Dell unveiled new EqualLogic storage products for data centers and integration of three of its data center storage product families with VMware vSphere 5, an upcoming edition of the virtualization and cloud platform.

The two new EqualLogic storage product series include PS4100 and PS6100. The former is targeted at small and mid-size businesses or remote office locations, and the latter was designed for mid-size customers.

PS4100 arrays support up to 36TB per array and 72TB in a single group. The groups can scale seamlessly by adding either more PS4100 or PS6100 arrays.

PS6100 arrays support up to 72TB per array and 1.2PB per group. They can accommodate both high-performance and high-capacity drive options.

Dell says PS6100 is ideal for highly-virtualized data center environments where VMs, applications and data have to move from host to host seamlessly.

The arrays in this series were redesigned to fit in a compact form factor, so that customers get similar performance for typical workloads using half the number of arrays and get 50% more expansion capacity in comparison to previous-generation EqualLogic arrays, according to Dell.

Rich Villars, VP of storage and IT strategies at research firm IDC, said exploiting virtualization was key to increasing IT asset efficiency and improving IT responsiveness to business pressures.

"Dell's continued investment in advanced yet cost effective storage solutions along with a continued expansion of its enterprise service and solutions organization, puts the company in a strong position to help IT organizations get the most from their data centers, today, and in the future," he said.

In support of VMware's upcoming release of vSphere 5, Dell introduced a new set of VMware-specific enhancements for EqualLogic, Compellent and PowerVault storage product lines.