Category: Dell

Dell Lifecycle Hub now available in Ireland – simplify end-to-end device lifecycle management solution

Dell Technologies now offers Dell Lifecycle Hub managed service in Ireland to simplify IT by providing an end-to-end, multi-vendor device lifecycle management solution. The service means Dell manages the use of a customer’s PC fleet from the first use through to disposition of the device at end of life, allowing the IT team to focus on other business priorities.

Lifecycle management for end user devices is becoming more complex as companies embrace the hybrid workplace, especially for larger customers with multiple office locations and remote team members. Combining warehousing and inventory management with configuration services and deployment expertise into one end-to-end solution, Dell Lifecycle Hub:

  • Ships configured PCs and new hire kits to maximise day one productivity
  • Manages returns when employees leave the company and optimises device utilisation
  • Provides whole unit exchange when device failures occur, rapidly returning users to productivity
  • Manages device refresh at lease end or when fully depreciated
  • Facilitates proper device disposition at end of life

 Dermot O’Connell, senior vice president for Services in EMEA, said: “Now more than ever, IT is challenged to oversee the employee technology experience, maximise device utilisation and ensure their company is making the most of their PC investment. With Dell Lifecycle Hub, Dell Technologies takes care of device lifecycle management, so our customers don’t have to, allowing them more time to focus on strategic business priorities.”

Dell Lifecycle Hub is available immediately and is also offered as a resell option for channel partners. Learn more in Dell’s blog on unlocking the power of customers’ PC ecosystem.

Dell Technologies introduces Project Fort Zero to Transform Security

Dell Technologies introduces Project Fort Zero to provide an end-to-end Zero Trust security solution for global organizations to protect against cyberattacks. The solution will be validated by the U.S. Department of Defense and is part of a Dell Security portfolio expansion.

Project Fort Zero builds on the momentum of Dell’s Zero Trust Center of Excellence and partner ecosystem to accelerate Zero Trust adoption. Leading an ecosystem of more than 30 leading technology companies, Dell will deliver a validated, advanced maturity Zero Trust solution within the next 12 months.

“Zero Trust is designed for decentralized environments, but integrating it across hundreds of point products from dozens of vendors is complex – making it out of reach for most organizations,” said Herb Kelsey, industry chief technology officer, government, Dell Technologies. “We’re helping global organizations solve today’s security challenges by easing integration and accelerating adoption of Zero Trust.”

Dell Project Fort Zero to deliver validated Zero Trust solution

The fully configured Project Fort Zero solution will lower the barrier to Zero Trust adoption. Dell will take on the technology integration and orchestration that typically falls to individual organizations across several vendors. In doing so, the estimated time for advanced Zero Trust adoption is reduced through a private cloud.

To achieve validation, a government assessment team will evaluate the Project Fort Zero solution for advanced maturity accreditation and certify compliance against the U.S. Department of Defense Zero Trust reference architecture, which is recognized around the world. This end-to-end solution will help global public- and private-sector organizations adapt and respond to cybersecurity risks while offering the highest level of protection.

Project Fort Zero can serve a variety of use cases including:

  • In on-premises data centers for organizations where data security and compliance are paramount.
  • In remote or regional locations like retail stores where secure, real-time analysis of customer data can deliver a competitive advantage.
  • In the field where a temporary implementation is needed in places with intermittent connectivity, like airplanes or vehicles, for operational continuity.

“Organizations are turning to Zero Trust to modernize their cybersecurity programs and keep pace with an evolving attack landscape. But determining where to start, the capabilities to prioritize and the actions needed to progress towards maturity can be complicated,” said John Grady, principal analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “Security and IT leaders need help planning their strategy and implementing the tools to support it. Project Fort Zero can help accelerate this process by delivering a repeatable blueprint for an end-to-end solution that is based on a validated reference architecture recognized around the world.”

Dell expands security services portfolio with launch of PSX for Backup

Along with Project Fort Zero, Dell is expanding its security portfolio with Product Success Accelerator (PSX) for Backup, a new service to help organizations protect and recover data in the event of disruption.

PSX for Backup simplifies the implementation and maintenance of backup environments to enable data recovery. It follows the recent release of PSX for Cyber Recovery, which implements and helps operationalize an isolated cyber recovery vault.

