Dell Technologies recently announced new PowerScale NAS storage systems and PowerEdge servers. These should allow customers to run and use AI models more efficiently, the thinking goes. The Dell APEX Storage portfolio has also been given a refresh.
Dell Technologies wants to make it even easier and more efficient for its customers to run AI models and has released new systems for various hardware portfolios to cater to this need. More specifically, these are updates to Dell PowerScale NAS-based storage systems, the APEX Storage portfolio and a Dell PowerEdge server.
PowerScale storage systems
The Dell PowerScale portfolio, specifically NSAS-based storage systems for unstructured data, has gained several new all-flash storage systems. The new systems can perform read/write operations for streaming data twice as fast as older models.
In addition, a special “smart scale-out” feature makes it easier for enterprises to use the GPUs of the (PowerEdge) servers connected to the storage systems. This should greatly improve the performance of AI workloads.
The OneFS operating system included with the Dell PowerScale is also getting an upgrade. The new version helps train AI models faster, refine them, and apply inference. It allows neural networks to be run in production environments.
Furthermore, Dell PowerScale storage systems are now compatible with so-called Nvidia SuperPOD environments. These environments combine data storage hardware with the Nvidia DGX, A100 or H100 GPU-based appliances. Dell Technology expects its PowerScale systems to be the first storage systems certified for Nvidia SuperPOD.
APEX Storage portfolio.
The Dell APEX Storage portfolio has also received updates for easier file-based data management. The Dell APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure service has now been launched for managing data in this specific public cloud environment.
Databricks end users will also receive new integrations from this portfolio that will be available in AWS and Azure. These integrations should enable better training of AI models based on data made available through Dell APEX storage software.
Dell PowerEdge server with AMD Instinct
Furthermore, Dell Technologies has also added an innovation to the PowerEdge XE9680. This server, already released last year, now features the recently launched AMD Instinct MI300 ML accelerator.
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