Versatile Performance with the all new Dell PowerStore

Updated: Sep 1, 2023

The container-based PowerStore OS is to automate labor-intensive processes such as initial volume allocation, migration and load balancing thanks to integrated ML algorithms. Intel's QuickAssist is designed to perform continuous data reduction through always-on de-duplication and compression without compromising performance.ray.

At the same time, the systems should master their actual task of central data storage better than Dell's previous all-flash mid-range flagships: the manufacturer promises noticeably improved response times, up to seven times higher IOPS performance and an availability of 99.9999 percent.

In contrast, the T series of the PowerStore family cannot run any applications. It is designed as a unified storage platform. This means that the appliances offer block and file-based access and also master VMware's vVol technology (Virtual Volumes). Both series currently include five models with different performance and capacity.

Performance-Booster Optane

The appliance contains 2 controllers in the rear and 25 NVMe drive slots across the front. Of those 25 Dell has equipped the models accordingly for computing power: Up to four Xeon CPUs with 8 to 32 cores each, an upper limit between 384 and 2560 GB RAM depending on the model and two or four NVRAM modules, the different appliances can bring. In addition, the 2U housing of an appliance has two controller nodes and 25 2.5-inch NVMe bays.

Up to three expansion enclosures with 25 SAS drive bays each can be connected via four 4-lane SAS ports with 12 GBit / s each. A system can manage a total of 96 SSDs. It bundles them into RAID-5 sets with 4 + 1 or 8 + 1 drives. Dell equips the NVMe bays either with Intel's Optane SCM drives (storage class memory) with 375 or 750 GB or with flash SSDs that hold between 1.92 and 15.36 TB.

Each controller node can hold two I / O modules and a mezzanine card, which are mirrored with their counterparts on the other node. They can communicate with the servers via Fiber Channel with 16 or 32 GBit / s or via iSCSI via 10GE or 25GE (Gigabit Ethernet). There can be a total of 24 ports per appliance, 16 of them with Fiber Channel.

Scale up and scale out

Expanding the capabilities of your initial PowerStore configuration is simple and extremely efficient, as capacity and performance may be scaled independently. Each active-active PowerStore appliance can grow to over 2.8 PB effective capacity,6 and multiple appliances can be clustered for greater performance.

Efficiency without compromise

Regardless of how you grow, PowerStore costs remain consistently low. De-duplication and compression are 100% inline and “always on,” thanks to Intel QuickAssist hardware acceleration. PowerStore systems provide a guaranteed average 4:1 data reduction without compromising performance.

Management with ML-Algorithms

The container-based PowerStore OS is to automate labor-intensive processes such as initial volume allocation, migration and load balancing thanks to integrated ML algorithms. Intel's QuickAssist is designed to perform continuous data reduction through always-on deduplication and compression without compromising performance.

In addition, according to Dell, the storage monitoring and analysis software CloudIQ combines machine learning and human knowledge for their performance and capacity analyzes in real time as well as historical tracking. Via Dell's Cloud Storage Services, the PowerStore arrays can be connected as a managed service directly to all major public clouds including AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

A new upgrade program called Anytime is designed to allow gradual adaptation of the PowerStore systems without complete upgrades. As a result, companies should be able to switch to newer, larger or more appliances at any time and without additional investment costs as part of a maintenance contract. Storage capacity can be retrofitted.