Organizations can choose from three levels of backup or cyber recovery based on their needs:

  • Ready includes planning workshops, configuration of a validated backup or vault environment, a success plan, a runbook and outcome-based skills training.
  • Optimize adds quarterly assessments, improvement recommendations and assisted restore test simulations.
  • Operate adds ongoing operational assistance to meet the solution’s performance objectives. Highly skilled experts monitor and investigate alerts, initiate corrective actions and help with restore tasks at the customer’s direction.

Availability

  • Project Fort Zero’s advanced maturity Zero Trust solution will be available to public- and private-sector organizations within the next 12 months.
  • Dell Product Success Accelerator for Backup is now available in locations across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
  • Dell Product Success Accelerator for Cyber Recovery expanded availability to locations in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific, in addition to North America.

Dell NativeEdge Software Transforms Edge Operations

Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) introduces Dell NativeEdge, an edge operations software platform, designed to help businesses simplify and optimize secure edge deployments. Customers can streamline edge operations across thousands of devices and locations from the edge to core data centers and multiple clouds.

Delivering on the promise of Project Frontier, Dell NativeEdge is the industry’s only edge operations software platform delivering secure device onboarding at scale, remote management and multicloud application orchestration.2 It’s purpose-built to power any enterprise edge use case with zero-touch deployment and an open system design, integrating with a variety of hardware across Dell’s end-to-end portfolio. With Zero Trust capabilities built in, Dell NativeEdge reduces security risk by protecting customers’ applications and infrastructure across their entire edge estate.

“Moving data is complicated and expensive, which has resulted in massively distributed architectures that can be difficult to manage, provision and automate. As our customers look to fuel new workloads and AI at the edge, they are turning to Dell to find simpler and more effective ways to manage and secure their ecosystem of edge technologies and applications,” said Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and co-chief operating officer, Dell Technologies. “Dell NativeEdge puts them in the driver’s seat, so they can manage and simplify their entire edge estate with a single solution, helping deliver better experiences, products and outcomes.”

“Use cases for modern edge workloads are widely varied and growing, creating more complex infrastructure environments and edge operations,” said Jennifer Cooke, research director of Edge Strategies at IDC. “Dell’s introduction of Dell NativeEdge offers an interesting new solution that addresses this complexity, and many of the security issues inherent with deploying devices and applications at the edge, with comprehensive software that aims to help customers streamline their edge operations.”

Faster deployment times and cost savings with Dell NativeEdge

For example, a large manufacturer may need to automate packaging and shipping across its numerous factory sites in various geographies. This means connecting multiple technologies, like IoT, streaming data and machine vision, which requires dedicated devices to run multiple software applications across locations. Testing and deploying infrastructure to run the applications can take months. Using Dell NativeEdge, the manufacturer can consolidate its technology stacks using existing investments and reduce the time to deploy edge assets and applications from months to weeks. The platform uses automation to streamline edge operations and helps the manufacturer quickly and securely roll out new applications to all sites from a central location.

A Dell study of nearly 100 large customers examined the potential economic impact of NativeEdge-enabled deployments for a typical manufacturing customer with an average of 25 facilities. A three-year investment in NativeEdge managing 75% of a manufacturing organization’s edge assets showed that a customer could achieve:

  • Up to 130% return-on-investment on their Dell NativeEdge deployment.
  • A reduction in time required to onboard devices by up to 20 minutes for each edge infrastructure asset managed and a significant reduction to enterprise risk, resulting in cost savings.
  • Accelerated edge asset deployment times and a decrease in edge operations costs with zero touch provisioning.
  • Savings on transportation costs by decreasing the need for site-support dispatches, helping to reduce travel time as well as carbon dioxide emissions by up to 14 metric tons.

Customers across various industries could achieve similar impacts and benefits of NativeEdge.

New retail edge solution simplifies operations at retail stores and warehouses

Dell expands its retail edge solutions with a new Dell Validated Design for Retail Edge with inVia Robotics intelligent automation. Online ordering and curbside delivery have pushed more costs onto retailers. This solution uses software and automation to help retail employees become more efficient with last-mile picking, packing, shipping and delivery by converting existing warehouse and retail space into micro-fulfillment centers. With easy-to-manage technology at retail locations where data is generated, retailers can provide employees with more efficient pathfinding and order-picking across retail locations to significantly improve order fulfillment times and worker productivity.

