In the digital age, organizations are facing greater IT constraints and to tackle these, they are demanding new-age storage infrastructures which can deliver efficiency at minimal cost. Amit Luthra, Director & General Manager – Data Center Solution at Dell Technologies India, shares insights into the recently launched Dell EMC PowerStore, a modern storage appliance designed for the data era
With respect to the demand of mid-range storage solutions among enterprises, highlight some of the current trends prevailing in the industry?
Mid-range is one of the fastest growing segments of the storage market and I believe this demand is going to increase in the future. As more and more businesses realize the intrinsic value of their data, the need for better storage solutions will also rise. Glancing at the future, I think two trends that will prevail the industry would be as follows:
- On-prem storage is here to stay: Conversations around cloud have grown, but on-prem storage infrastructure will still see increased demand. As India’s digital journey continues, storage needs for businesses are bound to evolve. While, cloud will provide agility and cost benefits, businesses will look at a future standpoint of gaining better control and security of their data with the help of on-prem storage.
- Demand for intelligent and cost effective IT storage would grow: To ease pressure on existing IT teams, businesses will look at adopting intelligent and automated storage solutions, which deliver optimal performance and are low on budget. Through this, they will aim to eliminate data migration & placement complexities, enabling businesses to deliver new applications and services faster.
What’s the rationale behind launching PowerStore storage solutions? How does this offering further strengthen your storage portfolio?
We are transitioning into an era driven mostly by data, which we call the ‘Data Era’ at Dell Technologies. Now, in this new era, the combination of massive amounts of data and unparalleled technology innovation has given businesses of all sizes the opportunity to become disruptive, digital powerhouses.
But despite this potential, many businesses are learning that their path to digital transformation is complex and challenging, simply because they haven’t invested in the right IT infrastructures. At the same time, the existing IT is under tremendous pressure to deliver greater levels of simplicity and agility.
Thus, to meet these conflicting demands of our customers, we have launched Dell EMC PowerStore, a modern storage appliance designed for the data era. This game-changing new platform unlocks the power of data, regardless of its structure or location, helping you adapt and transform your IT without disrupting current operations. Introduction of this product stands as our unwavering commitment to bring in better innovation into our midrange portfolio. PowerStore will play a critical role in our FY21 plans alongside other storage arrays in the portfolio, including PowerMax, VxFlex, Unity XT (for hybrid configurations), and Isilon.
Where does PowerStore score over other mid-range storage solutions available in the market and what is the USP of this product? Also, how competitively is it priced so that it can dominate the mid-range all flash storage market?
Dell EMC PowerStore is next generation storage designed for enterprises and the first product from Dell Technologies as a combined entity. There are three unique features that this product offers to the customers – data centric design, intelligent automation and adaptability. These revolutionary features will enable them to efficiently address the needs of the data era. Moreover, Dell EMC PowerStore is up to seven times faster and three times more responsive than previous Dell EMC midrange storage arrays. Not only does PowerStore deliver all the qualities and features that any high end storage could have, it is also competitively priced in the mid-range category. Hence, we are positive about its potential to lead the market.
Which all vertical industries stand to benefit with the adoption of PowerStore solutions? Is it targeted more towards MSMEs / SMBs in the country?
As organizations plan to move ahead in their digital journey and find solutions to make the best use of their data resources, they would require new architecture and approach to storage infrastructure. This is where Dell EMC PowerStore comes in. This product offering will address needs of all organizations, from large enterprises to medium enterprises, thereby enabling them to deliver innovation at a reduced TCO.
The advent of digital technologies pushes the majority of organizations of all sizes to adopt new age storage solutions which can offer better performance, agility and scalability. How is PowerStore poised to address the infrastructure modernization need of enterprises?
It is true that with the influx of digital technologies, organizations are facing greater IT constraints and in order to tackle these challenges, they are demanding new-age storage infrastructures which can deliver efficiency at minimal cost. Dell EMC PowerStore would serve as an ideal storage product that will help them overcome data centre challenges including data migration with ease. For instance, Dell EMC CloudIQ, which is included with PowerStore, leverages machine learning and analytics to reduce risk and predict storage management needs. With the CloudIQ mobile app, data center admins can have critical information on their arrays in the palm of their hand.
Additionally, PowerStore is also introducing an industry-first capability called AppsON, which allows customers to deploy apps directly on the appliance for maximum flexibility. AppsON is ideal for data-intensive workloads in core or edge locations as well as infrastructure applications like anti-virus or monitoring software.
With PowerStore, how can organizations accelerate decision making, data access, and application performance?
It is designed to serve as the cornerstone of modern IT infrastructure, providing flexibility and scalability while delivering new levels of TCO savings for organizations. PowerStore’s intelligent automation capabilities simplify data center management with up to 99% less management interaction and this helps customers quickly move their data, without disruption.
Some of the other features of this product include- it can handle any type of data workload with its scale-up, scale-out architecture for block, file and VMware vVols; it is performance optimised i.e. it is seven times faster and three times more responsive than previous Dell EMC midrange storage arrays; it delivers efficiency without compromise i.e. customers can save on IT budget and capacity with always-on deduplication, compression and a guaranteed 4:1 data reduction.
How does PowerStore address perennial challenges associated with hybrid multi-cloud environments like complexities in deployment and managed services?
Organizations are now expecting flexibility as one of the key components for their IT, as they transform and take advantage of public cloud offerings, deploy data in edge or corporate data centers, and expand storage for private cloud infrastructure. Dell EMC PowerStore is the perfect storage product that customers can deploy, in a manner that best meets their cloud strategy and business needs.
The enterprise class capabilities of this product such as end-to-end NVMe design coupled with Dell EMC CloudIQ monitoring and analytics software makes deployment flexibility of demanding workloads easier in different hybrid cloud environments. Moreover, PowerStore can be deployed as a storage option within Dell EMC PowerOne autonomous infrastructure or it can be directly connected to major public clouds including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure and Google Cloud as a managed service.
PowerStore is covered by Dell EMC Future-Proof program. How will this bolster the demand and create customer stickiness?
The thought behind deploying PowerStore as a part of Dell EMC’s Future Proof Program was to provide greater choice, predictability and investment protection to our customers globally. However, this feature has not been introduced in India, yet. However, for the Indian market, we are reaching out to our customers via our robust go-to-market strategy and by leveraging our partner channels by providing them with various incentives. Based on our preliminary discussions and trainings, I am happy to share that our partners are extremely excited about Dell EMC PowerStore.
