Tag: multicloud

Game Changing Potential of GenAI and Innovative Data Storage

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not long just a buzzword, but a pivotal force driving unprecedented business transformation and growth. The technology is fundamentally reshaping how businesses in Ireland operate, innovate, and compete. According to the Dell Innovation Catalyst Study, 76% of organisations based in Ireland are already considering AI and GenAI a key part of their business strategy, with 84% reporting substantial ROI and productivity gains from adopting these technologies. Moreover, 66% of Irish organisations are at early to mid-stage in their AI and GenAI adoption journey, while 90% see strong opportunities to leverage Agentic AI within their business operations. Ivor Buckley, Field CTO at Dell Technologies Ireland and Northern Ireland tells us more.

However, there are complexities involved with fully harnessing the power of GenAI. To build and train GenAI models, organisations need vast amounts of information. In turn, these same models also generate vast quantities of data to go back into the business. So, the question each business leader must ask before embracing AI and GenAI is: are our storage solutions up to the task?

The solution is scalable, secure, and economically sound data architecture that will set apart the organisations simply running in the AI race, and those leading it.

Storage solutions for the GenAI age

For GenAI to be successfully deployed, organisations must rethink, rearchitect and optimise their storage to effectively manage GenAI’s hefty data management requirements. By doing so, organisations will avoid a potential slowdown in processes due to inadequate or improperly designed storage.

The reality is that traditional storage systems are already struggling to keep pace with the explosion of data, and as GenAI systems advance and tackle new, more complex tasks the requirements will only increase. In other words, storage platforms must be aligned with the more complex realities of unstructured data, also known as qualitative data, and the emerging needs of GenAI.

In fact, unstructured data accounts for over 90% of the data created each year – largely due to a rise in human generated data, meaning the sphere is made up of cluttered and muddled columns of analysis. Enterprises need new ways to cost-effectively store data of this scale and complexity, while still providing easy and quick access to it and protecting it against cyber criminals. Unstructured data specifically is of interest to hackers, due to its value and sheer volume.

Organizations are seeking to enhance how they manage data—whether it’s moving, accessing, scaling, or safeguarding it. In the pursuit of rapid improvement, many have adopted solutions that store data across several public cloud platforms. While these public cloud environments can deliver immediate benefits, such as increased flexibility and availability, they often introduce longer-term complications.

Over time, organizations may face rising costs associated with moving data into and out of different clouds, heightened security risks, and challenges when attempting to optimize their data across these disparate environments. For generative AI to reach its full potential, it requires straightforward, reliable access to quality data; unfortunately, strategies that prioritize public cloud only adoption above all else frequently struggle to meet these requirements.

Organisations should instead look to adopt a multicloud by design approach. This will help them unlock the full potential of multicloud in the short and long-term, without being constrained by siloed ecosystems of proprietary tools and services. Multicloud by design brings management consistency to storing, protecting and securing data in multicloud environments.

Investing in new storage technologies

Businesses need new, novel approaches that cater to GenAI’s specific requirements and vast, diverse data sets. Some of these cutting-edge technologies include distributed storage, data compression and data indexing.

Distributed storage enhances the scalability and reliability of GenAI systems by housing data across multiple locations. For example, organisations can rapidly scale their storage needs across several nodes, should demand increase, as well as replicate their most critical data, allowing it to be vaulted in a separate location and easily retrieved in the event of a cyber-attack.

Another key concern facing many organisations is cost. However, this can be addressed in part through data compression.  By removing unwanted data through data compression methods, organisations can reduce their storage needs. This is achieved by more effectively analysing data and removing unnecessary information to achieve a more summarised version. This in turn reduces the amount of storage required by the organisation and consequently, saves on costs.

Data Indexing on the other hand improves retrieval capabilities, and search capabilities, speeding up training and operational efficiency. Together, these technologies enhance performance, efficiency, and cost-savings.

To fully capitalise on GenAI’s potential, Irish organisations must prioritise a solid storage foundation and effective data management strategy. This will be a key focus at the upcoming Dell Technologies Forum 2025 in Dublin, where business leaders will explore the infrastructure needed to seamlessly integrate AI and GenAI into their operations. Attendees will gain practical insights from Dell experts and hear first-hand about the latest developments in AI, multi-cloud, and other innovative technologies.

It’s clear that there are vast opportunities ahead for organisations to enhance productivity and drive transformation in the AI era. To ensure your business is ready to lead, register today for the Dell Technologies Forum 2025 and discover how to turn GenAI and data into a true competitive advantage.

The Dell Technologies Forum 2025 is run in collaboration with Intel, Microsoft and NVIDIA. For more information and to register for this event, click here.

Simplifying IT for the AI and Multicloud Era

AI is rapidly reshaping the business landscape, making digital transformation not just a priority but a necessity for Irish organisations. Yet as companies look to harness its potential, they often find themselves navigating increasingly complex IT environments — a challenge that can feel overwhelming for businesses of all sizes. Brian O’ Toole, Consumption and Software Sales Leader at Dell Technologies tells us more

Whether it’s navigating cloud migration or staying secure and scaling AI projects or even just managing day-to-day IT workloads with limited resources, there’s one thing we keep hearing from businesses and organisations alike is that ‘we need to simplify’.

At Dell Technologies, we’ve seen these challenges firsthand — and that’s why we’re helping organisations embrace technology as-a-Service. Adopting this approach can help simplify operations, modernise IT infrastructure, and give businesses the agility they need to innovate at speed in the AI era.

 A Fresh Approach to IT Management

Today, IT teams face a perfect storm of priorities from business leaders responding to external challenges. These priorities pressure IT leaders to do more with less as they get operations teams to innovate while addressing expanding regulatory frameworks around data.

All these pressures and potentially competing priorities increase the risk of IT decision sprawl that could solve problems in one area while adding complexity in others.

To help IT and business leaders navigate this environment and shift IT costs from capital expenditure (CapEx) to operational expenditure (OpEx), Dell APEX Cloud Platforms provide integrated infrastructure management that reduces multicloud complexity while strengthening security and governance. APEX is a portfolio of fully integrated, turnkey systems that integrate Dell infrastructure, software and cloud operating stacks to deliver consistent multicloud operations. By extending cloud operating models to on-premises and edge environments, Dell APEX Cloud Platforms bridge the cloud divide by delivering consistent cloud operations everywhere.

With Dell APEX Cloud Platforms, you can:

  • Minimize multicloud costs and complexity in the cloud ecosystem of your choice.
  • Increase application value by accelerating productivity with familiar experiences that enable you to develop anywhere and deploy everywhere.

Improve security and governance by enforcing consistent cloud ecosystem management from cloud to edge and enhancing control with layered security. The shift to an As-a-Service approach gives businesses control without the chaos. Whether a scaling startup or an established large business planning to advance their Multicloud solutions or leverage AI-driven applications, they can get access to latest technology such as storage, servers, devices and cloud services – on demand with only the cost for what they use.

Enabling organisations to innovate in an AI and Multicloud era

For organisations, the shift to an as-a-service model is not just about simplifying IT systems, it’s about ensuring they can unlock innovation and growth. Businesses can pay for what they use which aligns technology investment to actual value and usage. This approach is especially critical for costly infrastructure such as GPUs, servers, and storage which all require substantial investment. By spreading costs over time, organisations in Ireland can forge a cost-effective pathway to leveraging cutting-edge AI capabilities without being locked into long-term technology commitments.

In Ireland, we’re seeing a growing appetite for more agile, scalable IT models, especially among businesses embracing AI, hybrid work, and Multicloud strategies. As the debate between public and private clouds are fading, Multicloud ecosystems are the future, and Dell APEX is leading the charge. With partnerships spanning hyper scalers like Microsoft, Red Hat, VMware, and Google Cloud, Dell APEX delivers simplified IT management across environments.

Dell APEX innovations also cater to businesses deploying AI-driven solutions, offering validated designs with Red Hat OpenShift AI and Microsoft Azure AI. With flexible pay-per-use models, organisations can leverage these capabilities without the unpredictability associated with public cloud costs.