The pre-tested, validated and Dell-supported infrastructure solution puts edge retail IT and applications onto a single infrastructure stack for efficient deployment, management and support. Customers will be able to deploy this solution on Dell PowerEdge servers with their choice in unified management, including Linux, Microsoft Azure Stack HCI and VMware Edge Compute Stack. The solution offers customers a simplified and flexible path to intelligent retail automation.

Connectivity, efficiency and global support simplify the edge

With 81% of Fortune 100 companies using Dell edge solutions,2 Dell continues to bolster its portfolio with new solutions and capabilities to help customers simplify and gain more value from the edge:

 

  • Dell Private Wireless with Airspan and Druid is a validated private wireless solution that gives enterprises reliable, secure wireless connectivity for thousands of remote edge technologies, like devices and sensors, distributed across edge locations. Part of the Dell Private Wireless Program, the solution offers choice in private wireless for enterprises at the edge. The solution is easily integrated with enterprise IT and operational technology (OT) systems and includes tailored implementation, end-to-end management and support.
  • Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies 4.1, a scalable, open source-based networking operating system on Dell switches, extends additional data center network features to edge deployments, including User Container Support (UCS) and streaming telemetry that provide better fabric visibility, security and performance. Dell’s SONiC solution provides a single network operating system that combines the flexibility of a multi-vendor ecosystem with the simplicity of common open-source toolsets to help customers simplify lifecycle management of the network fabric and avoid vendor lock-in.

 

  • Dell ProDeploy Flex is a modular deployment service designed to further accelerate time to value for customers at the edge. The flexible nature of the service allows customers to effectively tailor their edge deployment service needs to get the most value from their edge infrastructure and applications.

 

Dell continues to expand its edge solutions portfolio to help customers optimize the placement of workloads and data with plans to deliver more Dell edge solutions as a service to meet the changing needs of IT. Dell’s expanding edge partner ecosystem is critical to customers’ success at the edge. Through the Dell Edge Partner Certification Program, ISVs, system integrators and OEM partners will be able to test and validate their software applications on Dell NativeEdge to deliver integrated edge infrastructure solutions to customers.

“Dell Technologies and Schneider Electric’s decades-long relationship has provided customers with innovative solutions to solve their greatest IT challenges in a smart and secure, always-on, and managed fashion,” said Vandana Singh, senior vice president of Secure Power North America, Schneider Electric. “With the introduction of Dell NativeEdge, we see new opportunities to integrate and better meet our customers’ mission-critical needs at the edge.”

“Fastly is thrilled to see Dell take such industry leadership in uniting edge hardware and software platforms with the release of Dell NativeEdge,” said Artur Bergman, chief architect and founder, Fastly. “The timing couldn’t be better, as every day we hear from customers and prospects seeking new ways of deploying Fastly services like Next-Gen WAF, or our Web Assembly powered Edge Computing and Delivery platform, in environments beyond the traditional data center or cloud.”

Availability

  • Dell NativeEdge software platform will be available to customers, OEMs and partners in 50 countries beginning August 2023.
  • Dell Validated Design for Retail Edge built with inVia Robotics will be available globally in August 2023.
  • Dell Private Wireless with Airspan and Druid will be available globally in June 2023.
  • Enterprise Sonic Distribution by Dell Technologies 4.1 is available globally beginning today.
  • Dell ProDeploy Flex will be available globally in August 2023.

Dell Technologies and NVIDIA Introduce Project Helix for Secure, On-Premises Generative AI

Dell Technologies  and NVIDIA announce a joint initiative to make it easier for businesses to build and use generative AI models on-premises to quickly and securely deliver better customer service, market intelligence, enterprise search and a range of other capabilities.

Project Helix will deliver a series of full-stack solutions with technical expertise and pre-built tools based on Dell and NVIDIA infrastructure and software. It includes a complete blueprint to help enterprises use their proprietary data and more easily deploy generative AI responsibly and accurately.

