As I stood watching the Dell Technologies World 2024 keynote at Las Vegas, I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of pride and excitement. The atmosphere was electric, with professionals and enthusiasts alike buzzing when we showcased Dell’s AI-optimized infrastructure one after the other as part of the Dell AI Factory. Dell Technologies World has always been a platform for unveiling groundbreaking technologies, and this year was no different.
Our announcement of the PowerScale F910 during the keynote was a significant milestone, completing the refresh of our all-flash file storage lineup. Marking our continued commitment to providing AI-ready infrastructure that transforms how businesses operate, the PowerScale F910 delivers massive AI performance with the ultimate density.
Supercharging AI Workloads with Lightning-fast Data Delivery and Scale
The combination of high-speed data volumes and increasingly advanced GPUs has created a new challenge for organizations: how to keep their AI systems fully utilized and running at peak performance without bottlenecks. PowerScale F910 addresses this challenge head-on. In an age where GPUs just devour storage and data at unprecedented rates, PowerScale accelerates the model training phase of the AI pipeline with high-speed data ingestion at scale and keeps your AI machines fully fed.
Key highlights of the PowerScale F910 include:
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- AI-ready performance. Leveraging the latest Intel Xeon CPUs, DRAM and Gen 5 PCIe technology, the F910 delivers up to 127%1 improvement in streaming performance. This ensures faster time to AI insights, accelerating model checkpointing and training phases while keeping GPUs fully utilized with up to 300 PBs of storage per cluster. With software-defined OneFS, PowerScale also simplifies your multicloud journey to truly power your AI anywhere your data lives with APEX File Storage for AWS and Microsoft Azure
- Enhanced storage efficiency. The F910 optimizes storage utilization with a 2U node design, offering 20% more density per RU than our earlier announced PowerScale F710. Additionally, this latest addition to the PowerScale portfolio helps advance organizations’ sustainability goals—delivering up to twice the performance per watt2 with hardware and software upgrades over the last year and features the world’s best scale-out NAS data reduction guarantee,3 thereby effectively allowing you to do more with less.
In addition to these key highlights, the PowerScale F910 boasts advanced security features such as encryption at rest and in transit and real-time cyber threat prevention to protect sensitive AI data. It also offers GPUDirect support with NVIDIA, low latency storage access with NFSoRDMA, multi-tenant capabilities, 6x9s availability and resiliency to ensure uninterrupted uptime and simultaneous multiprotocol support with S3 compatibility providing flexibility for different AI workflows.
The Buzz and Excitement on the Expo Floor
Seeing the PowerScale F910 live on the expo floor was an exhilarating experience. Attendees were drawn to our booth, eager to see the new product firsthand. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with many expressing their satisfaction and why they love PowerScale. It was clear to see why Dell is the #1 NAS storage vendor4 because it addresses real challenges and unlocks new possibilities for AI-driven organizations.
The Future of AI-Optimized Storage
The launch of the PowerScale F910 is another exciting milestone, and we’re committed to continuing our journey of innovation and excellence in AI-optimized infrastructure. Upcoming enhancements include 61 TB QLC drives that will double the maximum capacity to further streamline data center footprint. And as the world’s first ethernet-based NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD certified storage vendor, we’ll build on our partnership with NVIDIA by introducing 200GbE connectivity, soon to be qualified with the latest NVIDIA backend networking switches (NVIDIA Spectrum-4), to improve inter-cluster scalability.
Additionally, to address the cutting-edge storage needs of the most advanced AI factories of today (tens of thousands of GPUs+), we also announced PowerScale: Project Lightning, bringing a parallel file system to PowerScale, specifically designed for AI workloads. Coming up next year, PowerScale: Project Lightning will ensure the storage needs of even the largest AI clusters will be met.
We are poised to meet the evolving demands of AI and provide our customers with the tools they need to succeed.
Moving Forward with Pride and Anticipation
Reflecting on Dell Technologies World 2024, and the amazing interactions we had from customers and partners alike, I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve achieved with PowerScale. As we look ahead, we remain dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in AI and delivering solutions that empower our customers to thrive in an increasingly data-driven world.
Thank you to everyone who attended Dell Technologies World 2024 and made it such an unforgettable experience. For those who missed it, I encourage you to learn more about PowerScale from our website and explore how it can transform your AI initiatives. Let’s continue to innovate and build a brighter future together.
* Disclaimer: Based on Dell analysis of cybersecurity software capabilities; flexibility-related features including functional, operational, and hardware flexibility; and efficiency-related features including data reduction, storage capacity, data protection overhead, hardware, rack units, lifecycle management, and ENERGY STAR certified configuration.
1 Based on internal testing, comparing streaming write of F910 on OneFS 9.8 to streaming write of F900 on OneFS 9.5. Actual results may vary. April 2024.
2 Based on internal testing, comparing streaming write of F910 on OneFS 9.8 to streaming write of F900 on OneFS 9.5. Actual results may vary. April 2024.
3 Based on internal testing, comparing streaming write of F910 on OneFS 9.8 to streaming write of F900 on OneFS 9.5. Actual results may vary. April 2024.
4 Dell is ranked #1 globally in NAS solutions for external OEM storage in IDC Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker, 2023Q4, March 7, 2024 – Vendor Revenue.
