Dell Toughens Storage To Face Rising Cyberthreats

New iterations of hardware and software offer gains in customers’ time-to-backup and time-to-restore. Dell has also introduced a GenAI security assistant for Apex, as the frequency of attacks rise and the average cost hits $1.92 million, Dell says.

Dell’s toughest storage lineup just got back from the gym.

The results of its workout include faster and more efficient hardware, an AI-powered copilot for backup embedded in Apex, as well as improvements to backup and restore time.

The advancements come as a 2024 Dell survey of 1,500 respondents from large organizations around the globe showed 75 percent of them feel their existing cyber protection measures are unable to cope with ransomware threats, and 70 percent doubt they could reliably recover from a cyberattack. In that same survey, Dell found 55 percent of those organizations globally have experienced some form of cyberattack. The average cost per attack is $1.92 million.

“With the exponential growth of data, generative AI presents organizations with opportunities to streamline processes, improve decision-making and drive innovation, but it also extends the attack surface for cyberattacks—especially with trained models, which are quickly becoming one of the most valuable assets for enterprises,” Arthur Lewis, president of Dell’s Infrastructure Solutions Group, said in a statement.

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On the hardware side, Dell PowerProtect Data Domain appliances, trusted for years to back up the state of Michigan’s data for a decade and a half, can now deliver cyber assurance with a 38 percent faster backup and a 44 percent faster restore time, using 11 percent less power and 65C deduplication.

The Dell PowerProtect Data Domain DD9410 and the DD9910 are designed for large enterprise environments and are available now, Dell said.

Solution provider Commvault draws on the deep API integrations between its own Commvault Cloud platform and Dell PowerProtect Data Domain appliances to create solutions that mitigate risk and ensure uninterrupted business continuity.

“Dell and Commvault have a shared belief that a strong foundation for resilience is absolutely required in the face of AI-driven cyberthreats,” Sanjay Mirchandani, president and CEO of Commvault, said in a statement. “Together, we are delivering industry-leading cybersecurity, performance and efficiency to our joint customers.”

Dell has also debuted a GenAI-powered assistant called Dell Apex Backup Services AI, which can create custom reports, including the ability to ask follow-up questions that refine variables. It also gives users the option to act on AI-powered suggestions to remediate backup failures.

Dell said it is a good fit for organizations seeking GenAI-powered cybersecurity solutions. Dell said the copilot understands and improves a customer’s backup and security postures thanks to assistive troubleshooting that can be performed with simple written prompts. The assistant responds with recommendations and best practices customized to their environments.

Meanwhile, Dell introduced a mouthful of a product: the Storage Direct Protection in PowerProtect Data Manager for PowerMax, which in the five seconds it takes to say it, could back up 64 GB of data, or 46 TB of data per hour. It recovers the data it backed up at 21 TB per hour. Customers using the data protection of Dell PowerMax can fully restore to the original or alternate PowerMax system.