Storage cost efficiency: Optimize with Dell PowerStore – SiliconANGLE

As part of its strategic consulting and managed services practice, AHEAD Inc. is often called in to help solve interoperability and performance issues caused by a complicated tangle of storage, server and virtualization solutions. In partnership with Dell Technologies Inc., AHEAD relies on storage cost efficiency solutions, such as PowerStore, to help its clients untie the IT knot.

“We were a long-time partner with Dell, and I got my first exposure to PowerStore in 2019 when we were doing the beta testing,” said Jonathan Kowall (pictured, center), director of specialist solutions engineers at AHEAD, during an interview with theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. “One of the nice things about PowerStore is … supporting all those workloads in one place. I can run virtualization, I can run containers and I can start performing AI with one system. That’s efficiency just in man hours and how to manage and maintain this.”

Kowall spoke with theCUBE Research’s Rob Strechay during the Smarter Storage for Tomorrow’s Opportunities event. He was joined by Travis Vigil (right), senior vice president of product management at Dell, and Edward Pullin (left), director of IP marketing for Intel Accelerators at Intel Corp., and they discussed how Dell PowerStore supports storage cost efficiency and sustainability for IT operations. (* Disclosure below.)

Storage cost efficiency and sustainability for PowerStore

A key ingredient in PowerStore’s appeal is that it offers low latency performance to optimize storage environments. The storage array leverages Intel Xeon processors to generate enhanced performance and greater efficiency.

“With this fourth generation of the IP, with the Intel Zeon Scalable, we are actually integrated onto the Xeon devices,” Pullin explained. “We can get about 20 gigabytes per second of compression performance, about 40 gigabytes per second of decompression performance. We can go down to Level Nine compression for that data footprint efficiency. That’s what the accelerator is about.”

Greater data efficiency can translate into cost efficiency as well. Dell has backed its PowerStore offering with a data compression guarantee.

“For predictable cost efficiencies for storage are things like our five-to-one data reduction guarantee where we guarantee customers will receive five-to-one efficiency on compressible data,” Vigil said. “IT managers that are charged with keeping their business cost efficient need to be agile and flexible in this environment so they can take advantage of opportunities as they arise. To do this, you have to be able to control the cost side in a way that’s very predictable, even when things change.”

In addition to cost efficiency, customers are also looking for sustainable solutions. Dell’s focus on enhancements for the PowerStore platform has reduced power consumption, an important consideration for partners such as AHEAD.

“This is a big deal, especially from the partner side, because we look at everything that’s going into the solution,” Kovall said. “If I can offset other technology decisions that I have to make, like I’m buying a whole lot of GPUs which are power hungry and I can save on power in the storage system right now, I can start talking about sustainability. You start to see customers ask about it and really care about it.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of the Smarter Storage for Tomorrow’s Opportunities event:

Watch the complete virtual event episode here:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Smarter Storage for Tomorrow’s Opportunities event. Neither Dell Technologies Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE