

AI in the enterprise is driving changes in how data centers are orchestrated. This is also leading to new enhancements for storage architecture, as seen by this week’s announcements from Dell Technologies Inc.
Dell unveiled updates for PowerScale and ObjectScale designed to accelerate AI outcomes through a high-performance inferencing solution that combines features of Project Lightning, PowerScale, PowerEdge XE servers and Nvidia Corp.’s key value (KV) cache.
Dell’s Varun Chhabra and Travis Vigil talk with theCUBE about storage architecture, during Dell Technologies World.
“If you look at the largest needs we have for both training models and doing inferencing at scale, the storage needs to be fast, it needs to be scalable and it needs to be in the right place,” said Travis Vigil (pictured, right), chief product officer of IT infrastructure at Dell. “Lightning is an accelerator for KV Cache, it allows you more storage within the cluster itself and increases overall efficiency, speed, and reduces latency of reasoning and inference models. What we’re doing with Lightning and what we’re doing with ObjectScale is 100% aligned to where the architecture is going.”
Vigil spoke with theCUBE’s John Furrier and Dave Vellante at Dell Technologies World, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. He was joined by Varun Chhabra (left), senior vice president of product marketing, Infrastructure Solutions Group and telecom at Dell, and they discussed Dell’s approach to storage in the AI era. (* Disclosure below.)
The use of KV Cache in Dell’s high-performance storage offering is geared to support large AI deployments. Integration with Nvidia’s Inference Xfer Library will make it suitable for large-scale, distributed inference workloads, supporting Dell’s objective to provide an overall data platform for AI.
“The things that we’re announcing with Nvidia this time around is the AI data platform,” Chhabra said. “Think of an appliance form factor that combines compute, storage and networking that you can start small with and then scale. We’re talking about computer networking as part of a data platform. I think that tells you how we’re thinking about this differently along with Nvidia.”
As part of Dell’s storage announcements this week, the company also introduced PowerScale Cybersecurity Suite, an AI-driven solution to provide ransomware detection and near-instant recovery. Features include an airgap vault for immutable backups and disaster recovery software.
“It’s not a question of just data protection anymore, it’s not a question of backup anymore,” Vigil said. “It’s a question of building cyber resilience into your data ecosystem at every layer.”
Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Dell Technologies World:
(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dell Technologies World. Neither Dell Technologies Inc., the primary sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)
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