Dell launches AI-ready infrastructure for data centers

Why it matters

Organizations are revising their IT strategies to address the rise of AI, the need to support both traditional and modern workloads, and increased cyber threats. IT teams are increasingly focusing on disaggregated infrastructure that places compute, storage, and networking into shared resource pools for better scalability, efficiency, and adaptability.

Innovations in server, storage, and data protection from Dell Technologies are designed to better help customers meet the needs of traditional and modern workloads.

Dell PowerEdge servers deliver advanced performance and are energy-efficient and scalable

Dell PowerEdge R470, R570, R670, and R770 servers with Intel Xeon 6 processors with P-cores are single- and double-socket servers in U1 and U2 form factors that can easily handle demanding traditional and emerging workloads such as HPC, virtualization, analytics, and AI inferencing:

• Improves workload consolidation: consolidate legacy platforms with the Dell PowerEdge R770 and save energy and up to 80% space per 42U rack. These systems save up to half of energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions, and support up to 50% more cores per processor [1] and 67% higher performance.[2] This reduces the footprint of data centers and helps achieve sustainability goals while lowering the total cost of ownership without compromising performance.
• Delivers extreme power with efficiency: the powerful and efficient Dell PowerEdge R570 achieves record-breaking Intel performance per watt, allowing organizations to save on energy costs while still running powerful workloads.[3]
• Future-proof designs: simplify and prepare operations for the future with the DC-MHS architecture (Data Center – Modular Hardware System), as part of the Open Compute Project (OCP). DC-MHS standardizes server designs, making integration into existing infrastructure easier and giving customers more choice.
• Simplified management: PowerEdge servers offer streamlined management and robust protection thanks to enhancements to Dell OpenManage and updates for Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (IDRAC 10), including real-time monitoring. Combined with the PERC13 PCIe Gen 5 HW Raid controller, customers can experience up to 33x less write latency.[4]

Dell PowerStore enhances performance and security and simplifies data management

The intelligent software design of the Dell PowerStore delivers an automated, highly programmable platform with advanced data reduction and independently scalable storage services, suitable for the needs of modern disaggregated architectures. The latest software version of PowerStore delivers:

• AI-driven analytics: reduce costs and eliminate manual work with Smart Support alerts and recovery, performance headroom analysis, and CO2 footprint prediction with Dell AIOps software (formerly CloudIQ).
• Enhanced Zero-Trust security: control access and improve availability with DoD smart card authentication support, automated certificate renewal, and enhanced Storage Direct Protection integrations that deliver up to 4x faster backup recovery [5], including support for the latest Dell PowerProtect systems.
• Advanced support for file systems: enhance system performance with advanced file management capabilities, robust data protection with secure file snapshots, capacity insights for smarter storage planning, and streamlined migration from Dell Unity systems.

The next generation Dell ObjectScale delivers better performance and scalability

Dell introduces the next generation of Dell ObjectScale, the best-performing object platform in the industry.[6] Dell ObjectScale provides massive scalability, performance, and efficiency for AI workloads. Dell is modernizing the business architecture of ObjectScale and introducing new all-flash and HDD appliance options for:

• Fast Object for AI: innovate faster with the leading AI workload performance of the ObjectScale XF960, which delivers up to 2x greater throughput per node than competitors [7] and up to 8x greater density than the previous generation all-flash systems.[8]
• Accelerating modern workloads: the HDD-based Dell ObjectScale X560 accelerates key workloads such as media ingest, backups, and AI model training with a read throughput of 83%.[9]
• Extreme efficiency and resilience: easily manage and secure AI data lakes with multi-site federation capabilities, cloud copying, geo-replication, global namespace, and data governance, supported by a new hybrid cloud solution from ObjectScale, developed in collaboration with Wasabi.

Dell PowerScale innovations unlock the power of AI data

With the scale-out architecture of Dell PowerScale, it is the ideal foundation for modern AI-driven business operations. The enhancements provide better performance per terabyte, better utilization of data center floor space, and ensure a balance between affordability and performance to optimize TCO.

• High Density All-Flash Storage: 122 TB SSDs maximize GPU usage with up to 6 PB [10] of fast data access in a single 2U node configuration. They also deliver leading performance density to meet enormous AI throughput requirements.
• Hybrid and archive nodes: PowerScale nodes from the A- & H-series (H710, H7100, A310, A3100) deliver lower latency and better performance with a revamped compute module for HDD-based platforms. Customers can future-proof their data centers and retain AI training data longer with a flexible, TCO-optimized portfolio mix to enhance accuracy and efficiency.