“Project Helix gives enterprises purpose-built AI models to more quickly and securely gain value from the immense amounts of data underused today,” said Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and co-chief operating officer, Dell Technologies. “With highly scalable and efficient infrastructure, enterprises can create a new wave of generative AI solutions that can reinvent their industries.”

“We are at a historic moment, when incredible advances in generative AI are intersecting with enterprise demand to do more with less,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO, NVIDIA. “With Dell Technologies, we’ve designed extremely scalable, highly efficient infrastructure that enables enterprises to transform their business by securely using their own data to build and operate generative AI applications.”

Project Helix simplifies enterprise generative AI deployments with a tested combination of optimized hardware and software, all available from Dell. This delivers the power to convert enterprise data into smarter, higher value outcomes, while maintaining data privacy. These solutions will help companies quickly deploy customized AI applications that drive trusted decisions from their own data to grow and scale their businesses.

Blueprint for on-premises generative AI

Project Helix will support the complete generative AI lifecycle – from infrastructure provisioning, modeling, training, fine-tuning, application development and deployment, to deploying inference and streamlining results. The validated designs help enterprises quickly build on-premises generative AI infrastructure at scale.

Dell PowerEdge servers, such as the PowerEdge XE9680 and PowerEdge R760xa, are optimized to deliver performance for generative AI training and AI inferencing. The combination of Dell servers with NVIDIA® H100 Tensor Core GPUs and NVIDIA Networking form the infrastructure backbone for these workloads. Customers can pair this infrastructure with resilient and scalable unstructured data storage, including Dell PowerScale and Dell ECS Enterprise Object Storage.

With all Dell Validated Designs, customers can use the enterprise features of Dell server and storage software, with observability through Dell CloudIQ software. Project Helix also includes NVIDIA AI Enterprise software to provide tools for customers as they move through the AI lifecycle. NVIDIA AI Enterprise includes more than 100 frameworks, pretrained models and development tools such as the NVIDIA NeMo™ large language model framework and NeMo Guardrails software for building topical, safe and secure generative AI chatbots.

Project Helix includes security and privacy built into foundational components, such as Secured Component Verification. Protecting data on-premises reduces inherent risk and helps companies meet regulatory requirements.

“Companies are eager to explore the opportunities that generative AI tools enable for their organizations, but many aren’t sure how to get started,” said Bob O’Donnell, president and chief analyst, TECHnalysis Research. “By putting together a complete hardware and software solution from trusted brands, Dell Technologies and NVIDIA are offering enterprises a head start to building and refining AI-powered models that can leverage their own company’s unique assets and create powerful, customized tools.”

Availability

Dell Validated Designs based on the Project Helix initiative will be available through traditional channels and APEX flexible consumption options, beginning in July 2023.

Dell Tech World 2023: Dell APEX Portfolio Expands from Multicloud to Client to Compute

Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) unveils new Dell APEX offerings across cloud platforms, public cloud storage software, client devices and compute. These additions to the industry’s most comprehensive as-a-Service and multicloud portfolio spanning data center to public cloud and client devices will help businesses operate and innovate faster through improved management and mobility of their applications and data wherever they reside.

“Our customers continue to look for a simpler technology experience to easily manage and access their assets and applications with predictable costs and greater flexibility,” said Chuck Whitten, co-chief operating officer, Dell Technologies. “That’s where Dell APEX comes in. Now, Dell APEX spans the breadth of our portfolio to give customers greater freedom for technology to support businesses as their needs dictate – from PCs and IT on-premises to public clouds and edge locations.”

Dell APEX Cloud Platforms deliver consistent multicloud operations

Dell APEX Cloud Platforms are a portfolio of fully integrated, turnkey systems integrating Dell infrastructure, software and cloud operating stacks that deliver consistent multicloud operations by extending cloud operating models to on-premises and edge environments. Workloads can be placed in the optimal location based on desired performance, cost and security requirements with data mobility across a common multicloud storage layer. Customers will be able to move data seamlessly between on-premises environments and Dell APEX Block Storage for Public Cloud deployments. Each system is designed to accelerate IT and developer productivity using familiar management tools and software-driven automated deployment and lifecycle management.

