It has been a few months now since I moved over from pre-sales to a Dell Technical Staff role, supporting all our multicloud storage software offerings here at Dell Technologies. Once again, just like my previous role, this role is very broad and also very deep. Dell APEX has many facets, from both a horizontal view and a deep dive into each offering. I’m now part of the team driving the world’s most comprehensive multicloud portfolio, spanning the data center to the public cloud!

Over the past months, I have realized even more than before how awesome this opportunity is. It’s just like working for a startup, except at a big corporation. The teams are building exactly what our clients have been asking for. I am in the unique position to test, evaluate, document, and evangelize, all while getting the word out through training sessions, white papers, and so on.

Our latest announcement from Dell Tech World 2023 is APEX Navigator, which provides our client teams in the SysOps and DevOps spaces the ability to actually “Multicloud—all the things!” Previously, the reference to “multicloud” sounded great, on paper. Now, Dell has made multicloud a reality. And, as a bonus, Dell has also made it easy, by removing the need for any manual deployment management that could cause “day zero” failures. The same flexibility you have in your own data center can now be achieved in the public cloud with APEX Navigator at the helm.  

We now have the SaaS offerings as APEX Navigator for multicloud storage management, which aligns our best of breed, enterprise-class technology with:

• APEX Block Storage for Public Cloud
  • PowerFlex software-defined block storage
• APEX File Storage for Public Cloud
  • PowerScale (OneFS file system – multi-protocol, NFS, SMB, and my favorite—S3 Object!)

The login experience has also been refactored to be clean and simple. The Dell Premier portal experience will guide our users directly to the full APEX experience. Where all things multicloud reside.

We also have, as part of Navigator:

• APEX Navigator for Kubernetes
  • Data persistence management along with deployment and monitoring of Dell Container Storage Modules at scale

Here’s an excellent demo.

APEX Storage for Public Cloud is available in AWS today and will be available in Azure in the second half of 2023.

In this video, you can see how simple it is to configure and deploy APEX Navigator— with only four steps and just a few more clicks. This process has removed the error-prone time on keyboard to a fully automated deployment in the public cloud of your choice. Here is what the process looks like in AWS, so none of this work in AWS is needed. It provides a clean interface, with day two CloudIQ monitoring included. CloudIQ, described here, also brings real-time intelligence to your storage endpoints. It offers both predictive and AI anomaly detection to provide XOps engineers and developers quick insight into their multicloud world and allows them to take action where it might be required.

The reality is this: Today’s data center has also been modernized. The initial attraction to public-only was the rich service offerings that existed in cloud-only. Now, with Dell Technologies leading the way, our clients can manage all their distributed data requirements, and all with predictable costs. Ground to cloud and cloud to ground are all part of the “All Things” story.

Our clients who are investing in multicloud are also growing and retaining the top industry engineers. The APEX Navigator portal delivers the rich automation to partner with our client engineers for consistent operations, wherever the data resides. This is a BIG deal! 

The right data, placed in the right location, at the right time, for the right consumption service.

We have also announced APEX Navigator for Kubernetes. Simply put, Kubernetes is vast. APEX Navigator for Kubernetes can provide observability across the multicloud, multisite, microservice landscape. Make your DevOps teams happy while protecting and governing these assets.

Why Navigator?

 I am asked this question almost daily: Why use Navigator and all the software-defined storage deployment, management, and monitoring? Here are the answers: 

• Integrated zero trust security (SSO, RBAC, and Identity Federation)
  • Seamless SSO!
• Unique performance and deployment
  • Extremely high I/O performance is cheaper with PowerFlex deployed into any public cloud.
• Simple, day zero deployment
  • A deployment process the only requires four simple steps.
  • 90-day evaluation license! (applies to Dell licensing only)
• Federated storage protection with multi-availability zone resiliency and flexibility
  • Protection and scalability reach across availability zones.
  • Rebuild times decrease with additional availability zones.
• Data mobility, ground to cloud, cloud to ground
  • Meet any shifting cloud strategy
  • Crash consistent copies
  • Efficient – Changed blocks only snapshot shipping
• API-first integration with many of the most popular automation tools
  • Ansible and Terraform – Yes and yes! 
    • Currently, our customers can create their own artifacts for API integration
• Cost
  • Predictable
  • Data services that the cloud alone cannot provide
  • Better services at a reduced cost
    • Thin provisioning
    • Multiple and efficient snapshots
• Public cloud PaaS services, with only data attributes you want, consumed in the cloud—a true hybrid model—as shown here 
  • Rich PaaS feature set reporting capability
  • AI/ML model training
  • Consuming just what you need without incurring any egress fees; then, rinse and repeat
  • If you need to export—we have the proper compression in place to minimize any egress fees
  • Mountable snapshots
  • Kubernetes namespace data mobility, inclusive of all PV (Persistent Volumes) and PVC (Persistent Volume Claims), with an option to even rename a namespace in flight (think Dev, Test, Stage for micro-services)
  • Evolving S3 Object solution sets (to be discussed in a future blog)
• Monitoring all endpoints from a single pane of glass
  • Robust monitoring—View of all systems, public or private, to observe and act on the performance, health, inventory, and capacity
  • Licensing inventory
  • Active AI for anomaly detection

 My next white paper will go into the details of each of these answers. 

Release timelines

APEX Navigator will be generally available in the United States around the second half of 2023. At the same time, APEX Navigator for Kubernetes will be generally available in North America, France, Germany, and the UK. Additionally, APEX Block Storage for Microsoft Azure will be available through RPQ.

Finally, it is important to mention that not all feature sets previously referenced will be available on the release-to-service dates. The teams are working hard to solve all the complex problems—with great success.

If your organization is interested in participating in our APEX Navigator program, visit here.

Resources

For more information on our APEX Storage for Public Cloud, visit this page. 

Video 1 APEX Navigator for Multicloud Storage demo

Video 2 APEX Navigator PowerFlex deployment into AWS 

Video 3 APEX Navigator and CloudIQ – Day 2 management and monitoring

Video 4 APEX Navigator and Data Mobility

Video APEX Navigator for Kubernetes 

Here is a link to the full APEX demo playlist 

Author: Robert F. Sonders
Technical Staff – Engineering Technologist
Multicloud Storage Software