Dell PowerProtect enhances cyber resilience with better performance and efficiency

Dell, a market leader in purpose-built backup appliances [11], introduces updates for data protection to help customers strengthen their cyber resilience while managing costs with improved performance, security, and efficiency:

• Scalable and efficient data protection for everyone: Dell PowerProtect DD6410, with a capacity of 12 TB to 256 TB, is ideal for commercial environments, small businesses, and remote locations. It delivers up to 91% faster recovery and scalability for traditional and modern workloads plus efficient operations with up to 65x deduplication.[12]
• All-Flash performance and efficiency: Dell PowerProtect All-Flash Ready Node, the first step in Dell's journey to all-flash data protection, delivers safer and more efficient data protection with a system capacity of 220 TB. This system offers more than 61% faster recovery speeds, consumes up to 36% less power, and has a 5x smaller footprint.[13]
• Strengthened resilience of organizations: with updates for PowerProtect Data Manager, customers can quickly identify security risks with Anomaly Detection, manage backups of Microsoft Hyper-V and Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization virtual machines, and easily archive data to Dell ObjectScale for long-term retention.

"Modern applications require a brand new infrastructure that helps customers keep pace with the continuously changing demands of data centers", says Arthur Lewis, president, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies. "From storage and servers to networking and data protection, only Dell Technologies offers an end-to-end disaggregated architecture portfolio that helps customers reduce complexity, increase IT agility, and accelerate data center modernization."

"Organizations are revising their IT strategies to adopt a disaggregated approach to infrastructure that improves resource management and simplifies management", says Simon Robinson, principal analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group, now part of Omdia. "Dell Technologies delivers updates for its entire infrastructure portfolio that help customers easily overcome these challenges, allowing them to manage any workload."

Availability

• Dell PowerEdge R470, R570, R670, and R770 servers with Intel Xeon 6 processors with P-cores and E-cores are now available.
• Dell PowerStore software updates are now available.
• Dell ObjectScale is now available as a software update for current Dell ECS environments.
• HDD-based ObjectScale X560 will be available in April 2025.
• All-Flash ObjectScale appliances will be available starting Q3 CY2025.
• Dell PowerScale HDD-based nodes will be available in June 2025.
• Dell PowerScale with 122 TB drives will be available in May 2025.
• Dell PowerProtect DD6410 and All-Flash Ready Node will be available in April 2025.
• Dell PowerProtect Data Manager updates are now available.

Source references & performance results

[1] Based on an analysis by Dell comparing the SPECint and SPECFP scores of the Dell PowerEdge R770 with Intel 6th Gen Xeon SP 6787P (1550 and 1560) against the same scores for an Intel Xeon 8280 in a Dell PowerEdge R740XD (375 and 296). The ratio of the scores shows that 5 of the R740XD servers would yield a total score comparable to that of the single R770 as configured above. The energy costs and greenhouse gases were calculated using the EIPT tool https://dell-ui-eipt.azurewebsites.net/#/. Actual performance may vary. Spec results submitted on March 10, 2025, conducted in Dell Perf labs.

[2] Based on Dell tests with Servers at Dell Performance Labs on March 10, 2025, for Dell PowerEdge R770 with Intel 6th Gen Xeon SP 6787P (86 cores) with CPU INT Rate Base of 1550, compared to R760 with 5th gen 8592+ (64 cores) score of 1070 and compared to R760 with 4th gen Intel xeon SP 8480+ (56 cores) score of 976.

[3] Based on Dell tests with Servers at Dell Performance Labs and publicly available performance results submitted at https://www.spec.org/power_ssj2008/results/ on March 10, 2025, for Dell PowerEdge R570 with Intel 6th Gen Xeon SP 6787P (86 cores) achieving an average Perf/watt of 21,089 compared to all submitted data on 2U, 1 Socket with 6787P CPU.

[4] Based on Dell and Broadcom tests on PowerEdge R770 with Intel Xeon 6th generation CPU. For System Responsiveness, write latency was reduced from over 200 microseconds to just 6 microseconds, a 33x improvement, which directly impacts application performance. Actual results may vary.

[5] Based on internal tests of recovery performance with Storage Direct Protection between PowerStore 5200T and DD6900.

[6] Based on internal analysis by Dell of publicly available data as of March 2025. Dell's performance is based on the read throughput of large objects per node and cluster configurations configured with ObjectScale XF960 and Ethernet networks. Actual results may vary.

[7] Based on internal analysis by Dell of publicly available data as of March 2025. Dell's performance is based on the throughput of large objects per node and cluster configurations configured with ObjectScale XF960 and Ethernet networks. Actual results may vary.

[8] Based on Dell analysis comparing the highest planned disk capacity options on ObjectScale XF960 with available disk capacity options on ECS EXF900, March 2025.

[9] Based on Dell analysis comparing ObjectScale X560 with 4.0 against ECS EX500 with 3.8 for reading small objects, March 2025. Actual results may vary.

[10] Based on an effective capacity analysis that takes into account data reduction on a properly configured cluster with 122 TB SSDs (release May 28, 2025). PowerScale also guarantees a data reduction ratio of 2:1. See terms for more information at: dr-guarantee-tc-powerscale.pdf (delltechnologies.com).

[11] Based on revenue from the IDC 4Q24 Purpose-Built Backup Appliance (PBBA) Tracker.

[12] Based on internal tests by Dell comparing a PowerProtect DD6410 appliance with a PowerProtect DD6400 appliance.

[13] Based on internal tests by Dell comparing a PowerProtect Data Domain All-Flash Ready Node with a PowerProtect DD6410 appliance, February 2025. Actual results may vary.