Dell pushes security, devops integration in storage updates

Dell’s storage product lineup is set to receive a wide range of updates, including  devops integrations with the Ansible and Terraform tools, compliance with the latest US government security standards, zero trust readiness and more.

PowerStore, Dell’s flash-based storage array line, is receiving the lion’s share of the security updates, according to a Dell announcement on Wednesday. Dell said that PowerStore now boasts STIG hardening, meaning that it is compliant with the federal government’s stanadards for its own networks. PowerStore also received secure and immutable snapshot technology, which should make for more reliable and harder-to-compromise recoveries. Multifactor authentication, streamlined file resiliency (which adds more mounted snapshots per system) and direct management of file permissions from within PowerStore are also being added.

PowerStore gets added backup options

The system also received native integration into Dell’s PowerProtect data management system, further bolstering an end-user’s backup and data protection options. The company said that the idea here is to offer more compression in backups and easier configuration options. Integration with open source frameworks Ansible and Terraform allow for devops workers to use the PowerStore system natively, which means they can design automated processes for storage provisioning “without low-level coding,” Dell said. (Ansible support was also added for Dell’s Unity XT hybrid storage offering.)

Further enhancements across the company’s storage portfolio include native air gap support for the PowerMax mission-critical storage system, enhanced NVMe and TCP for the PowerFlex software-defined infrastructure platform and improved S3 object storage performance in ObjectScale. Finally, the company’s ClouIdIQ AIOps software will receive VMware integration.

The enhancements to PowerStore, according to Gartner senior director analyst Jeff Vogel, are essentially fulfilling requirements for business-critical applications for mid-size enterprise customers.

“As for PowerFlex, it’s an important, modern cloud-like architecture for software-defined, elastic and scalable hybrid infrastructure platform storage that can take advantage of the benefits of and end-end NVMe fabric-based infrastructure using TCP,” he said. “This new architecture bridges enterprise storage with standard Ethernet-based networking, lowering infrastructure costs and simplifying the environment.”

A spokesperson for Dell said that the enhancements announced Wednesday are free to all existing customers, and that “no other pricing changes are associated with the launch.” New features in PowerMax, CloudIQ and Unity XT are available as of now. PowerStore and ObjectScale updates will be available as of June, while the new features in PowerFlex will go live in the third quarter of this year.