EqualLogic, now part of Dell, launched a new storage array last week that is the company's largest array to date.

The Dell EqualLogic PS5500E is a Serial ATA array with 24TB or 48TB in capacity intended for tiered primary storage, nearline archive or remote disaster recovery sites. The PS5500E at full capacity is two-and-a-half times as large as the company’s PS5000E.

The PS5500E also introduces new functionality for all of EqualLogic’s arrays – the addition of the Auto-Snapshot Manager/VMware edition, which improves data protection for virtual server environments. The Auto-Snapshot Manager/VM Edition, ASM/VE for short allows both quick restores of VMware virtual machines and VMSF file systems. ASM/VE is expected to be available for free download as soon as the end of the month. Software included with all EqualLogic array provides virtualization, snapshots, thin provisioning and replication.

ASM/VE allows the creation, scheduling and recovery of snapshots and offloads snapshot processing from the ESX Server. It works with VMware’s VirtualCenter to snapshot virtual machines and then take a PS Series snapshot. It also allows rollback of datastore and selective restore of individual virtual machines.

In addition, the array supports RAID 6 for additional fault tolerance. The PS5500E also supports Microsoft’s Hyper-V technology and integration with Citrix XenServer.

Dell acquired EqualLogic for $1.4 billion last November to bolster its mid-range storage portfolio.

The PS5500E starts at $78,000.

Deni Connor is principal analyst for Storage Strategies NOW.