAQ: DELL) at a purchase price of $27.75 per share for an equity value of approximately $960M. The purchase was completed in February of 2011 and the name changed to Dell Compellent.
Storage Center
Compellent’s SAN, called "Storage Center", combines several virtualized storage-management applications and one standards-based hardware platform. The storage solution is based on its Dynamic Block Architecture, which tracks metadataMetadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
, information about each block of data stored on the Compellent system, including the date and time written, frequency of access, associated volume, type of disk drive used, type of data stored and RAID level. Large amounts of data are stored and managed on a granular level and assigned automatically to high-performance drives or large-capacity drives. Compellent claims this method of data management can "lower storage costs by half and cut power and cooling costs by up to 93 percent."
There is one Storage Center product model. The base configuration of Storage Center includes a disk array controller
Disk array controller
A disk array controller is a device which manages the physical disk drives and presents them to the computer as logical units. It almost always implements hardware RAID, thus it is sometimes referred to as RAID controller. It also often provides additional disk cache.A disk array controller name is...
, disk enclosure, disk drives, connectivity hardware, and software modules. The operating system, also called Storage Center, is regularly updated. Software modules include:
- Storage virtualizationStorage VirtualizationStorage virtualization or storage virtualisation is a concept and term used within computer science. Specifically, storage systems may use virtualization concepts as a tool to enable better functionality and more advanced features within the storage system.Broadly speaking, a 'storage system' is...
- Thin provisioningThin ProvisioningThin provisioning is the act of using virtualization technology to give the appearance of more physical resource than is actually available. If you always have enough resource to simultaneously support all of the virtualized resources then you are not thin provisioned...
- Automated tiered storageAutomated Tiered StorageAutomated Tiered Storage is the automated progression or demotion of data across different tiers of storage devices and media. This movement of data is automatic to the different types of disk according to performance and capacity requirements....
- Continuous snapshotsSnapshot (computer storage)In computer systems, a snapshot is the state of a system at a particular point in time. The term was coined as an analogy to that in photography. It can refer to an actual copy of the state of a system or to a capability provided by certain systems....
- Remote replication
- Boot from SAN
Compellent’s hardware supports different server/host interfaces (such as Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel, or FC, is a gigabit-speed network technology primarily used for storage networking. Fibre Channel is standardized in the T11 Technical Committee of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards , an American National Standards Institute –accredited standards...
and iSCSI
ISCSI
In computing, iSCSI , is an abbreviation of Internet Small Computer System Interface, an Internet Protocol -based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities. By carrying SCSI commands over IP networks, iSCSI is used to facilitate data transfers over intranets and to manage...
) and drive technologies (such as solid state drives, Fibre Channel, Serial Attached SCSI
Serial Attached SCSI
Serial Attached SCSI is a computer bus used to move data to and from computer storage devices such as hard drives and tape drives. SAS depends on a point-to-point serial protocol that replaces the parallel SCSI bus technology that first appeared in the mid 1980s in data centers and workstations,...
and SATA
Sata
Sata is a traditional dish from the Malaysian state of Terengganu, consisting of spiced fish meat wrapped in banana leaves and cooked on a grill.It is a type of Malaysian fish cake, or otak-otak...
drives). To expand the hardware, users add new drives or I/O
I/O
I/O may refer to:* Input/output, a system of communication for information processing systems* Input-output model, an economic model of flow prediction between sectors...
cards to the existing system.
Support and services
Compellent provides technical support and professional managed services through its Copilot team, housed at its Minnesota headquarters. Copilot technical support and service representatives provide maintenance, managed services, consultative services and training. Phone Home is an automated problem-detection service that remotely monitors each customer’s SAN and provides proactive alerting on issues.Environmental initiative
The company headquarters occupies the first commercial facility in Minnesota's Twin Cities region to receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental DesignLeadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....
(LEED) designation, now Gold-certified, from the United States Green Building Council
United States Green Building Council
The U.S. Green Building Council , co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a non-profit trade organization that promotes sustainability in how buildings are designed, built, and operated...
. Compellent’s Eden Prairie campus has sustainable design elements such as waterless urinals and drip irrigation systems for landscaping that cut water consumption by 40 percent, energy-efficient HVAC equipment with carbon dioxide monitors, and low emission paints and adhesives. In addition, 75 percent of the building’s construction waste was recycled.
In 2009, Computerworld magazine honored Compellent as a top green IT vendor for its corporate and technology efforts to reduce power consumption and lower carbon emissions.
Awards and recognition
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 2010 | InfoWorld Technology of the Year Award |
| 2010 | Business Solutions Best Channel Vendor List |
| 2009 | Network Computing UK Technology Project of the Year - London Borough of Hillingdon |
| 2009 | CRN Channel Chiefs |
| 2009 | ComputerWorld Top 12 Green IT Vendors |
| 2008 | Gold "Best of VMWorld 2008" in Hardware for Virtualization |
| 2008 | Microsoft Partner of the Year for Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Storage Solutions |
| 2008 | InfoWorld Technology of the Year - Best SAN |
| 2008 | Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year - Upper Midwest Region |
| 2008 | Diogenes Labs - Storage Magazine Quality Awards for Midrange Arrays |
| 2007 | CRN 50 Emerging Vendors You Should Know |
| 2006 | CRN Emerging Vendors - No. 1 Storage Standout |
| 2006 | TechWorld UK Recommends - Compellent Storage Centre |
| 2006 | InfoWorld Technology of the Year - Best SAN |
| 2005 | Storage Magazine Bronze Product of the Year - Disk and Disk Subsystems |