Dell PowerStore achieves new levels of agility and operational versatility for today’s cloud-mobile IT infrastructure. Using a containerised software architecture, PowerStore takes the best modern storage technology and eliminates the typical tradeoffs in performance, scalability and storage efficiency. By incorporating the advanced capabilities of VMware’s ESXi hypervisor PowerStore provides unprecedented flexibility by not only enabling virtualised hosting of user applications directly on the appliance but doing so with seamless integration into the customers IT management environment and VMware ecosystem.
1. Software-Defined Architecture
The PowerStore appliance is built on a container-based software architecture that provides unique capabilities for delivering and integrating advanced system capabilities. The modularity of containers enables feature portability, standardisation and rapid time-to-market for new capabilities and enables maximum deployment flexibility. In addition to new modules developed specifically for PowerStore, proven applications and features from Dell EMC’s portfolio of cross-platform solutions, including AppSync, SRM and Data Protection Suite, can be integrated directly into the PowerStore operating environment.
2. Unmatched Agility with AppsON
Integration of PowerStore’s software-defined architecture with on-board VMware ESXi results in a new level consolidation for enterprise storage, combining the benefits of a local on-array application environment with unmatched integration with the vSphere management environment and server resources. Benefits of the AppsON capability include a new level of agility for application deployments, with seamless movement between the PowerStore appliances and VMware ESXi servers, as well as the ability to shrink the stack by eliminating server and networking footprint for space-efficient edge and remote deployments.
3. Intelligent Automation
PowerStore streamlines application development and automates storage workflows through integration with a broad ecosystem of leading DevOps and open management frameworks. It supports comprehensive integration with VMware management and its operational features including vSphere storage management and provisioning, VAAI, VASA and native vVols support. In the burgeoning areas on containerisation and DevOps, PowerStore users can take advantage of plug-ins including those for CSI, Kubernetes, Ansible and vRealize Operations.
4. Autonomous Operation
PowerStore uses intelligent data placement to improve system utilisation and performance through the balanced provisioning of new appliance storage volumes, while the machine learning engine continuously monitors the cluster and recommends actions for re-balancing of cluster resources, identifying and automating the changes required to maintain optimal efficiency.
5. Next-Generation Storage Technology
PowerStore has been designed from the ground up to take advantage of the latest developments in storage, interface and network technologies. The end-to-end NVMe architecture of the PowerStore appliance delivers the full benefits of solid-state storage, with higher bandwidth and lower latency to match the requirements of Flash SSDs, as well as new dual-ported Intel Optane storage class memory (SCM) for even greater performance. PowerStore’s high-availability active-active design supports block, file and vVols natively on a single system and delivers superior, consistent storage efficiency enabled by its intelligent, always-on data reduction, including advanced deduplication and compression, with the significant performance benefits of hardware acceleration utilising Intel QuickAssist Technology.
6. Powering the Cloud
PowerStore customers can easily integrate their on-premises infrastructure into hybrid cloud solutions environments while maintaining operational consistency. For VMware customers, VMware Cloud on AWS delivers a seamless hybrid cloud by extending their on-premises vSphere environment to the AWS Cloud, and delivering PowerStore block and file services for VCF deployments. With PowerStore’s AppsON capability through vSphere, users can easily migrate applications and data between PowerStore and AWS based on requirements, without requiring additional management tools for simple and consistent operations.
7. Scale Up and Out for Flexible Growth
Advanced clustering technology enables PowerStore to scale system processing power up to four appliances, while individual drive scaling addresses flexible capacity growth and resource balancing. With this balanced approach to storage scalability, the traditional strength of midrange storage, delivering cost effective scaleup capacity, is matched with the ability to scale performance as application needs grow and evolve. And with intelligent resource balancing, PowerStore can automatically balance storage and workloads to maximise system utility.
8. Predictive Analytics and Proactive Monitoring
CloudIQ is a native cloud-based storage analytics application that’s included at no cost with PowerStore appliances. It provides comprehensive monitoring of system health, performance, capacity, configurations, and on-array protection metrics. It combines these metrics with machine learning and predictive analytic measurements to improve capacity planning and fix problems before they disrupt business. CloudIQ creates a comprehensive and proactive health score per array to ensure that each PowerStore appliance provides the optimal foundation for running business data with the highest availability.
9. Future-Proof with Anytime Upgrades
Dell stands behind every Dell EMC PowerStore system with the Future-Proof Program including a 4:1 Data Reduction guarantee as well as Anytime Upgrade, the industry’s most flexible controller upgrade program.1 Anytime Upgrade provides data-in-place upgrades to the next-generation of appliances, the next generation plus a higher model, or a scale-out of existing environments with a second system equal to the first. PowerStore nodes can be replaced non-disruptively while preserving existing drives and expansion enclosures, without requiring new licensing or additional purchases. With PowerStore, infrastructure can be modernised without a forklift upgrade, without downtime, and without impacting applications. Please visit the Future Proof Loyalty Program page for further details.
Learn more about Dell PowerStore Solutions.
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