Dell announced today that it has received its largest customer order to date for the innovative EqualLogic enterprise-class data-storage system from the Japan Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (JAIST).

JAIST will implement 38 units of Dell’s EqualLogic PS5000X storage arrays and 21 units of Dell’s EqualLogic PS5000E iSCSI SAN technology into its data center. This will enable JAIST to use its RAID sets automatic configuration and load distribution to help ease management and operation of the institute’s high-speed file-server system.

Established in 1990, JAIST operates one of Japan’s leading research institutes and graduate schools in the fields of cognitive science, information science and material science.

In step with the increasing adoption of storage virtualization, iSCSI technology is gaining popularity over fibre-channel SAN, or storage-area networks, in enterprise storage. According to IDC, iSCSI is expected to easily record the highest rate of near-term growth among all data-storage formats.

“More and more customers are discovering the full features, easy management and overall common sense of enterprise-class software running on our Dell EqualLogic system,” said Jim Merritt, president, Dell Japan. “We’re hearing over and over, in Japan and around the world, that customers want to simplify and reduce the cost of information technology without sacrificing performance. Dell EqualLogic helps do exactly that.”