- Dell squeezes nearly 10 PB of flash storage into a compact 2U server
- KIOXIA’s massive SSDs eliminated the need for seven additional storage servers
- The complete rack configuration could reportedly cost more than $75 million
Dell Technologies has unveiled a new server configuration that packs an astonishing 9.8 PB of flash storage into a standard 2U chassis.
The PowerEdge R7725xd achieves this density by combining 40 of KIOXIA’s LC9 Series 245.76 terabyte SSDs with AMD EPYC processors.
A comparable configuration using conventional 30.72 TB drives would require seven additional servers and consume about eight times more power.
How the server achieves such extreme storage density
KIOXIA LC9 series drives are available in a specialized E3.L form factor that allows 40 of them to fit into a single 2U chassis.
Each drive delivers up to 245.76 TB of flash-based storage with PCIe 5.0 performance for demanding AI data pipelines.
“The combination of the Dell PowerEdge R7725xd server and the KIOXIA LC9 series enterprise SSD is not just about high density,” said Akihiro Kimura, chief technology officer at KIOXIA Corporation. “It’s a shift in how we build AI infrastructures.”
The system supports up to five 400 gigabit per second network cards, enabling users to populate and move data through pipelines more efficiently.
This allows organizations to scale AI infrastructure without expanding their physical footprint or increasing their overall energy consumption.
What this means for AI data center economics
Arun Narayanan, senior vice president at Dell Technologies, said the server delivers the storage density and power efficiency customers need to scale AI infrastructure without sacrificing performance.
The flexible, air-cooled storage configurations are designed to complement GPU-enabled servers and support AI data management and model training across the entire AI lifecycle.
A single rack using these servers could theoretically exceed 200PB of flash storage, although the cost would be significant.
At approximately $15,000 per 245.76 TB drives, a 200PB configuration would require about 815 drives costing about $12.2 million.
Building a full rack with servers, networking and cooling would likely push the total to $75 million or more.
Whether the high cost of these high-density drives makes sense for any organization is still an open question.
For hyperscale cloud providers and large AI labs with massive data ingestion requirements, the math likely works in favor of density over cost per terabytes.
However, for smaller businesses, traditional 30.72 TB drives may still offer better value.
Dell and KIOXIA have raised the bar for what is possible in a 2U server, and the AI data center of the future will be built on density.
The 9.8 PB milestone is not the end of the road, but it is a signpost pointing to a future where storage capacity is no longer the bottleneck for AI innovation.
The technology is real, the density is unprecedented, and the implications for AI data centers are profound, even if the price tag makes most IT managers shudder.
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