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Built for Breakthroughs: Dell PowerScale for Microsoft Azure

Don’t compromise between on-premises control and cloud agility.
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tl;dr: Dell PowerScale for Microsoft Azure is trusted, scalable, and high-performance enterprise-class file storage, natively integrated with Azure to seamlessly support modern workloads. Co-developed with Microsoft as an Azure Native Integration, it’s a fully managed cloud-native deployment of PowerScale software on Azure’s infrastructure.

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, enterprises need more than just storage; they need a platform that drives innovation, scales effortlessly, and adapts to their most demanding workloads. Dell PowerScale for Microsoft Azure is purpose-built to meet these needs. Co-developed with Microsoft, this enterprise-class file storage solution delivers high performance, robust security, and seamless integration, empowering organizations to achieve their next breakthrough. From accelerating AI and managing media production to ensuring business continuity, PowerScale for Azure is the foundation for success in the data-driven era.

Built on a proven foundation

An Azure Native integration co-developed with Microsoft and built on a legacy of storage leadership, Dell PowerScale for Microsoft Azure is here. This is enterprise-class file storage, purpose-built for today’s most demanding workloads and managed by the experts at Dell. With NVRAM-enabled custom compute SKUs, engineered exclusively for Dell, PowerScale for Azure delivers blazing-fast performance—up to 4x greater performance than our closest competitor.¹ These purpose-built instances are designed to power your next breakthrough, offering ultra-low latency and optimized throughput to handle even the most data-intensive applications with ease.

    • Effortless Scale in a Single Namespace: PowerScale for Azure allows you to scale out rapidly and efficiently, supporting up to 8.4PB. Tackle massive and evolving workloads without pause or complexity.
    • Multi-Protocol Support: Take full advantage of NFS, SMB, and S3 protocols running simultaneously, so your teams can support a broad range of applications and avoid the limits of single-purpose solutions or vendor lock-in.
    • The PowerScale Experience You Know: Leverage the familiar, unified PowerScale interface your IT teams already know. Whether your data is on-premises or in Azure, you get the same operational simplicity and consistent user experience.
    • Fully Managed by Dell Experts: One vendor to handle the whole experience so your team is free to focus on driving innovation, not managing infrastructure. Dell handles deployment, upgrades, monitoring, and support, delivering robust, proactive management every step of the way.
    • Security at Every Turn: With zero-trust architecture, always-on encryption, continuous backup, and built-in ransomware recovery, you can face threats with a hardened defense posture.

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Designed for workloads that demand more

Modern innovation is powered by workloads that cannot afford compromise. Dell PowerScale for Azure enables high-value use cases that fuel digital transformation:

Cloud Bursting for On-Demand Agility: Machine learning, AI, and analytics need flexible, high-performance infrastructure. PowerScale for Azure lets you burst these compute-intensive workloads to the cloud instantly, no overprovisioning required. Your team can train AI models or run major analytics jobs, with scalability and access to Azure’s extensive compute network to meet deadlines and capitalize on market opportunities without architectural bottlenecks.

Emerging Workloads: Accelerating Agentic AI: Tomorrow’s intelligent applications, including agentic AI and next-generation automation, demand storage that keeps pace. With PowerScale for Azure, you gain the performance and scale to feed distributed AI pipelines, run inference at cloud speed, and adapt to the specialized demands of both experimental and enterprise-grade AI. Harness high-throughput access for workloads where traditional storage simply can’t keep up.

Production workloads across every industry vertical

    • Media & Entertainment (M&E): Handling massive video files, real-time editing, and tight production timelines, M&E companies rely on high-speed, hybrid data environments. PowerScale for Azure offers the throughput, simultaneous protocol support, and hybrid simplicity needed for rapid ingest, editing, and archiving across locations. Production teams can scale up for big releases, down when projects close, and focus on creativity. With robust security, critical media assets are always protected.
    • Electronic Design Automation (EDA): Semiconductor and electronics design automation produces massive datasets and demand fast, collaborative workflows. Accelerate simulation, modeling, and design workflows with unified, scalable storage so global design teams can work together, handle simulation spikes, and move products to market faster.
    • Life Sciences: Empower research and development teams to analyze large datasets, run simulations, and drive discoveries with high-performance access and secure, compliant storage. Scale up as clinical projects advance, without service disruption.