The cloud platforms are developed in collaboration with Microsoft, Red Hat and VMware:

 

  • Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure enhances the Azure hybrid experience with full stack software integration and automated lifecycle management through Microsoft native management tools and extensive engineering collaboration between Dell and Microsoft. The platform is ideal for application modernization and delivers faster time to value of Azure based on Azure Arc-enabled infrastructure with consistent operations and governance across on-premises data centers, edge locations, and the Azure public cloud using Azure Arc.

 

  • Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift simplifies container-based application development and management, wherever applications are developed and deployed, through full stack software integration and automation with the industry’s leading hybrid cloud application platform powered by Kubernetes. Customers can run containers and virtual machines side by side, natively within Kubernetes, with a unified experience for a wide variety of workloads, including AI/ML and analytics, with broad GPU support across any hybrid cloud footprint. This offering represents a deep engineering collaboration between Dell and Red Hat, using enterprise Kubernetes and backed by the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

  • Dell APEX Cloud Platform for VMware gives customers the flexibility to deploy vSphere on a fully integrated system with highly scalable, high performance Dell software-defined storage. This new offering joins Dell APEX Private Cloud and Dell APEX Hybrid Cloud within the broader Dell APEX portfolio to offer more choice for VMware customers on their multicloud journey.

“For more than a century, Xerox has continually redefined the workplace experience,” said Tino Lancellotti, chief information officer, Xerox. “Dell APEX has helped us optimize our multicloud strategy so that we can deliver software and services that meet the needs of the modern workforce.”

Dell APEX Storage for Public Cloud enriches the public cloud experience

Delivering on the promise of Project Alpine, Dell brings the performance and advanced software capabilities of its industry-leading enterprise data storage to public clouds while delivering operational simplicity with a unified approach to Dell cloud storage and Kubernetes management.

Dell APEX Block Storage for Amazon Web Services (AWS), Dell APEX Block Storage for Microsoft Azure and Dell APEX File Storage for AWS combine Dell’s enterprise-class storage performance, scalability and cyber-resilience with public cloud economics and services, such as analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). Organizations can fine-tune their cloud strategies based on business need, and maximize existing skillsets through advanced data mobility and management consistency between Dell on-premises storage and public clouds. This approach avoids the need to refactor applications and retrain staff.

Dell APEX Block Storage can rapidly expand performance and capacity for mission critical workloads through a unique scale out architecture. Increased resiliency is achieved by distributing data efficiently across multi-availability zones. Dell APEX File Storage delivers enterprise class file performance and capabilities in the public cloud. Customers can support a broad variety of performance-intensive workloads including AI, machine learning, media and entertainment and life sciences.

These offers join Dell APEX Protection Storage for Public Cloud as part of Dell’s portfolio of software-defined storage for public clouds. Dell APEX Protection Storage delivers industry-leading data protection storage for AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Alibaba Cloud with more than 17 exabytes of data protected by Dell software in public clouds to date.3

Dell APEX Console enhancements include new management, deployment, data mobility and discovery software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings that make it easier for operations teams to maintain multicloud storage and Kubernetes clusters.

 

  • Dell APEX Navigator for Multicloud Storage is SaaS that centralizes, simplifies and secures management of Dell APEX Block and File Storage with easy configuration, automated deployment, storage monitoring and data mobility between on-premises and public cloud environments. This allows organizations to manage their multicloud estate consistently and securely at scale, optimizing workload placement to match their business needs.
  • Dell APEX Navigator for Kubernetes is SaaS that simplifies Kubernetes storage management, bringing advanced data services such as data replication, application mobility and observability, to containers with easily deployed and managed Dell Container Storage Modules.

“Organizations are looking to streamline their IT environments so that data and applications can live in the right place to deliver the most value for their businesses,” said Matthew Eastwood, senior vice president, IDC. “Dell Technologies has delivered a significant expansion of its Dell APEX portfolio that creates commonality between public cloud and on-premises environments to simplify workload placement.”

Dell APEX brings the cloud experience to PCs and servers

Dell expands the Dell APEX portfolio to help users easily handle day-to-day IT operations, speed infrastructure deployment, control costs and manage device takeback securely and sustainably through an as-a-Service experience.

