Dell Unveils Storage Advancements Accelerate AI and Generative AI Strategies

Dell PowerScale systems deliver up to a 200% performance improvement for streaming RW to help customers more quickly access data for AI workloads
PowerScale OneFS software updates improve AI modeling capabilities for data preparation, training, fine-tuning and inferencing
PowerScale is expected to be the 1st Ethernet storage solution validated on Nvidia DGX SuperPOD, which will give customers increased flexibility, speed and ease for AI storage
Dell APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure delivers enterprise class file performance and capabilities to support demanding AI and ML workloads

Dell Technologies, Inc. is helping customers achieve faster AI and generative AI (GenAI) performance with new enterprise storage advancements and validation with the Nvidia DGX SuperPOD AI infrastructure.

“Storage performance is a critical factor for successful AI and generative AI outcomes,” said Arthur Lewis, president, infrastructure solutions group. “Customers are relying on us to continually push the boundaries of storage innovation, including removing data access bottlenecks that limit the throughput and scalability of compute-intensive applications. We are addressing these needs by delivering fast, efficient and secure access to data and turning it into a proverbial goldmine of AI and GenAI possibilities.“

PowerScale appliance

Addressing need for performance and efficiency for AI storage
New advancements from Dell PowerScale, a flexible,⁽¹⁾ secure ⁽²⁾ and efficient ⁽³⁾ scale-out file storage system, address increasing customer demands for higher AI and GenAI performance.

Now, with PowerScale OneFS software enhancements, companies can prepare, train, fine-tune and inference AI models more quickly. With new PowerScale all-flash storage systems, based on latest-gen company’s PowerEdge servers, customers will see up to a 2x performance increase for streaming RW.⁽⁴⁾

“We make an engineering change every 17mn, a speed unachievable without a powerful IT infrastructure that underpins all of our processes,” said Dan Keyworth, director of business technology, McLaren Racing. “Thanks to PowerScale, we’re equipped to leverage cutting-edge AI applications, combining high-performance storage with computing capabilities to create a winning formula for success.”

PowerScale will offer a scale-out capability to improve single compute node performance for enhanced GPU utilization, leading to faster storage throughput for AI training, checkpointing and inferencing.

“Dell continues to design its file and object storage solutions with the customer in mind, allowing them to modernize their infrastructure with an AI-ready foundation to support the most intensive workloads, such as generative AI,” said Scott Sinclair, practice director, Enterprise Strategy Group. “With PowerScale’s latest performance advances, customers can improve AI model training and fine-tuning to make better business decisions based on their data wherever it resides with increased speed and accuracy.”

PowerScale undergoes validation for Nvidia DGX SuperPOD
Through Dell’s collaboration with Nvidia Corp., customers will be able to take advantage of a validated combination of Nvidia DGX systems, PowerScale storage and Nvidia Quantum-2 InfiniBand and Spectrum Ethernet networking to achieve faster and more efficient AI storage. The company‘s solution is expected to be a 1st Ethernet storage solution validated on Nvidia DGX SuperPOD.

With PowerScale becoming validated for DGX SuperPOD, Nvidia’s turnkey data center AI infrastructure solution, customers will be able to confidently accelerate their AI and GenAI initiatives with Dell’s NAS.⁽⁵⁾ DGX SuperPOD includes the Nvidia AI Enterprise software platform to provide a full-stack, secure and stable AI supercomputing solution.

Bringing AI to data wherever it resides
With nearly 87% of companies embracing multicloud strategies,⁽⁶⁾ the company is giving customers the freedom to process data wherever it makes the most sense for them – on premises, at the edge or in public clouds.

The firm’s APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure, the latest addition to the APEX Storage for Public Cloud portfolio, delivers enterprise-class file performance and management capabilities in Microsoft Azure. Customers will be able to meet the needs of performance-intensive AI and ML applications like Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Vision.

APEX File Storage in AWS and Azure allows customers to take advantage of cloud-native AI and GenAI workflows on data in public clouds or on premises with improved data access and movement. For example, through Dell’s expanding Databricks, Inc. collaboration, customers can choose from a variety of large language models (LLMs) and use libraries from Databricks MosaicML to retrain a foundational model with their proprietary data stored in APEX File Storage, offering flexibility across multicloud environments.

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This collaboration builds on the company’s data management ecosystem partnerships to help customers accelerate AI and analytics efforts. Additionally, with Dell’s planned open, modern data lakehouse, customers can extract insights from data wherever it resides with the integration of Starburst Data, Inc.‘s analytics software with PowerEdge servers and PowerScale, ECS and ObjectScale file and object storage systems.

Availability :

PowerScale OneFS software enhancements will be globally available this month.
Next-gen all-flash PowerScale systems and smart scale-out feature will be globally available in 1H24.
PowerScale is being validated with Nvidia DGX SuperPOD, with expected completion in 1Q24.
APEX for File Storage for Microsoft Azure will be available in 1H24.
APEX for File Storage integration with Databricks and MosaicML is available in AWS today and in Microsoft Azure in 1H24.
Dell open, modern data lakehouse solution will be globally available in 1H24.

⁽¹⁾ Based on Dell analysis, February 2023.
⁽²⁾Based on Dell analysis comparing cyber-security software capabilities offered for Dell PowerScale vs. competitive products, October 2023.
⁽³⁾ Based on Dell analysis comparing efficiency-related features: data reduction, storage capacity, data protection, hardware, space, lifecycle management efficiency and Energy Star certified configurations, June 2023.
⁽⁴⁾Based on Dell preliminary testing. Oct 2023. Compares the latest generation PowerScale all-flash nodes with OneFS 9.7 vs. the previous generation PowerScale all-flash nodes with OneFS 9.4. Actual results may vary.
⁽⁵⁾Dell is ranked #1 globally in NAS solutions for external OEM storage in IDC WW Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker, 2Q23 historical release, September 7, 2023.
⁽⁶⁾Flexera, 2023 State of the Cloud Report.