Unlocking the potential of technology into the future

For Irish business who are looking to learn more and delve deeper into Multicloud innovation and how they can transform their IT operations, the upcoming event ‘The Sky’s the Limit: Elevate your Multi Cloud Strategy’ on 29th April at the Guinness Storehouse offering a unique experience of insights into Dell APEX Cloud Platforms, hands-on demos, and discussions on overcoming IT challenges like complexity and security.

Attendees will also hear firsthand how companies in Ireland have embraced an as-a-service approach which has transformed and simplified their IT operations and ensured they are best placed to innovate in the AI era. Register for free here.

As the pace of technological change accelerates, Irish businesses must remain agile to stay competitive. The shift to an as-a-service model is not just a strategic decision—it’s an enabler of transformation. By embracing an as-a-Service approach, organisations can seamlessly scale their operations, reduce overheads, and focus on what truly matters: driving innovation in the AI era.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tackling data silos in the Cloud

In an increasingly data-driven world, organisations are adopting multicloud strategies to meet their business needs. As companies contend with vast and complex amounts of unstructured data, a multicloud approach allows them to manage, access, and protect their information seamlessly across various cloud platforms. Ivor Buckley, Field CTO, Dell Technologies  Ireland tells us more.

Gartner estimates that by 2025, over 95% of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud native platforms. This trend is especially visible in Europe, where regulatory compliance and data sovereignty concerns are pushing companies toward sophisticated storage solutions.

Here in Ireland, according to the Dell Technologies’ Innovation Catalysts Study 38% of IT and business decision-makers believe that hybrid infrastructure dominates their IT landscape, while another 38% point to multi-cloud as the leading model.

With businesses navigating a multicloud environment, it is vital that IT leaders harness the growing bank of data within and across their organisation. That requires a greater focus on eliminating data silos and achieving a unified storage system.

There are five key considerations that IT leaders in Ireland need to take account of to ensure their shift from data silos to a multicloud approach unlocks strong business benefits.

 

  1. Hybrid and Multicloud Integration: Breaking Down Data Silos

Companies considering hybrid or multicloud approaches are often contending with data silos that limit data sharing, access, and analytics potential. With hybrid and multicloud options, many organisations are moving toward a more cohesive storage setup.

This is particularly relevant in Ireland, where regulations like GDPR and data residency laws govern how and where data can be stored. By linking storage across multiple platforms, these organisations can centralise data and comply with local regulations, granting them flexible data access without sacrificing security.

 

  1. Cloud-Native File Storage: Enhancing Scalability and Flexibility

As companies’ data needs expand, they require storage that can scale as those demands fluctuate. Cloud-native file storage – engineered specifically for cloud environments – provides the agility needed to scale storage up or down as needed.

Industries with intensive data processing needs, such as automotive technology, are quickly adopting cloud-native storage. For example, Subaru collaborates with Dell Technologies to develop AI-powered driver assistance systems, which rely on Dell’s cloud-native infrastructure for high-speed data analysis from sensors and cameras. This setup lets Subaru’s AI systems handle massive data loads efficiently, supporting compliance while delivering reliable performance.

 

  1. Unified Data Management: Streamlining Accessibility and Governance

In the multicloud landscape, data management now goes beyond storage to include governance, access control, and compliance. A recent McKinsey report highlights that 72% of European CIOs prioritise unified data management, aiming to streamline data access across cloud platforms while maintaining strict control.

In Ireland, where data compliance is essential, companies are investing in platforms that facilitate unified data policies, enabling secure data transfer between clouds with consistent security standards. This approach simplifies workflows, boosts productivity, and ensures that critical data can be accessed from anywhere within the organization.

 

  1. AI and Machine Learning Integration: Extracting Data Insights

As multicloud storage enables more integrated data environments, AI and machine learning are providing unprecedented insights. According to a new forecast from the Worldwide AI and Generative AI Spending Guide published by IDC, European spending on AI is projected to reach $133 billion by 2028, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.3% over the 2024-2028. By storing data across interconnected clouds, organisations can leverage AI to analyse multiple data sources for real-time, actionable insights.

