Dell Technologies expanded the reach and range of its Private Cloud platform to meet customer demand, and rebranded that platform’s “edge” iteration toward a more “distributed” mindset.

Dell’s Private Cloud platform is now compatible with the recently launched VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1 update, Microsoft’s Azure Local, and Dell PowerStore integration with Nutanix’s Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV). This extends support for that overarching Private Cloud platform that Dell initially unveiled last year.

Caitlin Gordon, VP of product management for private cloud and AI solutions at Dell, noted during a press briefing that the VCF compatibility was one of the “biggest asks” the vendor has received. Dell was at one time home to VMware, an arrangement that ended in late 2021.

Broadcom, which acquired VMware shortly after that Dell spin, recently updated VCF to its 9.1 iteration.

Microsoft’s Azure Local is the hyperscaler’s take on supporting hybrid, multicloud, and edge network deployments, and at launch replaced Microsoft’s Azure Stack product family. Azure Local recently received updates targeted at supporting more defined sovereign deployments.

Dell’s Private Cloud extended support for Nutanix builds work dating back to last year, and fulfills a tease from Nutanix that was floated at its recent .NEXT event.

Gordon noted that Private Cloud provides cost savings up to 65% when compared to traditional hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) stacks.

“This is a game changing conversation with customers because they are able to save, not only on the acquisition cost because of a … more efficient, disaggregated infrastructure, efficient storage, but also in these supply constrained worlds, a very efficient compute,” Gordon said. “And then you marry that with the Dell Private Cloud software, and you get the operational simplicity. So you get the acquisition cost savings, and you get the operational savings with Dell Private Cloud now supported across a very broad ecosystem.”

The VCF 9.1 and Azure Local support is set for availability in June, with the Nutanix support set for availability in July.

NativeEdge now Distributed

Dell’s NativeEdge is now known as Distributed Private Cloud, a rebranding that also comes with some updates though the platform remains focused on “smaller, distributed data center sites.”

The updates include support for two-node clusters, which Gordon said was angled toward those resource-constrained environments, and support for Dell’s Pro Micro Plus compute platform. Those are both delivered through Dell’s Automation Platform, which itself gained a new agentic AI layer that can tap into telemetry data from across the Dell stack, and a more customizable chat-style interface.

The renamed platform also now has automative failover, updates to improve virtual machine (VM) live migration, embedded zero-trust security, and zero-touch endpoint support.

NativeEdge was launched three years ago, having been built on Dell’s Project Frontier initiative, and with a mandate of easing the deployment and management complexities of edge devices for remote-focused enterprises.

The newly renamed platform and updates are available now.