Disaster recovery with confidence

Downtime and data loss aren’t options. PowerScale for Azure streamlines disaster recovery by enabling asynchronous replication into Azure with SyncIQ. This extends your data protection across environments, ensuring compliance and rapid recovery should disaster strike.

Your cloud, your way

Tailor your experience with the service model that fits your operations. With Dell Managed, enjoy simplicity and end-to-end support. Dell handles deployment, scaling, upgrades, and monitoring, so your teams can focus on what matters most. You benefit from a seamless, cloud-native experience, single-point Dell support, and unified billing with Microsoft. As a MACC-eligible solution, you can also apply your Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment to streamline procurement and maximize your cloud investment.

Prefer more control? Select Customer Managed to tailor and tune PowerScale for Azure to your exact parameters, with full access to configuration and customization. Both options deliver proven performance, enterprise security, and a consistent operational model to meet you where you are.

Launch your next chapter

Getting started is simple:

    1. Access Dell PowerScale in the Microsoft Marketplace: Use the cloud portal you already know.
    2. Choose the Right Fit for You: Select from Standard, Plus, or Premium plans to launch the cluster you need, fortified and fit for whatever the future holds.
    3. Connect and Create: Seamlessly integrate via NFS, SMB, or S3 for apps that span on-prem, cloud, and tomorrow’s as-yet-unimagined environments.

The cloud that matches your ambition

PowerScale for Azure is more than storage—it’s a catalyst for organizations looking to move quickly, securely, and confidently in the data era. With Dell and Microsoft working together, discover the power to make your data unstoppable. Visit our website or contact your Dell representative to see how PowerScale for Azure can help you unlock what’s next.

1Based on Dell analysis comparing Dell-managed option of PowerScale for Microsoft Azure, August 2025. Performance compares read throughput per namespace.

About the Author: David Noy

David Noy is a 25 year veteran of the storage and data management industry with deep, hands on expertise in data center infrastructure, enterprise and cloud data storage, and solutions for Artificial Intelligence. After more than a decade directing engineering organizations—and subsequent leadership of high impact product management and technical marketing teams—he has shaped flagship portfolios at Dell Technologies, NetApp, Veritas, Cohesity, and VAST Data. He has been the global executive leader for enterprise product lines recognized by Gartner as #1 in their category. As Vice President of Product Management for Unstructured Data Solutions at Dell Technologies, David oversees the end to end strategy for enterprise, high performance computing, and artificial intelligence workloads. This includes responsibility for the Dell AI Data Platform which includes data engines and storage engines. His remit spans product conception, roadmap execution, and go to market alignment—delivering infrastructure that not only scales but also integrates advanced data management, cyber resilience, and hybrid cloud capabilities into a single, coherent platform. Industry context • Explosive growth of unstructured data: AI, edge telemetry, and rich media are driving compound annual growth >25 %, demanding file/object architectures that scale linearly and economically. • Hybrid and multi cloud deployments: Enterprises now treat cloud as an operating model, not a destination; seamless data mobility and consistent policy enforcement are table stakes. • AI and GPU acceleration: Modern AI pipelines require parallel file and object stores that can saturate the latest high speed networks while guaranteeing metadata efficiency. • Cyber resilience & compliance: Immutable snapshots, object lock, and zero trust architectures have become mandatory in the face of ransomware and evolving data sovereignty laws. David’s track record of shipping innovative, enterprise grade solutions at global scale directly aligns with these trends, positioning him to lead the next wave of file and object innovation that accelerates customers’ digital transformation and AI ambitions—on premises, at the edge, and in the cloud.