{"slug": "powerstore-gets-performance-and-capacity-upgrades-and-theres-more", "title": "PowerStore gets performance and capacity upgrades - and there’s more", "summary": "Dell introduced three new PowerStore Elite models — the 1500, 5500, and 9500 — delivering up to 5.8 PB of effective capacity and a 6:1 data reduction ratio, tripling the performance of the previous 1200T model. The company also extended its Cyber Detect anti-malware technology to PowerStore and PowerMax, added a PowerProtect control plane, and brought AI automation to its Dell Private Cloud. The upgrades aim to help customers manage growing data volumes, rising malware threats, and increasing system complexity through intelligent, software-driven infrastructure.", "body_md": "FILE\n\n# PowerStore gets performance and capacity upgrades - and there’s more\n\nDell is adding three new models to its PowerStore file and block storage line, extending its Cyber Detect anti-malware tech to [PowerStore](https://www.blocksandfiles.com/block/2026/01/13/powerstore-stores-more-has-better-file-ops-and-resiliency-power/4090307) and PowerMax, adding a PowerProtect control plane, and bringing AI automation to its customers.\n\nThe background is that there is ever more data to store and protect, with malware threats rising, systems getting more complex to manage, and, on the positive side, AI technology bringing automation opportunities to make IT operations more effective.\n\nArthur Lewis, president, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies, said: “AI doesn't wait, and neither can the infrastructure under it. The modern data center is defined by intelligent software that makes IT simpler, and we're delivering it end-to-end. PowerStore Elite, ... PowerProtect One, and the agentic automation across Dell Private Cloud give customers a complete, software-driven foundation to run their most demanding workloads today and keep evolving for what comes next.”\n\nPowerStore is a classic dual-controller storage array which supports 4-way clustering. It has a unified scale-up and scale-out architecture supporting block, file, virtual machines and container workloads.\n\nThere are three new PowerStore Elite products; 1500, 5500 and 9500, which refresh the existing all-flash 500T, 1200T, 3200T, 5200T, and 9200T product line. Our understanding is that the 1500 effectively replaces the 1200T, the 5500 replaces the 5200T and the 9500 is the new top-end model, replacing the 9200T.\n\nThe existing PowerStores use TLC flash SSDs, and there is also a 3200Q which is fitted with less expensive but higher capacity QLC drives. The PowerStore Prime OS provides a 5:1 data reduction ratio for these systems. PowerStore Elite raises that to 6:1, an industry best Dell claims, helped by data path efficiency and HW compression.\n\nPowerStore Elite comes in a 3RU chassis which can be populated with up to 40 NVMe SSDs in [E3](https://www.blocksandfiles.com/glossary/2022/04/24/edsff/1598389) format, giving up to 5.8 PB of effective capacity. The 9500, with its 6:1 data reduction ratio has 3x the density of the older 9200T with its 5:1 ratio. New controller CPUs provide a jump in performance. The new PowerStore 1500 triples the performance of the existing 1200T model. This is in peak IOPs terms when running a 70/30 read/write mix, with 8k block size over Fibre Channel (FC). There are up to 40 network ports per system with the new models, supporting 64Gb FC (128Gb-ready) and 200/400Gb Ethernet-ready connectivity.\n\nDells says that the new systems can be clustered with existing PowerStore arrays. Data and workloads move without downtime, and capacity or performance can be added incrementally.\n\nA Lifecycle Extension (LCE) feature, somewhat similar to Everpure’s [Evergreen](https://www.blocksandfiles.com/block/2022/06/08/pure-storage-reworks-evergreen-subscription-service/1591308?_gl=1*noxje1*_ga*MTY2OTcyMjAyNS4xNzcwODg2MTMy*_ga_NSDTXHMMN0*czE3NzkyMDg2OTQkbzE1NyRnMSR0MTc3OTIwOTIyMyRqNTkkbDAkaDA.) concept, means customers receive data-in-place upgrades with deployment included, a dedicated technical advisor and buy-three-get-one-free capacity expansions, all backed by 24/7 Dell ProSupport or ProSupport Plus. Dell says that, with LCE, existing customers can transition to PowerStore Elite more cost-effectively.\n\nUsing [Index Engines](https://www.blocksandfiles.com/security/2026/02/25/index-engines-flags-rise-of-polymorphic-shadow-encrypting-ransomware/4092558) software, Dell’s Cyber Detect, with its AI-powered ransomware detection, now supports both PowerStore and the high-end [PowerMax](https://www.blocksandfiles.com/block/2026/04/22/dell-turns-up-powermax-dial-to-11/5218457) enterprise storage. Dell says it’s trained on thousands of ransomware variants and inspects data at the byte level with 99.99 percent accuracy, pinpointing the last known clean copy so customers can recover faster from data-corrupting malware attacks.\n\nPowerStore has a dynamic core allocation feature which instantly adjusts CPU resources as workloads fluctuate, while NAS server mobility simplifies consolidation and load balancing. There is replication flexibility across Ethernet and Fibre Channel, enabling data movement between on-prem infrastructure and multi-cloud environments.