The Dell PowerStore system is the primary midrange storage system offering from Dell Technologies alongside additional midrange offerings including Unity XT, XtremIO, and SC systems. PowerStore represents a new offering with many internal elements taken from other product offerings and refactored into the container-based PowerStoreOS. There are five individual midrange appliances with two model types and a single entry-level appliance. The T models are an offering where the PowerStore software PowerStoreOS is deployed on purpose-built hardware natively. The X models have the PowerStoreOS deployed on an instance of VMware ESXi on the purpose-built hardware. The PowerStore 500 is an entry level PowerStore option that is available as a T model only and can be clustered with other T models. In 2024, Dell additionally introduced the 3200Q model with the “Q” designation signaling the use of QLC drives. The different appliances vary primarily in the processor types and the amount of cache memory.
PowerStore is an all-solid state storage technology system supporting both flash and SCM Optane devices. SCM devices can be used as storage or mixed with flash devices for metadata tiering. As a logical replacement for many earlier systems, the advanced features of PowerStore are expected to be the summation of the other products. The base controller can hold up to 21 NVMe protocol devices, or 25 devices for the 500 model. Additional enclosures can be added with SAS connectivity.
PowerStore 3200Q, an evolution of the PowerStore family that takes advantage of QLC while retaining SSD performance and enterprise capabilities. The 3200Q employs 15.36TB NVMe QLC SSDs that store four bits of data per cell, enabling a lower cost per gigabyte while matching the performance profile of the existing 3200T that uses TLC SSDs.
In addition to the expected features, PowerStore X models include the option to include VMware ESXi with support for running applications and using vMotion to and from the storage system to VxRAIL and other ESXi servers. The feature is called AppsON and works with vRealize and VMware Cloud Foundation.
Dell PowerStore Product Review Includes:
Overview
Highlights
Usage
Architecture Deployment
Futurum Group EvaluScale Product Review Methodology
The Futurum Group’s Opinion
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