AI integration is game-changing across data-heavy industries, providing the framework for complex analytics that drive innovation and enhance decision-making. For businesses, the multicloud approach also ensures secure and ethical AI use.

 

  1. Edge Computing and Multicloud Storage: Lowering Latency and Boosting Data Sovereignty

With the rise of IoT and the demand for real-time data, edge computing is becoming a critical aspect of multicloud strategies, enabling data processing close to its source.

For businesses and organisations here in Ireland, edge computing also supports data sovereignty by allowing sensitive data to be stored within designated regions. Gartner projects that by 2026, 75% of data will be created and processed outside traditional data centers, highlighting the role of edge computing in multicloud strategies.

In the automotive industry, for example, edge computing within a multicloud setup allows companies to process data from connected vehicles in real-time, powering features like predictive maintenance and live navigation. This approach enhances the user experience while ensuring adherence to European data residency laws. Edge computing, as part of a multicloud approach, allows companies to optimise data access and latency, staying compliant without sacrificing performance.

 The Future of File Storage

As organisations continue to generate vast amounts of data, the need for efficient and effective storage solutions will only grow. Multicloud strategies represent a significant shift in how businesses can manage their data, moving from isolated silos to a unified, accessible, and secure ecosystem.

Looking ahead, the evolution towards a balanced multi-cloud ecosystem will continue to shape IT strategies in Ireland. Enterprises can unlock the full potential of their data, driving innovation, improving decision-making, and gaining a competitive edge.

The shift from data silos to a multicloud approach isn’t just a technological evolution – it’s a fundamental transformation of how businesses operate in the digital age.

Dell Technologies Introduces Multicloud Data Protection and AI Advances to Counter Increasing Cyberattacks

Dell Technologies is expanding its data protection portfolio of appliances, software and as-a-Service offerings to help customers strengthen cyber resiliency in the face of increasing cyber attacks.

With advances across the Dell Data Protection portfolio, Dell is helping customers build a modern and resilient foundation to protect data on-premises, in public clouds and at the edge. These innovations help address concerns raised in the 2024 Dell Global Data Protection Index (GDPI) survey, which revealed that 75% of organizations believe their existing data protection measures are unable to cope with ransomware threats. Nearly 70% lacked confidence that they could reliably recover from a cyberattack.

“With the exponential growth of data, generative AI (GenAI) presents organizations with opportunities to streamline processes, improve decision-making and drive innovation, but it also extends the attack surface for cyberattacks – especially with trained models, which are quickly becoming one of the most valuable assets for enterprises,” said Arthur Lewis, president, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies. “With this expanding digital landscape that exposes more vulnerability gaps, companies are increasing their reliance on Dell to help protect their data wherever it resides with trusted data protection and AI offerings.”

New Dell PowerProtect Appliances Increase Security, Performance and Efficiency

Dell’s new Dell PowerProtect Data Domain DD9410 and DD9910 systems designed for large enterprises to offer increased:

  • Performance for traditional and modern workloads, providing customers with up to 38% faster backups, and up to 44% faster restores
  • Security and cyber resilience for customer data
  • Efficiency, with up to 11% less power consumed  and industry-leading 65x deduplication
  • Scalability with up to 1.5 PBs of usable capacity in a single appliance

“With increasing cyber threats putting organizations on constant high alert, the demand for trusted high performance data protection systems has never been greater,” said Phil Goodwin, research vice president, IDC. “Dell’s portfolio of data protection solutions supports numerous data protection best practices to help organizations modernize their data protection environment. With major performance enhancements in backup and restore, we expect the latest PowerProtect Data Domain appliances to remain a key element of critical data protection and cyber recovery infrastructure.”

“We have been relying on PowerProtect Data Domain appliances to keep our data secure for over a decade and a half now,” said Rich Jackson, data protection architect, State of Michigan. “We have no doubts that the latest generation of appliances will continue to increase protection performance and the security of our data.”

