Compellent Technologies

Compellent Technologies, Inc.

Company type	Public (until acquisition)
Industry	Computer storage
Founded	2002 (2002) in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, United States
Founder	Phil Soran, John Guider, Larry Aszmann
Defunct	February 2011 (2011-02)
Fate	Acquired by Dell
Successor	Dell Compellent
Headquarters	Eden Prairie , United States
Area served	Small to medium IT environments, mid-market organizations
Products	Storage Center SAN platform
Owner	Dell (from 2011)
Parent	Dell (from 2011)
Website	www.dell.com/compellent

Compellent Technologies, Inc., established in 2002 and based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, was a U.S.-based producer of enterprise-level computer data storage solutions aimed at small to medium IT environments. Its premier offering, Storage Center, delivered a storage area network (SAN) platform that combined standardized hardware components with virtualized storage management software. Key features included automated tiered storage through "DataProgression," thin provisioning, and replication capabilities. The company primarily served mid-market organizations and distributed its products via independent vendors and resellers. In February 2011, Dell acquired Compellent and subsequently rebranded the product line as Dell Compellent.

History

The founders of Compellent—Phil Soran, John Guider, and Larry Aszmann—brought extensive experience in network storage and virtualization technologies. The company went public on October 15, 2007, reaching profitability by the third quarter of 2008 and sustaining positive earnings across subsequent quarters. By the fourth quarter of 2009, annual revenue had increased by 35% year-over-year, totaling $125.3 million and marking its seventeenth consecutive quarter of growth.

On December 13, 2010, Dell announced a $960 million acquisition agreement for Compellent, which was completed in February 2011. Following the acquisition, Dell systematically retired the Compellent brand name, transitioning its products under the Dell SC series designation (for example, Dell SC9000).

Storage Center

The Storage Center SAN solution from Compellent integrates hardware with virtualized storage management software that meticulously tracks metadata for individual data blocks—including attributes such as write timestamps, access frequency, volume allocation, disk classification, data type, and RAID configuration. This detailed metadata enables automated placement of data on either high-performance or high-capacity drives, optimizing resource use while lowering hardware expenses as well as power and cooling requirements.

The foundational Storage Center system comprises dual redundant disk array controllers, disk enclosures populated with drives, connectivity components, and software modules. To ensure high availability, both I/O ports and power supplies are designed with redundancy.

Its operating system, SCOS (Storage Center Operating System), receives frequent updates and incorporates features such as:

• Storage virtualization
• Thin provisioning
• Automated tiered storage management
• Continuous snapshot functionality
• Remote replication alongside live volumes
• Boot from SAN capability

The hardware supports various server connection protocols (including Fibre Channel and iSCSI) as well as multiple drive types (SSD, Fibre Channel, SAS, SATA). Capacity can be scaled by adding more drives or I/O cards as needed.

Support and services

Compellent provided technical assistance and managed service offerings through its Copilot support team located at its Minnesota headquarters. Copilot’s services encompass maintenance contracts, consulting engagements, training programs, and proactive system monitoring via SupportAssist (previously known as Phone Home), which remotely identifies potential issues to improve uptime reliability.

Environmental initiative

Compellent’s headquarters in Eden Prairie earned distinction as the first commercial building in Minnesota’s Twin Cities area to receive LEED Gold certification. Sustainable design elements include water-efficient urinals without flush mechanisms, drip irrigation systems that reduce water consumption by 40%, energy-saving HVAC systems equipped with CO2 monitoring sensors, low-VOC paints, and recycling practices that diverted 75% of construction debris from landfills.

In 2009, Computerworld honored Compellent as a leading green IT vendor in recognition of its initiatives to minimize energy use and lower carbon footprint.

Awards and recognition

• 2005 - Storage Magazine awarded Bronze Product of the Year in the Disk and Disk Subsystems category
• 2006 - CRN named the company the top Storage Standout among Emerging Vendors
• 2006 - TechWorld UK endorsed Compellent Storage Centre
• 2006 - InfoWorld honored the product as Technology of the Year for Best SAN
• 2007 - Featured in CRN’s list of 50 Emerging Vendors to Watch
• 2008 - Received Gold for "Best of VMWorld 2008" in Hardware for Virtualization
• 2008 - Recognized as Microsoft Partner of the Year for Advanced Infrastructure and Storage Solutions
• 2008 - InfoWorld again selected it as Technology of the Year for Best SAN
• 2008 - Earned Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year award for the Upper Midwest Region
• 2008 - Awarded Storage Magazine Quality Award for Midrange Arrays by Diogenes Labs
• 2009 - Network Computing UK honored the London Borough of Hillingdon project as Technology Project of the Year
• 2009 - CRN Channel Chiefs acknowledged key executives for outstanding sales leadership
• 2009 - Listed among ComputerWorld’s Top 12 Green IT Vendors
• 2010 - Received InfoWorld Technology of the Year Award once more
• 2010 - Featured on Business Solutions’ Best Channel Vendor List

External links

• Dell Compellent