Compellent Technologies

Compellent Technologies, Inc., was an American manufacturer of enterprise computer data storage systems that provided block-level storage resources to small and medium sized IT infrastructures. The company was founded in 2002 and headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Compellent's flagship 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 through a proprietary process called "DataProgression", thin provisioning and replication. The company developed software and products aimed at mid-size enterprises and sold through a channel network of independent providers and resellers.[2] Dell acquired the company in February 2011, after which it was briefly a subsidiary known as Dell Compellent.

Compellent Technologies, Inc.
TypePublic[1]
CML (Nasdaq)[1]
IndustryData storage devices
Founded2002
FounderLarry Aszmann
John Guider
Phil Soran
DefunctFebruary 22, 2011 (2011-02-22)
FateAcquired by Dell
SuccessorDell Compellent
Headquarters
7625 Smetana Lane
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Michael Dell
  • (Chairman & CEO)
  • Elliot Kahn
  • (CFO)
  • Phil Soran
  • (Vice President)
  • John Guider
  • (Vice President)
  • Jack Judd
  • (Vice President)
ProductsStorage Center, Storage Center with NAS
RevenueIncrease $ 125.3 million (2009)
Number of employees
565 (Start of 2011)
ParentDell Technologies
Websitewww.dellemc.com/en-us/storage/sc-series.htm

History

Compellent Technologies was founded in 2002 by Phil Soran, John Guider, and Larry Aszmann. The three had network storage and virtualization backgrounds.

The company had its initial public offering on October 15, 2007, became profitable for the first time in Q3 2008 and was 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.[3]

On December 13, 2010, Compellent announced it agreed to be acquired by Dell for approximately $960 million. The purchase was completed in February 2011 and the product line sold as Dell Compellent.[4]

In the following years, Dell slowly phased out the Compellent brand name, naming the products simply Dell SCxxxx (for example, Dell SC9000).

Products

Storage Center

Compellent’s storage area network (SAN) system, called "Storage Center", combines several virtualized storage-management applications with hardware. The product tracks metadata, 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.[5] Large amounts of data are stored and managed on a granular level and assigned automatically to high-performance drives or large-capacity drives. Compellent said this method of data management can lower hardware, power and cooling costs."[6]

The base configuration of Storage Center includes a dual, redundant disk array controller, disk enclosure, disk drives, connectivity hardware, and software modules.

For high availability purposes, I/O ports and power supplies are also redundant.

The operating system, called SCOS (Storage Center Operating System), 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 disk drives). To expand the hardware, users add new drives or I/O 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. SupportAssist (formerly: 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 Design (LEED) designation, now Gold-certified, from the United States Green Building Council.[7] 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.[8]

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.[9]

Awards and recognition
  • 2005 - Storage Magazine Bronze Product of the Year - Disk and Disk Subsystems[10]
  • 2006 - CRN Emerging Vendors - No. 1 Storage Standout[11]
  • 2006 - TechWorld UK Recommends - Compellent Storage Centre[12]
  • 2006 - InfoWorld Technology of the Year - Best SAN[13]
  • 2007 - CRN 50 Emerging Vendors You Should Know[14]
  • 2008 - Gold "Best of VMWorld 2008" in Hardware for Virtualization[15]
  • 2008 - Microsoft Partner of the Year for Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Storage Solutions[16]
  • 2008 - InfoWorld Technology of the Year - Best SAN[17]
  • 2008 - Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year - Upper Midwest Region[18]
  • 2008 - Diogenes Labs - Storage Magazine Quality Awards for Midrange Arrays[19]
  • 2009 - Network Computing UK Technology Project of the Year - London Borough of Hillingdon[20]
  • 2009 - CRN Channel Chiefs[21]
  • 2009 - ComputerWorld Top 12 Green IT Vendors
  • 2010 - InfoWorld Technology of the Year Award[22]
  • 2010 - Business Solutions Best Channel Vendor List[23]

References
  1. "Compellent extends tech IPO streak of success". Reuters.com. Reuters. October 9, 2007.
  2. "NYSE Listing. "Compellent Technologies, Inc". nyse.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-02. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
  3. Compellent Technologies. "Compellent Reports Record Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2009 Results." 11 February 2010.
  4. Pressrelease by Dell: Dell acquires Compellent, 22 Februari, 2011. Visited: 3 April 2012
  5. Open Magazine. "Virtual Disk Block: SAN ROI Tipping Point." Archived 2010-05-08 at the Wayback Machine 19 April 2006.
  6. Investor's Business Daily (reprinted on Yahoo Finance News). "Virtual Storage Sheds Help Companies Store Vast Amounts Of Data." 27 October 2009.
  7. "Liberty Property Trust. "Liberty and LEED". libertyproperty.com. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
  8. Liberty Property Trust. "Liberty Pre-Leases New 'Green' Building at Lake Smetana Business Park to Compellent Technologies, Inc." 11 January 2007.
  9. Computerworld. "Top 12 Green IT Vendors." 20 April 2009.
  10. Storage Magazine."Products of the Year 2005." 2005.
  11. CRN. "5 Storage Standouts." 1 November 2006.
  12. Techworld. "Compellent Storage Centre." 4 May 2006.
  13. Infoworld. "Storage Vendors Move Beyond Blocks and LUNs." 2 January 2006.
  14. CRN. "50 Emerging Vendors You Should Know." 04 June 2007.
  15. SearchServerVirtualization.com "Best of VMworld 2008 awards announced." 17 September 2008.
  16. Microsoft. "Microsoft Announces 2008 Partner of the Year Awards Finalists and Winners." Archived September 19, 2008, at the Wayback Machine 16 June 2008.
  17. Infoworld. "2008 Technology of the Year Awards." 7 January 2008.
  18. Ernst & Young. "Winners for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2008 award in Upper Midwest region announced." 05 June 2008.
  19. Storage Magazine. "Quality Awards III - Compellent shakes up the midrange array field" April issue.
  20. Compellent Technologies. "Compellent Customer, London Borough of Hillingdon, Wins 'Network Project of the Year' at the 2009 UK Network Computing Awards." Archived 2009-04-04 at the Wayback Machine 30 March 2009.
  21. CRN 2009 Channel Chiefs, "Brian Bell Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Compellent Technologies." 23 February 2009.
  22. InfoWorld Test Center. "InfoWorld's 2010 Technology of the Year Awards." The IDG Network, 6 January 2010.
  23. Business Solutions. "Best Channel Vendors 2010." Archived 2010-03-05 at the Wayback Machine 4 January 2010.
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