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain systems are also at the center of a broad partner ecosystem, helping leading data protection software vendors grow their business while strengthening resiliency for their customers.

“Dell and Commvault have a shared belief that a strong foundation for resilience is absolutely required in the face of AI-driven cyber threats,” said Sanjay Mirchandani, president and CEO, Commvault. “Together, we are delivering industry-leading cybersecurity, performance, and efficiency to our joint customers. With a deep API integration between the Commvault Cloud platform and Dell’s latest PowerProtect Data Domain appliances, we can leverage the full strength of our combined cyber resilience, data security and rapid recovery capabilities to empower organizations to effectively mitigate risks and ensure uninterrupted business continuity.”

Increasing Productivity and Efficiency with Integrated GenAI Assistant

With the introduction of Dell APEX Backup Services AI, an integrated GenAI assistant for backup and recovery, customers can streamline protection processes. Dell APEX Backup Services AI helps address the growing demand for GenAI data protection, as evidenced by 52% of GDPI survey respondents who believe GenAI will provide an advantage to their organization’s cyber security posture.

Dell APEX Backup Services AI capabilities help users:

  • Request real-time custom reports, ask follow-up questions to refine report variables and act on AI-powered suggestions to remediate backup failures
  • Understand and improve their backup and security postures with assisted troubleshooting with simple written prompts, analyze logs, and troubleshoot errors
  • Use intelligent responses with recommendations and best practices customized to their specific environments
  • Simplify administrative operations, from creating new backup policies to triggering new backups of specific workloads

 Powerful Backup and Recovery with Storage Direct Protection Innovation

Storage Direct Protection in Dell PowerProtect Data Manager offers native integration with Dell PowerMax enterprise storage for fast, efficient and more secure backup and recovery to and from Dell PowerProtect Data Domain.

Storage Direct Protection in PowerProtect Data Manager for PowerMax delivers:

  • Fast backup and recovery of multiple storage arrays with up to 46TB/hr for a single backup and up to 21TB/hr for a single recovery
  • Efficient data protection of Dell PowerMax with full restore to original or alternate PowerMax system
  • Secure data integrity and optional cyber vault integration
  • Simple operations with centralized management and orchestration
  • Multicloud support for PowerProtect Data Domain replication and cloud tiering

Availability

  • Dell PowerProtect Data Domain DD9410 and the DD9910 systems are available globally
  • Dell APEX Backup Services AI is available globally
  • Storage Direct Protection for Dell PowerMax will be available globally in the third quarter of 2024

Dell Technologies Enhances Dell PowerStore with Upgraded Storage Performance, Resilience, and Efficiency Features

Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) unveils Dell PowerStore advancements for better performance, efficiency, resiliency and multicloud data mobility. Dell also expands Dell APEX portfolio with new AIOps advancements and enhanced multicloud and Kubernetes storage management.

“Our PowerStore advancements and new lineup of financial and operational advantages for customers and partners pack a powerful punch and raise the bar in all-flash storage,” said Arthur Lewis, president, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies. “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 multicloud and Kubernetes storage.”

Enhancing storage performance, efficiency, resiliency and multicloud capabilities Dell PowerStore helps manage increasing workload demands with the industry’s most flexible quad-level cell (QLC) storage1 and significant performance enhancements.

 

  • QLC-based storage: Delivers enterprise-class performance at a lower cost per terabyte when compared to triple-level cell (TLC) models. Customers can start with as few as 11 QLC drives and scale up to 5.9 petabytes of effective capacity per appliance.2 PowerStore’s intelligent load balancing capabilities help save costs and improve workload placement across mixed TLC and QLC clusters.
  • Increased performance: Improves hardware performance up to 66% through new data-in-place higher model appliance upgrades.3

Dell PowerStore software advancements improve efficiency, security and cloud mobility:

