DTW 2024: Dell PowerStore Gets a Power Boost

Dell Technologies also unveiled a significant upgrade to its popular Dell PowerStore storage system on day 2 of the Dell Technologies World 2024. This update focuses on enhancing several key areas: Performance, efficiency, data protection, and multi-cloud capabilities. Additionally, Dell Technologies announced advancements to its Dell APEX portfolio, introducing new features geared towards simplifying IT management through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation.

Arthur Lewis, President of Infrastructure Solutions Group for Dell Technologies, succinctly summarised the significance of these advancements.

“Our PowerStore advancements and the new lineup of financial and operational advantages for customers and partners pack a powerful punch and raise the bar in all-flash storage,” he said.

“And we didn’t stop there. Our focus on innovation also extends to Dell APEX, where we’re improving infrastructure and application reliability through the power of AI and automation, making it even easier to manage multi-cloud and Kubernetes storage.”

Boosting PowerStore’s Performance and Efficiency

One of the most notable additions is the introduction of Quad-Level Cell (QLC) storage as an option. This allows businesses to achieve enterprise-class performance at a lower cost per terabyte compared to traditional Triple-Level Cell (TLC) drives. Customers can start small with just 11 QLC drives and scale their storage capacity up to nearly 6 petabytes per appliance. Dell Technologies’ intelligent workload balancing helps optimise performance by strategically placing data across mixed TLC and QLC configurations.

Software updates are another highlight, delivering up to a 30% performance boost and a 20% reduction in latency for mixed workloads. These enhancements can significantly improve data processing speeds and overall application responsiveness.

Prioritising Data Protection and Security

Data security remains a top concern for businesses. Dell PowerStore addresses this by offering more data protection options. These include native synchronous and metro replication functionalities, which can be deployed for various environments to safeguard critical workloads.

Maximising Storage Efficiency

IT departments are constantly looking for ways to optimise storage usage and reduce costs. Dell PowerStore helps achieve this through software enhancements that deliver up to 20% better data reduction. This translates to storing more data using less physical space. Additionally, these advancements improve energy efficiency by offering up to 28% more effective terabytes per watt.

Seamless Multi-Cloud Integration

Dell PowerStore integrates seamlessly with Dell APEX Block Storage for Public Cloud. This simplifies multi-cloud strategies and streamlines workload mobility between on-premises and public cloud environments.

Dell PowerStore Prime: A Comprehensive Investment

Dell Technologies introduced PowerStore Prime, a bundled offering that combines upgraded PowerStore systems with programs designed to maximise customer investment protection and enhance profitability for Dell partners. Key features include:

• An industry-leading 5:1 data reduction guarantee, ensuring cost savings and reduced energy consumption.
• Continuous modernisation through Dell ProSupport or ProSupport Plus, providing 24/7 support, technology upgrades, and storage advisory services.
• Flexible consumption options with Dell APEX subscriptions, allowing customers to pay only for the storage they use on a monthly basis.

Empowering Dell Partners

PowerStore Prime simplifies the sales process for Dell Technologies partners. They can now leverage competitively priced product bundles, offer expanded storage use cases to their customers, and streamline sales motions when combining PowerStore with PowerProtect offerings.

Dell APEX Gets Smarter with AI

Dell Technologies is continuously expanding its Dell APEX portfolio to cater to the growing need for AI-powered IT management, especially in multi-cloud environments. These advancements deliver enhanced AIOps capabilities and improved storage and Kubernetes management.

Dell APEX AIOps SaaS

Dell APEX AIOps leverages AI to optimise Dell Technologies infrastructure health and service availability. It offers a comprehensive suite of features, including:

• Infrastructure Observability: This utilises AI to identify and resolve infrastructure issues up to 10 times faster. It provides valuable insights and recommendations related to system health, cybersecurity, and sustainability.
• Application Observability: By analysing full-stack application data, Dell APEX AIOps can reduce application resolution times by up to 70%.
• Incident Management: AI-powered incident detection and resolution ensure optimal digital infrastructure availability by minimising downtime caused by multivendor and multi-cloud infrastructure issues.

Dell APEX Navigator SaaS Expands Capabilities

Dell APEX Navigator SaaS gains new functionalities, including:

• Kubernetes Storage Management: This simplifies managing storage for containerised applications running on Dell PowerFlex. Support for Dell PowerScale and Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift is expected soon.
• Multi-Cloud Storage Support: Dell APEX Navigator now supports Dell APEX File Storage for AWS, with Microsoft Azure support planned for later in 2024. This simplifies storage configuration, deployment, and monitoring across a unified storage layer spanning on-premises and public cloud storage.

Customers can trial both Dell APEX Navigator for Multi-cloud Storage and Dell APEX Navigator for Kubernetes for free for a generous 90 days. This allows businesses to thoroughly evaluate the capabilities of these solutions and experience firsthand the benefits of simplified multi-cloud storage management and streamlined Kubernetes storage handling before committing to a purchase.

Dell Technologies World (DTW 2024) offered a glimpse into the company’s direction for AI, storage and IT management solutions. Yesterday’s key announcement of their AI Factory and some significant upgrades to their Dell PowerStore storage system showed how Dell Technologies is trying to contribute something to the IT world.

This pretty much sums up DTW 2024, but there are some interviews coming along on Day 3, with some pretty interesting topics so stay tuned!