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TL;DR
- Dell PowerStore is a storage platform that helps businesses place workloads in the most suitable locations while keeping data on company-controlled infrastructure
- Yes, PowerStore stores data—but it also supports automation and data mobility, adding flexibility to hybrid cloud architectures
- A unified design allows PowerStore to support a central private cloud platform, with flexible scaling and orchestration similar to public cloud offerings
- Data and workloads can be replicated or moved as needed without redesigning entire systems
- Cloud-adjacent storage means applications running in the cloud can efficiently work with data held on company-managed servers
- Integrated security and access controls help businesses enforce data-protection policies and meet regulatory requirements
- PowerStore allows businesses to expand and upgrade infrastructure over time without major disruption
Putting every workload in the cloud doesn’t always make sense. We all want the best mix of cost, performance, security, and compliance, so rather than treating cloud as the default, a ‘cloud-smart’ strategy is the best fit: it embraces hybrid architectures to place each workload where it makes the most sense.
According to research from EKCO, more than two-thirds of organizations have already adopted hybrid cloud architectures, and the number is growing.
Dell PowerStore, an all-flash storage platform, is a critical part of an organization’s foundational infrastructure. It brings cloud-style automation and dynamic provisioning to infrastructure that organizations directly control.
This infrastructure could be in their own data centers, in cloud-adjacent colocation facilities, or connected to the public cloud via integrations. It also supports private cloud environments, multi-cloud data mobility, and hybrid deployment models, while improving security, efficiency, and long-term manageability.
Cloud-smart challenge | Dell PowerStore |
Supporting mixed workloads | Unified architecture supports both block and file access |
Moving data between environments | Multi-cloud data mobility, supported by optional cloud-adjacent deployment |
Keeping sensitive data under control | Data stays on company-controlled infrastructure, with native access and security controls |
Growing and evolving needs | Scale-up and scale-out expansion without disruption, plus software upgrades |
Why are businesses moving from cloud-first to cloud-smart?
Rather than prioritizing cloud deployment, cloud-smart aims to place each workload where it makes the most sense—taking into account cost, performance, latency, data location, sovereignty, compliance, and risk.
Dell PowerStore supports this by allowing steady-state, data-intensive, and regulated workloads to remain on infrastructure that the organization controls. Public cloud can still be used, but more selectively, such as for development and testing, proofs of concept, or specialized managed services. This helps reduce hosting costs and limits dependence on proprietary platforms that can make future migration difficult.
The challenges of managing hybrid storage environments
In a hybrid environment, core infrastructure must tick a number of boxes: it needs to support self-service operations, API-driven automation, mobility across clouds, cloud-adjacent deployment models, and strong security and compliance controls.
PowerStore is designed for the needs of distributed architectures. It improves resource use while reducing administrative complexity, helping organizations to apply consistent protection policies across different environments and reducing the need for separate management processes. Integration with data-protection and orchestration tools makes workflows easier to manage in a repeatable way.
How Dell PowerStore supports private cloud operations
PowerStore’s all-flash architecture supports both block and file workloads, allowing it to function as a unified private cloud platform for databases, analytics, virtual machines, containers, and file services, rather than requiring businesses to manage separate storage silos.
With both scale-up and scale-out options, PowerStore also allows organizations to expand capacity and performance as needed with minimal disruption. Dell’s 5:1 data-reduction guarantee for reducible data improves effective capacity and lowers the cost per gigabyte, while internal AI-driven intelligence monitors system performance and health, helping to control total cost of ownership while maintaining strong performance.
Equally important, PowerStore offers automated deployment and lifecycle workflows and integrates with Dell Private Cloud. This enables orchestration, automation, and lifecycle management across Dell PowerEdge servers and Dell storage.
PowerStore brings cloud-like flexibility to on-premises infrastructure, meaning compute and storage can scale dynamically and independently. IT teams can create self-service catalogs for virtual machines, databases, or containers, while APIs and integrations with Kubernetes, VMware, and other hypervisors allow storage services to be managed in ways that align with modern private cloud operations.
Moving data between clouds
PowerStore is designed for data mobility, so that workloads and data can be optimally located across on-premises infrastructure, colocation facilities, and public cloud services. Instead of replatforming every workload for each cloud, organizations can keep production systems on PowerStore-backed infrastructure and move or replicate datasets to public cloud environments as needed.
The same principles apply to disaster recovery: data can be replicated from PowerStore to secondary sites or cloud-adjacent locations, and paired with Dell’s broader protection portfolio to support consistent recovery objectives across environments.
Why cloud-adjacent storage is so important
Cloud-adjacent storage allows applications running in public clouds to access data on company-managed infrastructure over high-bandwidth, low-latency connections. This helps avoid fragmentation or duplication, reduces data sprawl, cuts cloud egress costs, and helps maintain consistent data services and protection policies across the wider environment.
Dell PowerStore can be placed in colocation facilities or edge locations with connectivity to multiple public clouds, providing centralized storage for a hub-and-spoke architecture. It is a supported option as external enterprise block storage for AWS Outposts, and can serve as the on-premises data foundation for Azure Local, providing a seamless hybrid cloud experience while keeping critical data in a customer’s own data center.
How Dell PowerStore supports security, governance, and resilience
Extensive security, governance, and resilience features are built into Dell PowerStore, including advanced access controls, strong encryption-in-flight with TLS 1.3, integration with external key management systems, and built-in performance and capacity anomaly detection that can surface unusual behavior for further investigation. Keeping sensitive data on PowerStore in company-controlled locations, while using data management tools aligned with zero-trust security principles, helps businesses meet regulatory and governance needs while still connecting to cloud services where appropriate.
PowerStore also integrates with Dell technologies such as PowerProtect to enable immutable backups and recovery vaults for critical workloads. This enables more consistent protection policies across on-premises and cloud environments, and simplifies architecture for mission-critical systems.
Why hybrid storage needs to be expandable and upgradeable
Forklift upgrades of storage servers can be resource-intensive and highly disruptive to operations. PowerStore’s architecture is designed for continuous modernization, allowing organizations to expand and upgrade their infrastructure with minimal upheaval as new storage media and software capabilities become available, all while remaining secure, resilient, and maintainable.
All the while, Dell Private Cloud, enabled by Dell Automation Platform, helps keep infrastructure in a continuously validated and supported state, reducing disruption from interim maintenance and upgrades.
No single cloud approach is right for every workload
Flexibility is vital. Dell PowerStore’s multi-cloud data mobility and cloud-adjacent deployment patterns allow organizations to take advantage of cloud services in the ways that work for them, while keeping critical data under their own management.
By bringing cloud operating practices to infrastructure under direct enterprise control, PowerStore also reduces complexity and supports more consistent service delivery across private clouds. It’s a practical long-term building block for modern hybrid infrastructure, where success depends on consistent and secure operations across a mix of on-premises, colocation, and cloud platforms.
If you think PowerStore is the right storage solution for your business, find out more on the Dell website: US readers click here and CA readers here.