  • Software-driven performance boost: Non-disruptive software updates available at no additional cost to existing customers deliver up to a 30% higher mixed workload performance boost4 and up to 20% lower latency.5
  • Improved data protection: More choices for customers safeguarding critical workloads with native synchronous replication for block and file workloads and native metro replication for Windows, Linux and VMware environments.
  • Increased Efficiency: Software enhancements provide up to 20% better data reduction6 and up to 28% more effective terabytes per watt.7
  • Multicloud data mobility enhancements: Customers can advance multicloud strategies and simplify workload mobility by connecting PowerStore to Dell APEX Block Storage for Public Cloud, the world’s most scalable cloud block storage.8

“Dell PowerStore is helping Fulgent Genetics transform patient care in pathology, oncology, reproductive health, as well as infectious and rare diseases, by significantly accelerating data processing speed so that our physicians can deliver faster genetic insights and test results to our patients,” said Mike Lacenere, vice president, Applications, Fulgent Genetics. “PowerStore enhances our commitment to sustainability by minimizing energy use and reducing the size of our data centers while providing us considerable cost savings. With PowerStore’s new advances, we expect this trifecta of performance, efficiency, and cost savings to continue to increase which will help us improve patient care.”

These PowerStore advancements are part of PowerStore Prime, a new integrated offering that combines updated PowerStore systems with programs designed to offer customers greater storage investment protection and increase Dell partner profitability.

Offering greater storage investment protection

PowerStore Prime offers customers greater flexibility to make the most of their IT investment with:

  • 5:1 data reduction guarantee: Customers can buy with confidence, save on costs and reduce energy with the industry’s best data reduction guarantee.9
  • Continuous modernization: Lifecycle Extension with Dell ProSupport or ProSupport Plus offers customers 24/7 access to live support, flexible technology upgrades, capacity trade-ins, and storage advisory services.
  • Flexible consumption: Customers can consume PowerStore through a Dell APEX subscription, paying only for what they need monthly.

Empowering partners to meet customer demands

PowerStore Prime also makes it easier and more rewarding to sell PowerStore. Building on the Dell partner-first strategy for storage, partners can now increase PowerStore sales with competitively priced product bundles and deliver expanded use cases for joint customers. Partners can also streamline sales motions when selling PowerStore and PowerProtect offers together.

“PowerStore’s new 5:1 Data Reduction Guarantee and new QLC array are a testament of Dell’s unwavering commitment to meet customer efficiency goals while lowering the cost of advanced storage,” said John Lochausen, technical solutions architect, World Wide Technology. “Dell’s new partner incentives and guarantees bring it all together, putting us and our customers in a position to succeed with the latest advances in all- flash storage.”

Unleashing the power of AI to simplify and automate IT management

Dell Technologies continues to evolve its Dell APEX portfolio to meet customer needs across key focus areas like AI and multicloud. Dell APEX innovations deliver leading AIOps capabilities and improve storage and Kubernetes management.

Dell APEX AIOps Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) optimizes Dell infrastructure health and service availability with AI-driven full stack observability and incident management. It is a significant expansion of Dell’s AIOps tools that simplifies operations, improves IT agility and delivers greater control over applications and infrastructure through three integrated capabilities:

  • Infrastructure Observability: Resolves infrastructure issues up to 10X faster10 than traditional approaches through AI-powered health, cybersecurity and sustainability insights and recommendations. Generative AI-powered Dell APEX AIOps Assistant delivers instant responses to infrastructure questions and provides detailed problem-solving recommendations.
  • Application Observability: Yields up to 70% reduction in mean time to resolution of application issues11 through full stack application topologies and analytics for assuring application availability and performance.
  • Incident Management: Optimizes digital infrastructure availability through AI- driven incident detection and resolution that reduces customer-reported multivendor and multicloud infrastructure issues by up to 93 percent.12

 

Dell APEX Navigator SaaS expands to include Kubernetes storage management and additional support for Dell APEX Storage for Public Cloud offers:

  • Dell APEX Navigator for Kubernetes is generally available, simplifying Kubernetes storage management on Dell PowerFlex and soon, Dell PowerScale and Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift, by bringing advanced data services like data replication, application mobility and observability to containers.
  • Dell APEX Navigator for Multicloud Storage adds support for Dell APEX File Storage for AWS with support planned for Dell APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure later this year. This offer simplifies storage configuration, deployment and monitoring across a universal storage layer created by Dell on-premises and public cloud storage.

