Wasabi is teaming up with Dell Technologies to provide customers with access to a more reliable and cost-effective cloud storage option.
The partnership, which aims to transform hybrid cloud storage for enterprise IT environments in the AI era, means Dell customers are now able to integrate Wasabi’s Hot Cloud Storage solution across Dell ObjectScale, Dell PowerScale, and Dell PowerProtect solutions, all through Dell’s Extended Technology Complete (ETC) program.
Dell ObjectScale brings software-defined object storage to enterprises, helping to build cloud-scale storage architectures on-premises. Through the ETC program, Dell customers can access Wasabi with Dell ObjectScale storage-as-a-service in the Wasabi cloud or use it as cost-efficient cloud destination.
Dell PowerScale distributed file and object storage provides enterprises with a file storage foundation. Dell PowerScale customers can automatically tier cold data to Wasabi, optimising local storage for active workloads and reducing on-site capacity limits, as well as lowering infrastructure costs by shifting inactive data to Wasabi while ensuring long-term data availability.
Dell PowerProtect Data Domain provides backup and recovery capabilities for both mission-critical applications and modern workloads. Wasabi aims to enhance the cloud-tiering capabilities of PowerProtect Data Domain, allowing organisations to get the most out of their IT assets and resources.
Wasabi country MD for ANZ Craig Stockdale said that part of what drove the two companies to collaborate was hearing that partners need some predictability from an economic perspective in regards to their cloud options.
“They're looking to bolster their cybersecurity position by having an offsite copy of their storage, so I think it's a great opportunity for us in the marketplace, in conjunction with Dell, to really provides a competitive advantage to a lot of customers in the market now who are looking to leverage hybrid cloud,” he said.
“Whether [data] ends up staying in a public cloud capability or a hybrid cloud or a private cloud capability, we're allowing customers to recalibrate that operating model to use a more discretionary capability around their spend, and that may lead to a multi cloud strategy, but I think a lot of customers felt that they didn't really have the choice [before],” said Jamie Humphrey, Dell Technologies’ GM for ANZ.
That focus on helping customers to battle rising costs was reflected in Wasabi’s latest Cloud Storage Index report, a survey of 1,600 IT decision-makers around the world – all of whom were involved in the purchase process for cloud storage at their organisation.
The 2025 version of the research found that, on average, roughly half (49%) of an organisation’s cloud storage bill goes toward fees, while 51% of billing is allocated to storage capacity.
“They're paying to put their data into the storage facility, but they're paying even more to get access to their own data,” Stockdale told techpartner.news.
“We're about removing that impost. We're about working with Dell, for instance, to be able to offer a much more predictable billing model, which I think is going to change the dynamics for those customers in the Australian market, and also for our joint partner ecosystem across the territory.
Stockdale also said that with more and more data being created, new use cases are emerging.
"We're starting to see things like active archive and tape replacement and long-term retention, and now AI and the workloads that consolidate the data to be able to run AI applications and workloads - it’s an ever-increasing requirement in the market,” he said.
“We're seeing a lot of clients, even since COVID, repatriate some of their workloads, because the costs have been going through the roof. CIOs and CISOs are all looking at ‘how do I continue to do more, but with less?’ and there are also the economic factors in the environment that are putting pressure on businesses.”
Humphrey said a stat he came across recently - that more data has been created in the COVID era than in technology history combined – means the traditional view of architectures and workplaces are shifting.
“You can see where this shift to the edge became quite relevant and prevalent and because of that security factor, laptops and edge devices became their own hybrid cloud environments, or their own cloud edge environment,” he said.
The duo both said that this partnership is just the first stage in what the two companies intend as a long-term relationship intend to build on this partnership going forward.
“This is our launchpad and I see it as a great opportunity for us to work together initially around the data protection suite that Dell have, but given Dell’s presence in the on-prem storage arena, we can see massive scale opportunities for the two organisations in the future,” Stockdale told techpartner.news.
“This is just the first phase of a transformational blueprint that Dell and Wasabi will grow over a period of time and [we] have a strategic roadmap of initiatives that we will be bringing the market,” Humphrey said.
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