Dell EMC PowerMax Test Drive Program Coming To Channel Partners

Dell Technologies will be launching a test drive program for its new PowerMax storage products to help channel partners drive storage sales by allowing customers to test the platform on-site.

"It's really a perfect opportunity for channel partners because partners can actually run the test drives themselves," said Caitlin Gordon, vice president of product marketing for Dell EMC storage in an interview with CRN. "It's a great sales accelerator tool to give [customers] that experience and to really show them what the product is like and not just tell them."

The Round Rock, Texas-based infrastructure giant already provides test drive programs for product such as VxRail, a hyper-converged infrastructure product, where customers can implement the solution and test out the features and capabilities.

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"It's a really great opportunity for our customers to experience what having a PowerMax in their data center would really be like," said Gordon. "It gives you really an in-depth look, a day-long course, of hands-on experience of really what that PowerMax is like on a variety of different topics. It gives you a real view into the simplicity and the innovation in the platform."

Dell unleashed its new high-performance PowerMax storage line in May at Dell Technologies World. The all-flash array, which replaced Dell EMC's VMAX line, is a complete architecture refresh of the prior offerings built from the ground-up to be ready for the latest storage media technologies including new NVMe flash storage and future server-class memory. The solution targets next-generation applications such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, genomics and real-time analytics.

The new PowerMax test drive program will be available to channel partners starting in early 2019.

"PowerMax is exceeding our expectations. We think a lot of that is due to NVMe done right, the architecture of the platform and the fact that we've been able to bring it into upper mid-range price bands," said Gordon. "We're really just overall happy with the fact that our strategy seems to be resonating with customers and we really see that paying off with the results."

For Dell's recent fiscal third quarter, the company generated $3.9 billion in storage sales, representing a six percent increase year over year.