Customers can get started with Dell APEX Navigator for Multicloud Storage and now Dell APEX Navigator for Kubernetes through a 90-day, risk-free trial.

Availability

  • Dell PowerStore software enhancements will be globally available in late May.
  • Dell PowerStore QLC model and data-in-place higher-model appliance upgrades for Gen 2 customers will be globally available in July.
  • Dell PowerStore multicloud data mobility will be globally available in the second quarter of 2024.
  • Dell APEX AIOps Infrastructure Observability and Incident Management are available now. Application Observability availability is planned for October 2024.
  • Dell APEX Navigator for Multicloud Storage support for Dell APEX File Storage for AWS is available now in the United States.
  • Dell APEX Navigator for Multicloud Storage support for Dell APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure will be available in the United States in the second half of 2024.
  • Dell APEX Navigator for Kubernetes is available now for PowerFlex in the United States with support for Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift, Dell PowerScale and additional geographies planned for the second half of 2024.

Dell Introduces APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure

Dell Technologies has announced the launch and general availability of Dell APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure, a new high-performance multicloud file storage solution designed to bridge the gap between cloud storage and AI-driven insights to accelerate AI innovation for businesses of all sizes.

Dell APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure represents a significant milestone in Dell’s ongoing collaboration with Microsoft. This powerful solution empowers businesses to unlock the full potential of AI by providing a robust, scalable, and secure foundation for their most demanding workloads.

Dell APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure leverages PowerScale OneFS, a high-performance scale-out file storage solution, to provide customers with effective data consolidation and management, reduced storage costs, and enhanced data protection and security, all while integrating seamlessly with native cloud AI tools to accelerate insights.

This solution is specifically engineered to support the flexibility required in today’s diverse cloud ecosystems and is ideal for AI workflows, offering capabilities like advanced native replication and enterprise-grade features of PowerScale One FS even in the cloud.

“With Apex File Storage for Microsoft Azure, we’ve brought the familiar capabilities and performance of PowerScale OneFS into the Azure cloud environment, ensuring a seamless and efficient storage experience that meets the demands of modern multicloud strategies,” said Kshitij Tambe, Principal Product Manager at Dell Technologies. “Our goal is to empower businesses to not only manage their data more effectively but to also harness the full potential of AI with the best performance at scale.”

The storage solution is built for scalability, supporting up to 18 nodes and 5.6PiB in a single namespace, significantly enhancing cluster performance and resilience compared to other cloud file storage solutions.

Dell Technologies Strengthens Cyber Resiliency with Multicloud Data Protection and Security Innovations

Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) is expanding its industry leadership in data protection appliances and software1 to help customers protect their data on premises, in public clouds and at the edge.

The Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance leads a series of advancements for multicloud data protection that are simple to use and easy to consume. Dell innovation in AI-powered resilience and operational security accelerates the adoption of Zero Trust architectures, helping protect organisations from the increasing threat of cyberattacks.

The new solutions help address rising data protection challenges facing organisations. According to the 2022 Dell Global Data Protection Index (GDPI) survey, organisations have experienced higher levels of natural and modern disasters than in

previous years, resulting in more data loss, downtime and recovery costs. In the past year, cyberattacks accounted for 48% of all disasters (up from 37% in 2021), leading all other causes of data disruption. The survey also revealed 85% of organisations using multiple data protection vendors see a benefit in reducing their number of vendors. Furthermore, it revealed that organisations using a single data protection vendor incurred 34% less cost recovering from cyberattacks or other cyber incidents than those who used multiple vendors.

“With virtually everything connected to the internet in today’s digital world, the need to protect valuable data is more important than ever,” said Jeff Boudreau, president and general manager, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies. “This digital landscape requires a modern data protection and security strategy to address cyber threats. Point solutions don’t go deep or wide enough to help protect organisations. Dell helps customers strengthen cyber resiliency by offering integrated data protection software, systems and services to help ensure data and applications are protected and resilient wherever they live.”

The GDPI survey found that 91% of organisations are either aware of or planning to deploy a Zero Trust architecture – a cybersecurity model that shifts how organisations approach security from relying solely on perimeter defences to a proactive strategy that only allows known, authorized traffic across system boundaries and data pipelines. However, only 23% are deploying a Zero Trust model and 12% are fully deployed. With embedded security features, designed into the hardware, firmware and security control points, Dell’s holistic approach helps organisations achieve Zero Trust architectures to strengthen cyber resiliency and reduce security complexity.

The simplest path to modern data protection

Dell continues to deliver innovation for its data protection software, Dell PowerProtect Data Manager, to help organisations simplify their IT operations and reduce risk. PowerProtect Data Manager software addresses the increasing need for cyber resiliency and supports Zero Trust principles with new built-in operational security capabilities, such as multifactor authentication, dual authorization, and role-based access controls.

The Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance offers a simple path to adopt modern data protection. The debut system is ideal for small and mid-sized use cases with support that scales from 12 to 96 terabytes of data.

The appliance offers customers a:

  • Modern, software-defined architecture: Allows automated discovery and protection of assets and delivers unique VMware protection to ensure the availability of all VMs without business disruption.
  • Secure, cyber resilient solution: Provides more secure access to restricted functions with Identity and Access Management to strengthen cyber resiliency.
  • Simple, unified user experience: Delivers software-defined data protection, making it easy to deploy and use.

“Dell PowerProtect Data Manager simplifies our backup environment, giving us the business agility needed to protect our data as we digitally transform,” said James McNair, vice president, distributed systems manager, Trustmark Bank. “With the new Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance, we can more simply deploy Data Manager across our infrastructure, helping us be more efficient and strengthening our cyber resiliency.”

Dell expands cyber recovery for fast, easy-to-deploy public cloud vaults

PowerProtect Cyber Recovery for Google Cloud enables customers to deploy an isolated cyber vault in Google Cloud to more securely separate and protect data from a cyberattack. Unlike standard cloud-based backup solutions, access to management interfaces is locked down by networking controls and can require separate security credentials and multi-factor authentication for access.

Organisations can use their existing Google Cloud subscription for purchasing PowerProtect Cyber Recovery through the Google Cloud Marketplace, and the service can be acquired directly from Dell and its channel partners.

The new offering marks the latest expansion of Dell’s cyber recovery capabilities for public clouds, following this year’s introduction of Dell PowerProtect for Microsoft Azure and CyberSense for Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery for AWS.

 Dell APEX simplifies backup storage with flexible consumption options

 Dell APEX Data Storage Services is expanding to offer a Backup Target option to provide a more secure backup storage in a pay-per-use, flexible consumption model. The Backup Target service is easy for customers to adopt and streamlines the process of purchasing, deploying and maintaining backup storage. Building on Dell’s data appliance and data protection leadership, the Backup Target helps reduce a customer’s storage footprint and can increase data availability.

The new Dell APEX Data Storage Services Backup Target offer will support the increasing reliance on as-a-Service offerings to help overcome data protection challenges. Nearly every GDPI respondent (99%) identified at least one as-a-Service offering as a high priority to help overcome challenges for their organisation. Storage as-a-Service (44%), Cyber Recovery as-a-Service (41%), and Backup as-a-Service (40%) ranked as the top three as-a-Service priorities.

Additional quote

Seife Teklu, senior solutions architect, Arrow Electronics

“The integrated Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance is easy to use and quick to deploy. This system will be a compelling option for our small to medium-sized customers needing to modernize data protection to help reduce risk and ensure business continuity.” 

Availability

  • Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance is globally available this month in more than 15 countries across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
  • Dell PowerProtect Data Manager software is globally available today.
  • Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery for Google Cloud Platform is globally available today.
  • Dell APEX Data Storage Services Backup Target will be globally available in the first quarter of 2023 in 16 countries across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.