The News: Dell upgraded its PowerScale NAS file storage hardware and software to improve performance and AI modeling capabilities. You can read the press release on the Dell website.

Dell Enhances PowerScale NAS to Aid Generative AI

Analyst Take: The PowerScale launch is part of a larger Dell AI strategy and data announcement. As Dell’s main storage system for unstructured file data, PowerScale figures to be used often for AI workloads.

On the hardware side, new PowerScale all-flash systems use the latest-generation Dell PowerEdge servers. Dell claims these servers have up to a 2x performance increase for streaming reads and writes compared with the pervious PowerEdge generation. Dell PowerScale has also been validated for the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD turnkey data center AI infrastructure solution. Customers will be able to use PowerScale storage in combination with NVIDIA DGX systems and NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand and Spectrum Ethernet networking for AI storage. Dell said it expects to have the first Ethernet storage solution validated on NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD.

On the software side, PowerScale OneFS 9.7 has a new scale-out capability to improve single compute node performance for better graphics processing unit (GPU) utilization and faster storage throughput for AI training, checkpointing, and inferencing.

The Cloud Angle

There is also a cloud angle to the upgrade. Dell said APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure will be available in the first half of 2024. This offering expands the APEX Storage for Public Cloud portfolio. Dell APEX Block Storage is already available on Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Dell Apex File Storage for AWS went live this year.

Dell APEX File Storage in AWS and Azure lets customers store, access, and move AI and generative AI workflows using data in public clouds or on-premises. Customers can use performance-intensive AI and machine learning (ML) applications such as Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Vision. Also, through Dell’s Databricks partnerships, customers can use libraries from the Databricks MosaicML platform to create and customize generative AI models with proprietary data stored in Dell APEX File Storage.

Takeaway: File Storage Updates Are Imperative to Dell’s Generative AI Strategy

The PowerScale updates are part of Dell’s overarching AI strategy to bring AI to data wherever it resides. Dell is partnering with Starburst on an open data lakehouse solution, expected by mid-2024. The lakehouse will combine Starburst’s analytics software with Dell PowerEdge servers and Dell PowerScale, Dell ECS, and Dell ObjectScale file and object storage systems.

Data—particularly unstructured data—is critical to AI. PowerScale is one of Dell’s main storage platforms for video, images, documents, and files frequently used for AI. It is crucial that Dell continue to upgrade PowerScale and secure its place in its AI ecosystem. PowerScale is built on 20-year-old technology first developed by Isilon, and Dell faces competition from newer file storage such as VAST Data and Weka as well is NAS pioneer NetApp and other established storage companies This segment will be a storage area to keep close watch on as the AI boom continues to take off.

Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.