7 capabilities every modern enterprise storage platform should deliver in 2026

TL;DR

• Modern storage requirements are changing due to surging data growth and AI workloads
• Software-based management capabilities are key to meeting evolving demands
• Intuitive AI features help reduce manual toil and automate processes for IT teams

Enterprise storage infrastructure is facing unparalleled pressure. Skyrocketing data growth, large AI workloads, and virtualization are placing significant strain on both the underlying infrastructure used to power businesses and teams on the frontline.

A key factor in this strain lies in outdated infrastructure that forces organizations to contend with this confluence of issues without the necessary capabilities.

Research shows that this is prompting a marked increase in modernization. Analysis from IDC finds that 83% of enterprises are “rationalizing” technology infrastructure to compensate for new demands.

Indeed, similar research from McKinsey points to huge investment in data center infrastructure as a result of AI in particular, with global spending projected to reach $7 trillion by 2030 alone.

With this in mind, organizations are faced with critical decisions when choosing storage infrastructure solutions. Performance and efficiency are key considerations, but so too are the costs associated with storage infrastructure, on-going media costs, energy consumption, flexibility and scalability, and ease of use.

The broader capabilities of the underlying infrastructure are vital, but the features and tools placed in the hands of professionals are equally important.

This is where solutions such as PowerStore Elite offer marked benefits for organizations, enabling them to capitalize on truly modern enterprise storage capabilities.

Under the hood of PowerStore Elite

PowerStore Elite is the latest advancement in the Dell PowerStore family, designed specifically to help enterprises harness next-generation storage infrastructure that can evolve based on changing business needs.

PowerStore Elite offers three new high-performance models:

• PowerStore 1500
• PowerStore 5500
• PowerStore 9500

Each supports either Triple-Level Cell (TLC) or Quad-Level Cell (QLC) media formats.

PowerStore Elite represents a marked shift in performance and efficiency, offering up to 40 drives and 5.8PB of capacity in a single 3U chassis, as well as up to 3x the density of prior generations.

High performance capabilities

Innovation in the age of AI demands high-performance infrastructure, and PowerStore Elite fits the bill. Internal analysis conducted by Dell shows PowerStore Elite delivers up to 2.3x higher performance than a leading competitor.

Compared to previous-generation models, PowerStore Elite delivers up to 3x the IOPS, up to 3x the throughput capability and up to 37% lower latency.

This performance is vital for organizations dabbling in AI training and, critically, inference. Research from McKinsey, for example, shows inference workloads will account for more than half of all AI workloads by the end of the decade, and this requires best-in-class storage capabilities.

Scalable & flexible

Enterprise storage needs are changing rapidly as AI continues to accelerate innovation throughout the data center, meaning infrastructure that’s scalable and flexible based on these evolving requirements is critical.

According to Dell, PowerStore Elite can be deployed with Dell Private Cloud on open, disaggregated infrastructure that scales compute and storage independently, for greater flexibility, with up to 65% cost savings versus Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI).

PowerStore is designed specifically to provide a highly scalable architecture, according to Dell, enabling enterprises to expand storage without the need for lengthy, disruptive migrations, or costly infrastructure overhaul projects.

Future-proofed infrastructure

Future-proofing is also another key consideration when it comes to modern storage infrastructure, allowing organizations to maximize their investment over a longer timeframe.

With PowerStore Lifecycle Extension (LCE), organizations can keep the modernization process continuous with data-in-place upgrades, dedicated technical advisory support, and buy-three-get-one-free capacity expansions.

Intelligent analytics & AI

Operations teams are critical to maintaining storage infrastructure, and equipping them with intuitive tools and features helps both streamline capabilities and reduce manual toil.

PowerStore Elite includes dashboard capabilities that provide visibility into system capacity, health, and performance. New dashboard widgets can also deliver real-time insight into performance anomalies and resource-intensive storage objects, helping administrators troubleshoot faster and monitor resources more efficiently.

PowerStore Elite combines built-in intelligence with Dell AIOps capabilities that provide predictive insight and automation across the environment, helping administrators offload manual reporting, performance trending, and capacity planning. Dell says its built-in intelligence can reduce manual effort by up to 95% through continuous workload balancing, performance tuning, and efficiency improvements automated in real time.

Best-in-class security

Cybersecurity threats are escalating - and accelerating - at a rapid pace, with highly aggressive ransomware groups targeting storage infrastructure and the critical data used to power applications and services.

With PowerStore, cybersecurity capabilities are embedded within the platform to help organizations address these threats. Dell Cyber Detect is a new integrated offering that extends AI-powered ransomware detection directly into PowerStore. The company said it is trained on thousands of ransomware variants and inspects data at the byte level with 99.99% accuracy, pinpointing the last known clean copy so organizations can recover quickly.

Intuitive software

According to Dell, “hardware is only part of the story” when it comes to storage infrastructure. The underlying software powering these platforms can make or break efforts to modernize and optimize.

With PowerStoreOS 5.0, enterprises can benefit from software-driven performance gains in their storage environment. Metadata Acceleration serves reads up to 70% faster, accelerating the lookups behind file searches and everyday operations as data grows.

Cost-effective storage

Storage infrastructure costs have become a recurring pain point for organizations in recent years, particularly since the advent of generative AI. Adding insult to injury, surging RAM and flash prices are also contributing to heightened costs.

PowerStore Elite uses low-profile, industry-standard E3 NVMe flash to reduce vendor lock-in and benefit from broader supply and competitive pricing. The new PowerStore Elite models deliver up to 40% higher slot density and up to 2x better overall density versus a leading competitor, while also delivering up to 3x the density of prior generations. Combined with an industry-best 6:1 data reduction guarantee for reducible data for Gen 3 systems, this helps customers improve storage efficiency and reduce cost per workload.

If you think PowerStore Elite is the right storage solution for your business, find out more on the Dell website: US readers click here and CA readers here.