Dell EMC PowerMax 8500
World's most secure mission-critical storage

Start with best-in-class

Purpose-built storage arrays have evolved over the years to fill an essential role in the datacenter, providing ever-expanding levels of performance, capacity, and resiliency for mission-critical workloads. PowerStore begins with the very best of modern storage technology, delivering a new kind of storage appliance with advanced services to complement and extend existing onpremises environments.

Any workload

PowerStore’s single architecture for block, file, and VMware vVols leverages the latest technologies to support an enterprise-class variety of traditional and modern workloads – from relational databases, to ERP and EMR apps, cloud native applications, and file-based workloads such as content repositories and home directories. DC, low-line power and NEBS-ready solutions are available. The ability to accommodate application, multi-protocol network and multi-format storage diversity (physical and virtual volumes, containers, traditional files) within a single 2U appliance provides business-enabling flexibility and helps IT simplify and consolidate their infrastructure.

Performance optimized

Designed to leverage next-gen innovations such as end-to-end NVMe (both FC and Ethernet) and dual-port Intel Optane solid state drives (SSDs) as Storage Class Memory (SCM), PowerStore delivers up to 7x more IOPs3 and 3x lower latency4 for real-world workloads compared to our previous storage generation, giving you all the headroom you need to ensure long-term value through multiple solution lifecycles.

Scale up and scale out

Expanding the capabilities of your initial PowerStore configuration is simple and extremely efficient, as capacity and performance may be scaled independently. Each active-active PowerStore appliance can grow to over 2.8 PB effective capacity, and multiple appliances can be clustered for greater performance.

Efficiency without compromise

Regardless of how you grow, PowerStore costs remain consistently low. Deduplication and compression are “always on,” and thanks to Intel QuickAssist hardware acceleration, PowerStore systems provide a guaranteed average 4:1 data reduction6 without compromising performance.

Make it simpler, and more intelligent

But it’s not just performance and scale. PowerStore also delivers unprecedented levels of intelligence and automation, eliminating complexity, while enabling faster delivery of new applications and services with up to 99% less management interaction.

Programmable infrastructure

PowerStore streamlines application development and automates storage workflows through integration with VMware and a broad ecosystem of leading management and orchestration frameworks. You can provision PowerStore services directly from the application toolsets you use most. For example, IT and DevOps users can take advantage of plug-ins for VMware (vRO Plugin), Kubernetes (CSI Driver) and Ansible (Ansible Module), reducing deployment timeframes from days to seconds.

Autonomous appliance

PowerStore includes built-in intelligence to eliminate dozens of time-consuming tasks and decision points. Labor-intensive processes like initial volume placement, migrations, load balancing and issue resolution are automated by PowerStore’s onboard machine learning (ML) engine, which fine-tunes both individual and clustered appliances, optimizing performance and cost as the solution evolves to meet new challenges. SmartFabric Storage Software support even automates network tasks in an end-to-end NVMe environment.

Proactive health and cybersecurity analytics

CloudIQ, included with PowerStore, gives administrators faster time to insight, with all the intel they need to take quick action and more efficiently manage their storage environment. By combining machine learning, advanced analytics and human intelligence, the cloud-based app reduces risk, spots anomalies before trouble occurs, and helps even IT generalists plan for future storage needs with powerful forecasting. CloudIQ makes storage management tasks easier, so you can get back to focusing on your business goals.

Ready to adapt when you are

If the advantages stopped here, PowerStore would already offer incredible storage value with a powerful lineup of enterprise-class features. However, the PowerStore difference goes much deeper with revolutionary new capabilities that not only support current needs, transforming the way you run your data center today, but also empower you to evolve your infrastructure as your business evolves – as unpredictable as that may be.

Flexible architecture

PowerStore’s container-based software architecture, known as PowerStoreOS, improves performance, fault tolerance and security by isolating individual OS components as microservices. It also enables feature portability and rapid delivery of new or enhanced services over time. Administrators can choose to deploy PowerStoreOS in a bare metal configuration directly on the PowerStore hardware, or within a virtual machine (VM) running on PowerStore’s optional built-in VMware hypervisor, providing yet another layer of isolation, intelligence and abstraction. When PowerStoreOS runs on a VM, administrators can also access the hypervisor to deploy their own applications directly on the appliance, using the same VMware tools and methods they use with external hosts. This gamechanging capability, known as AppsON, is ideal for data-intensive workloads in core or edge locations where infrastructure simplicity and density is required, as well as for “infrastructure applications” such as anti-virus or monitoring software.

Best of all, since VMware ESXi is the underlying foundation, administrators can move seamlessly between these services. PowerStore cluster management, combined with VMware tools including vMotion and storage vMotion, enables easy application mobility in and out of PowerStore to other VMware targets.

Using a single storage instance, applications can be deployed on networked servers, hyperconverged infrastructure, or directly on the PowerStore appliance, and migrated transparently among any of them, allowing IT and application owners to quickly deploy and reassign workloads to the most effective environment based on current requirements and available resources.

Flexible deployment

PowerStore’s compact footprint and adaptable design is ideal for:

• Edge-based IoT data analytics and remote office applications where ease of deployment and advanced replication is required
• Core data center modernization, when flexibility, application mobility, and VMware integration is critical for consistent operations
• Multi-cloud access, including hybrid solutions that allow customers to integrate on-premises infrastructure with public cloud while maintaining management and operational consistency.

Leveraging Dell Technologies Cloud Validated Designs, PowerStore can provide an ideal landing zone for data intensive workloads on VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). PowerStore is also supported with Dell EMC Cloud Storage Services, which directly connects PowerStore to the users’ cloud(s) of choice, as a managed service. Cloud Storage Services can provide DRaaS to VMware Cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS) with full operational consistency using VMware.

PowerStore may be deployed as a standalone appliance complementing existing infrastructure, or as a storage option within Dell Technologies VxBlock for CI, our all-in-one autonomous infrastructure cloud platform.

Flexible consumption

PowerStore simplifies storage acquisition and ownership with a range of flexible purchase options that match the needs of your organization. From traditional CAPEX to APEX Custom Solutions pay-per-use offerings that align spending with usage, PowerStore optimizes both technological and financial outcomes. Whether you’re adding storage only, or launching an end-to-end solution involving multiple product categories, we’ll make sure you get the best possible return on your IT spend – both at the start and as you expand your environment.

Continuously modern platform

Within any deployment scenario, PowerStore is designed to eliminate costly and disruptive forklift migrations by seamlessly evolving both the software and hardware capabilities of the platform as new technologies become available.

All array software is included with the hardware purchase. There are no feature licenses to buy and maintain, and future software enhancements are provided at no cost. Anytime Upgrade, the industry’s most flexible controller upgrade program, 10 gives you immediate access to the latest hardware developments, allowing you to add state-of-the-art performance while preserving your original enclosure and drive investments. Unlike other programs, Anytime Upgrade provides multiple ways to evolve your PowerStore system.

• Data-in-place node upgrades: Replace the nodes (controllers) in your existing appliance with Next Gen + Higher Model versions.
• Scale-out upgrade: Apply a discount credit to expand your PowerStore cluster with a second system equal to your current model.

Each upgrade category is completely non-disruptive, and may be executed at any time during your maintenance contract. You are not required to renew your contract to receive the upgrade.