The journey to digital transformation has become more vital than ever before, with the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating the pace of change.
Businesses of all types have undergone massive shifts over the past year, as they move squarely into a new, data-driven, era.
But digital transformation can be complex and challenging – and managing the vast quantities of data needed to survive in the digital age is no trivial task.
Data is now more diverse than ever – and it is being created, processed and stored everywhere, from the edge to the cloud.
In these circumstances, explains Andre Human, Dell Technologies Brand Executive at First Distribution, most organisations make use of different infrastructures to address all their data requirements.
With business demanding greater levels of simplicity and agility, enterprise-grade on-premises storage is under pressure to provide the same operational flexibility as cloud, becoming ever more adaptable, automated and easier to integrate with existing management frameworks.
“Data growth is at an exponential rate, and the heart of Data is Storage! Dell offers an extensive portfolio of products, and by my own choice Dell EMC PowerStore stands out above the rest. Scalable, Efficiency, Easy of Deployment and Management, and most of all it’s unbelievable cost.”
– Andre Human
Now Dell Technologies has introduced a new architecture and approach to storage. PowerStore is designed for the data era, unlocking the power of data regardless of its structure or location, thus helping organisations to adapt and transform their IT.
The PowerStore family of all-flash data storage appliances eliminates traditional tradeoffs in performance, scalability and storage efficiency, with a data-centric, intelligent, and adaptable infrastructure that transforms and mobilises both traditional and modern workloads.
“Dell PowerStore achieves new levels of operational simplicity and agility, utilizing a container-based architecture, advanced storage technologies, and intelligent automation to unlock the power of your data. Based on a scale-out architecture and hardware-accelerated advanced data reduction, PowerStore is designed to deliver enhanced resource utilization and performance that keeps pace with application and system growth.”
– Andre Human
PowerStore all-flash array is an adaptable infrastructure platform with a data-centric design that is performance-optimised, with a unified architecture, for any workload.
Intelligent automation via a programmable infrastructure simplifies management and DevOps, while its adaptable architecture offers speed and workload mobility for choice, predictability and investment protection.
The family of devices is based on the PowerStoreOS 2.0 software, which adds a massive 25% speed boost across the whole range.
The software stack includes AppsON scale-out functionality, which allows administrators to cluster up to four PowerStore X appliances. And the NVMe-FC feature means an existing storage infrastructure can be transformed with end-to-end NVMe.
Dell’s PowerStore range includes the entry-level PowerStore 500, which can be deployed on its own or in scale-out clusters.
As the catalyst for innovative edge solutions, enterprise performance and storage services have never been more affordable, offering up to 1,2PBe per 2U appliance. The PowerStore 500 runs the same software as other PowerStore models, and supports block, file and vVols.
The PowerStore T appliance is designed for standard deployment, offering intelligent, scalable storage for the most demanding workloads, along with the ability to scale up and out to add performance or capacity independently. Offering NVMe all-flash or SCM optimises performance, as does the “always on” data reduction feature with 4:1 guarantee. The appliance offers native support for block, file, vVol and containers, while Anytime Upgrade keeps PowerStore continuously modern without disruption.
The PowerStore X, for hypervisor deployment, adds the flexibility to run applications directly on PowerStore with AppsON. It offers NVMe all-flash or SCM to optimise performance, as well as an “always on” data reduction feature with 4:1 guarantee. A built-in VMware hypervisor supports external hosts and local apps at the same time, while Anytime Upgrade keeps PowerStore continuously modern without disruption.
The PowerStore metro node enables automated business continuity with zero RPO and RTO. True active-active synchronous replication over metro distances with multi-site dual access gives organisations the confidence that their data will always be available and accessible. Metro node provides greater flexibility through multi-platform support and replication to any array and has zero performance impact on the storage array.
Organisations can also use the PowerStore appliances to manage big data clusters with Microsoft SQL 2019.
Optimising the underlying infrastructure for Microsoft SQL Server not only benefits storage administrators, it also has a significant impact on the effective agility of database administrators (DBAs) leveraging arrays. Dell EMC PowerStore makes the DBA’s job much simpler by allowing for the direct deployment and management of new SQL-based applications.
VMware and cloud are indispensable in the modern data centre. Organisations expect flexibility as they transform and take advantage of public cloud offerings, deploy in edge or corporate datacentres, and expand storage for private cloud infrastructure. PowerStore offers ways to support these choices, using Dell Technologies Cloud Storage Services or supplement storage scaling for HCI independent of compute as well as providing both compute and storage at edge locations.
“Dell Technologies offers best in class Storage regardless of any requirement, First Distribution has been aligned to this strategy for the past 13 years. We lead, we are the experts, understand how the “Dell World” operates and creates that seamless integration to our customers. I have the largest team of experts, so please come and join our family.”
– Andre Human
Contact First Distribution now for more information on PowerStore:
About First Distribution
First Distribution is the leading value-added distributor in Africa. Our offering includes a product portfolio of global leading Datacentre, Cloud, Networking and Security products and services. This embraces hybrid solutions with access to any combination of on premise, private cloud and public cloud end-to-end solutions from multiple vendors. The portfolio, together with highly skilled staff to support and manage vendors with an unrivalled level of expertise, ensures that our partners have the key elements required for success. First Distribution additionally hosts one of the largest technology partner-to-partner networks in Africa allowing partners to extend the reach of their solutions across the continent.
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