Research Note: Dell Technologies introduces PowerStore 4.0, 3200Q and PowerStore Prime

Dell Technologies has announced PowerStore 4.0, the latest release of its mid-range storage operating system. The company has also announced a QLC-based PowerStore, the 3200Q, and an evergreen upgrade financial option. How do these announcements compare to the market competition?

Background

Dell Technologies has announced an upgrade to the software deployed on PowerStore midrange storage appliances. The 4.0 release introduces improved performance, with a self-claimed reduction in latency of 20%, 30% more IOPS (mixed workloads), 40% XCOPY transactions and generally improved levels of scalability (snapshots, volumes, hosts).

The latest code release also increases data reduction by 20% using a new variable block algorithm that claims to adapt to diverse data types. PowerStore now offers a 5:1 data reduction guarantee (sight-unseen, meaning no pre-requisite assessments). Overall, these savings claim an efficiency improvement of 28% TB-effective per watt.

From a data protection perspective, the 4.0 release introduces true synchronous replication capability for block and file workloads. Metro replication is extended to include Windows and Linux, while data replication is now possible to and from APEX Block Storage in the public cloud.

QLC

Accompanying the 4.0 upgrade is a new hardware configuration based on 15.36TB QLC media. The 3200Q (which appears to have the exact hardware specification as the existing 3200T) scales from 11 to 93 QLC SSDs, for a maximum supported configuration of 5.9 PB effective. Other than confirming “sub-millisecond” latency, Dell provides no other performance characteristics of the new platform (other than indicating the 3200T and 3200Q have the same performance capabilities).

PowerStore Prime

Dell also introduced PowerStore Prime, which appears to be a new purchasing model for 4.0 systems and beyond. Prime includes the 5:1 data reduction guarantee, APEX subscriptions (which already existed) and Lifecycle Extension, a replacement for the previous Anytime Upgrade programme. Customers can in-place upgrade the controllers of Gen2 hardware to a faster model, or upgrade from Gen1 to Gen2.

The Architect’s View®

The introduction of a QLC-based system will be welcomed by customers looking for a more cost-efficient solution than the current range of TLC flash systems. However, the entry point for this platform is eleven 15.36TB drives, compared to six drives with the TLC models. This represents a significant additional commitment.

The move to PowerStore 4.0 software doesn’t introduce any hardware improvements. The PowerStore range still has only two generations of system – the original generation 1 and generation 2 hardware from 2022. The former is based on Intel first-generation Xeon (Skylake), the latter on 2^nd generation Cascade Lake. In comparison, Pure Storage introduced Sapphire Rapids (4^th generation Xeon) systems with the R4 release in mid-2023, while NetApp announced updated AFF A-Series systems using Sapphire Rapids earlier this month. In this respect, Dell is way behind the competition. Similarly, when looking at drive capacities, the single largest SSD available remains 15.36TB (Pure Storage is expected to announce 75TB drive availability next month).

Although there are no hardware upgrades with PowerStore 4.0, there are incremental improvements in performance and efficiency. We can’t validate any of the Dell claims, but as a general statement, we would expect any modern storage software release to offer at least some improvement over previous generations.

Dell is using the annual Dell Technologies World event to promote new and updated technologies, including PowerStore. It is interesting to note that in an event which is entirely focused on AI, the PowerStore 4.0 announcement never mentions AI workload capabilities. In addition, PowerStore Prime appears to be a marketing strategy, rather than offering anything new. For example, Prime also includes APEX AIOps, which is a rebranding of the existing CloudIQ suite of observability tools.

PowerStore 4.0 offers some improvements for existing customers, but in general, this is a lacklustre announcement. Dell is still two processor generations behind the competition, which also means slower PCIe and memory bus speeds. Despite significant market share, PowerStore continues to underperform compared to its peers.