\n\n### Dell Private Cloud and automation\n\nPowerStore can be the storage base for Dell’s Private Cloud (DPC), supporting cloud stack software from Broadcom (VMware), Microsoft (Hyper-V), Nutanix (AHV) and Red Hat (OpenShift). DPC can scale compute and storage independently on infrastructure that delivers, Dell claims, up to 65 percent cost savings versus HCI (Hyper-Converged Infrastructure). Ecosystem advancements include the ability to deploy VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1, Microsoft Azure Local and Dell PowerStore integration with Nutanix AHV.\n\nDell’s Distributed Private Cloud, formerly Dell NativeEdge, extends its “enterprise-class resilience to edge and distributed environments with two-node high-availability clusters, automatic failover, enhanced VM live migration, [and] built-in zero-trust security.”\n\nThe Dell Automation Platform introduces agentic intelligence through a personalized generative user experience that adapts to how teams design, operate and manage infrastructure. By integrating Dell AIOps, Dell says its Automation Platform turns telemetry into action using intelligent agents to continuously optimize systems while keeping customers in control.\n\nThe PowerStore OS uses AI agents to continuously balance workloads, tuning performance and improve efficiency, reducing sysadm manual effort by up to a claimed 95 percent. Dell AIOps capabilities provide PowerStore fleet management, with predictive insight and automation, for system state reporting, performance trending and capacity planning. Dell says this means customers can resolve issues up to 10x faster than traditional approaches.\n\nA Dell Automation Studio offering is a premium set of Dell Automation Platform capabilities that allow customers to create AI-driven compute, storage and networking automation workflows using familiar tools and processes. This is said to reduce time-to-service and operational complexity. It’s open and flexible by design and “lets organizations create tailored solutions that deliver consistent, full-stack automation at scale.’\n\n### PowerProtect.\n\nDell PowerProtect One brings together [PowerProtect](https://www.blocksandfiles.com/data-protection/2026/03/31/dell-polishes-powerprotect-powerscale-and-powerstore/5213496) Data Manager for protection management and orchestration and PowerProtect Data Domain under a single control plane. The company says this “reduces operational sprawl and delivers a unified experience through third-party support and centralized visibility that cuts management overhead by 50 percent while delivering the world’s best data reduction and recovery at scale.”\n\nThe “best data reduction” claim is based on Dell analysis of the purpose-built backup appliance market and available max average deduplication ratios, and recovery at scale.\n\nDell also claims PowerProtect One is the world’s most comprehensive cyber-resilience platform, based on its analysis of leading enterprise backup, cyber-resilience, and purpose-built backup appliances. The evaluation considered breadth of cyber-resilience capabilities; depth of integrated storage security; workload and environment coverage; openness of ecosystem; unified management experience; and availability of formal financial guarantees. The analysis was based on publicly available vendor documentation, third-party research, and Dell product materials.\n\n### Availability\n\n- Dell PowerStore Elite will be globally available in July 2026.\n- Dell Cyber Detect for PowerStore will be available in Q3 2026.\n- Dell Cyber Detect for Dell PowerMax will be available in 2H 2026.\n- Dell PowerProtect One is available now.\n- Dell Private Cloud deploying VMware with VCF 9.1 support will be available in June 2026.\n- Dell Private Cloud deploying Nutanix with Dell PowerStore support will be available in July 2026.\n- Dell Private Cloud deploying Microsoft Azure Local will be available in June 2026.\n- Dell Distributed Private Cloud is available now.\n- Dell Automation Platform Agentic AI capabilities are planned to be available later this year.\n- Dell Automation Studio will be available in June 2026.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/powerstore-gets-performance-and-capacity-upgrades-and-theres-more", "canonical_source": "https://www.blocksandfiles.com/file/2026/05/19/powerstore-gets-performance-and-capacity-upgrades-and-theres-more/5242926", "published_at": "2026-05-19 18:09:14+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-25 21:09:41.001913+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-infrastructure", "ai-products", "ai-tools", "artificial-intelligence", "ai-agents"], "entities": ["Dell Technologies", "PowerStore", "PowerMax", "PowerProtect", "Arthur Lewis", "Infrastructure Solutions Group", "PowerStore Elite", "PowerProtect One"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/powerstore-gets-performance-and-capacity-upgrades-and-theres-more", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/powerstore-gets-performance-and-capacity-upgrades-and-theres-more.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/powerstore-gets-performance-and-capacity-upgrades-and-theres-more.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/powerstore-gets-performance-and-capacity-upgrades-and-theres-more.jsonld"}}