Dell PowerFlex 4.0 With Advanced Modernization Capabilities Released

Dell’s latest software release for PowerFlex is now available, taking these SDS systems to Dell PowerFlex 4.0. The updates were teased at DTW earlier this year, highlighted by new lifecycle management options and deployment through NVMe/TCP.  For a little more background, we did an introduction to PowerFlex when it was rebranded in 2020.

Dell’s latest software release for PowerFlex is now available, taking these SDS systems to Dell PowerFlex 4.0. The updates were teased at DTW earlier this year, highlighted by new lifecycle management options and deployment through NVMe/TCP.  For a little more background, we did an introduction to PowerFlex when it was rebranded in 2020.

Dell PowerFlex 4.0 – Hypervisor and Container Management Support

PowerFlex provides a solid foundation for the customers as they modernize their IT infrastructure. There is support for heterogeneous operating platforms on standard infrastructure deployment and support for multiple OS, hypervisors, and container management platforms. PowerFlex also supports various Kubernetes and hyperscaler platforms and the flexibility to utilize either bare metal or a virtualized deployment architecture. The new release also expands support for Amazon EKS Anywhere on bare metal to go along with existing support for Amazon EKS Anywhere in a virtual environment.

Dell PowerFlex 4.0 introduced new file services to complement existing block storage services. By adding this modernization capability, PowerFlex expands its consolidation use cases across file and block workloads, enabling greater consolidation efficiency while simplifying operations.

Dell PowerFlex 4.0 also supports NVMe/TCP, a standards-based protocol that expands PowerFlex host connectivity. This gives customers the option to utilize the next-generation standards-based storage connectivity.

Streamlined Operations

IT administrators require standardization and automation that simplifies infrastructure and application workflows. PowerFlex has been engineered to streamline operations and boost agility with intelligent software-driven automation. This release delivers unified tools and UIs necessary for lifecycle management and IT Operations with storage management across file and block storage services in the unified PowerFlex Manager. A single UI simplifies management tasks by providing extensive automation and reducing administrative overhead.

A feature-rich out-of-the-box toolset that includes Dell Container Storage Modules (CSM) and CSI drivers, PowerFlex REST API, and PowerFlex Ansible modules enhance DevOps productivity and IT agility. Staying with the simplification theme, integration with CloudIQ intelligent insights makes monitoring distributed multi-location PowerFlex deployments easier by providing a seamless cloud-based AIOps mechanism.

PowerFlex is designed from the ground up to leverage industry standards and software-driven infrastructure optimization. With this updated release, PowerFlex continues to build upon its core competencies.

The architecture delivers impressive performance for I/O and throughput-intensive workloads by aggregating resources across many nodes while optimizing data path and placement to provide the best outcomes. Mission-critical applications running on PowerFlex deliver millions of IOPs at sub-millisecond latency without requiring massive infrastructure build-out, scale performance linearly to thousands of nodes, and ensure 99.9999% availability with real-life workloads. The software-driven approach allows a quick and flexible way to scale the infrastructure to address specific resource bottlenecks and reconstruct and reconfigure resource pools to address changing seasonal or long-term requirements.

These new capabilities introduced with Dell PowerFlex 4.0 further expand the values of the PowerFlex software-defined infrastructure platform.

Dell PowerFlex 4.0 – It’s a Big Win for SDS

PowerFlex is a very good platform and we’re glad to see Dell putting emphasis on it again after a lengthy hiatus. Calling it a hiatus isn’t exactly true, Dell has been selling PowerFlex to certain market segments like service providers and telcos continuously. What started life as ScaleIO before being acquired by EMC and then Dell was actually one of the early and best pioneers in the software-defined world. We did extensive coverage of the system many years ago and it remains one of our all-time favorites.

Over time, acquisitions and changes in leadership, PowerFlex got put off to the side. In its day, little could touch PowerFlex in terms of performance. We’re thrilled to see Dell investing in PowerFlex again and hope to see Dell PowerFlex 4.0 re-emerge as a category leader in the SDS market.

For additional details, visit the Dell PowerFlex page or PowerFlex Infohub.

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