Dell Technologies has expanded its PowerEdge server portfolio with 11 new systems, targeting enterprises that need to run artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and conventional business workloads inside data centres already under pressure from power, cooling and space constraints. The launch, announced at Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas on May 19, 2026, forms part of a wider infrastructure refresh covering storage, cyber resilience, private cloud and automation. The 18th-generation PowerEdge systems are designed to improve performance while giving customers a choice between advanced air cooling and liquid-cooled rack-scale deployments. Dell says the new generation can deliver up to 70 per cent better performance than the previous PowerEdge generation and enable 13-to-1 server consolidation in some configurations, a claim aimed at companies trying to expand compute capacity without committing to full data centre rebuilds.
AI adoption has forced a sharp reassessment of enterprise infrastructure planning. Training and inference workloads require far denser compute, faster memory, higher network throughput and more efficient thermal management than many corporate facilities were designed to support. Global data centre systems spending is projected to exceed $650 billion in 2026, while server spending is expected to rise by more than a third year on year, driven largely by AI-optimised infrastructure.
Dell’s new PowerEdge M9825, built with AMD EPYC 6th Gen processors, is aimed at AI and high-performance workloads in factory-integrated IR7000 racks, where liquid cooling can support higher density beyond the practical limits of traditional air-cooled rooms. The PowerEdge XE5845 and XE7845 target PCIe-based AI deployments, giving organisations a route to add accelerator capacity without shifting every workload to hyperscale-style architecture.
The PowerEdge R9825 and R9815 systems focus on high-performance air-cooled computing. The R9825 is a dual-socket 3U server, while the R9815 is a single-socket 2U platform, both using AMD EPYC 6th Gen processors. Dell says they can support up to 256 cores per system and higher input-output bandwidth, making them relevant for analytics, virtualisation and other demanding workloads that may not justify liquid cooling.
Intel-based systems are also part of the roadmap. The PowerEdge R9810 will use Intel’s next-generation server processor, code-named Diamond Rapids, with Dell pointing to double the memory bandwidth, increased cache and up to 50 per cent more cores compared with the previous generation. Additional models, including the R8815, R6815, R7815, R7815xd and R7825, extend the lineup across 1U and 2U designs for space-efficient compute, dense virtualisation, storage-heavy workloads and analytics.
Availability will be phased. The PowerEdge M9825, R9825 and R9815 are expected in the second half of 2026. The XE5845 and XE7845 are due in the first quarter of 2027, while the R9810 and several AMD-based enterprise platforms are scheduled for 2027. This staged rollout reflects both the complexity of server platform transitions and the dependency on next-generation processors, accelerators and cooling ecosystems.
The server launch sits alongside Dell’s PowerStore Elite storage platform, which is scheduled for July 2026. The new storage system is positioned as a performance and efficiency upgrade, with up to three times the performance and density of prior models, up to 5.8 petabytes of effective capacity in a 3U appliance and a 6:1 data reduction guarantee. Dell is tying that storage refresh to the same AI-era infrastructure message: enterprises need faster systems, but they also need non-disruptive upgrades and simpler lifecycle management.
Private cloud is another pillar of the announcement. Dell Private Cloud, delivered through the Dell Automation Platform, will support VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1, Microsoft Azure Local and Nutanix AHV with Dell PowerStore integration. The company says the approach allows compute and storage to scale independently, reducing lock-in and lowering costs compared with some hyperconverged infrastructure deployments. VMware support is due in June 2026, Microsoft Azure Local support in June and Nutanix with PowerStore in July.
Cyber resilience has been added to the same stack through Dell PowerProtect One and Dell Cyber Detect. PowerProtect One is available now and combines protection management and secure backup storage under a single control plane. Cyber Detect is designed to extend AI-assisted ransomware detection into PowerStore and PowerMax storage, with Dell saying it can help identify the last clean copy of affected data for recovery.
Dell is positioning the portfolio against a market in which hyperscalers, chipmakers and enterprise vendors are racing to capture AI infrastructure budgets. Nvidia remains central to accelerated computing, while AMD and Intel are pushing new server processors and platform designs. Lenovo, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Supermicro, Cisco and cloud providers are also expanding AI server and private cloud offerings, leaving Dell to compete on breadth, supply-chain scale, enterprise support and its ability to integrate compute, storage, networking, protection and automation.
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