 

  • Dell APEX Compute delivers scalable, secure bare metal compute resources in a data center, edge environment or in a colocation facility. Customers can support virtualized or container-based environments by installing the hypervisor or operating system of their choice. Organizations will be able to meet their workload and IT operations needs with scalable and secure compute resources available through a predictable, monthly subscription.

  • Dell APEX PC-as-a-Service (PCaaS) helps companies simplify IT and deploy the latest client technology with predictable costs4 while freeing up capital to invest in modern employee experiences.5 Organizations can customize offerings across the entire PC portfolio—inclusive of devices, software and services—with flexible one- to five-year terms and scaling up or down as needed. Early customers using Dell APEX PCaaS have reported 50% less help desk effort, 30% savings in support costs and 50% less time spent onboarding employee devices.6

 

Dell expands data management ecosystem for simpler access to data insight with Databricks’ Lakehouse Platform 

To provide customers greater freedom to extract insights from data wherever it resides, Dell and Databricks, the data and AI company, announce a new, multifaceted relationship to connect on-premises data in Dell’s industry-leading enterprise storage platforms and the Databricks Lakehouse Platform.

Dell customers can connect Databricks in the public cloud with Dell object storage, on-premises or in a co-location facility, to analyze data in-place, store results and securely share it with third parties using Databricks’ Delta Sharing capabilities. Dell and Databricks are collaborating to jointly engineer additional integrations that will deliver a seamless experience for Dell object storage within the Databricks Lakehouse Platform.

Additional Comments

“Microsoft and Dell are simplifying hybrid cloud management with an integrated solution that gives customers consistent operations across the Azure public cloud and their on-premises and edge environments,” said Bernardo Caldas, corporate vice president, Azure Edge PM, Microsoft. “Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure provides native integration of Dell’s differentiated infrastructure platforms and management software with Azure Arc, and Arc-enabled services like Azure Stack HCI and AKS for a unified experience from cloud to edge.”

“As organizations continue to evolve and scale their cloud strategies, customers are looking for a consistent user experience across hybrid infrastructure to accelerate cloud-native application development and faster time to value,” said Stefanie Chiras, senior vice president, Partner Ecosystem Success, Red Hat. “Red Hat OpenShift provides that common foundation, and through our continued work with Dell Technologies, customers can benefit from a fully integrated Red Hat OpenShift experience on Dell’s on-premises infrastructure to extend capabilities wherever they deploy applications across the hybrid cloud.”

“VMware and Dell Technologies have a track record of jointly engineered solutions and innovation that spans nearly two decades,” said Dave McGraw, vice president, Partner Solutions Engineering, Office of the CTO, VMware. “The introduction of Dell APEX Cloud Platform for VMware broadens customers’ VMware multicloud deployment options, providing greater choice and flexibility to modernize applications while streamlining multicloud operations.”

“Databricks is focused on helping businesses extract the most valuable insights from their data, wherever it resides,” said Adam Conway, senior vice president, Products, Databricks. “This relationship provides the ability to leverage cloud and on-premises data together with best of breed technologies, as well as easily and securely share that data through Delta Sharing. Combining the best of Dell and Databricks changes the data landscape for customers as they operate in today’s multicloud world.”

Availability

  • Dell APEX Cloud Platforms will be globally available starting in the second half of 2023.
  • Dell APEX Block and File Storage for AWS are globally available now.
  • Dell APEX Block Storage for Microsoft Azure will be globally available in the second half of 2023.
  • Dell APEX Navigator for Multicloud Storage will be available in the United States with planned future geographic expansion during the second half of 2023.
  • Dell APEX Navigator for Kubernetes will be available in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany during the second half of 2023.
  • Dell APEX PC-as-a-Service is available now in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
  • Dell APEX Compute is available now in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
  • Dell object storage and Databricks Lakehouse Platform connection is available today with access to public cloud data coming soon.

Dell Technologies invests €2m to create an Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab in Cork

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney TD joined Dell Technologies to officially launch the company’s Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab at the company’s campus in Ovens, Co. Cork.

As the company’s only Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab outside the US, the facility provides an innovation testbed for telecoms and technology leaders across Europe,

the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The first-of-its-kind facility in Ireland connects leading engineers at Dell with telecom providers as they drive digital transformation forward. The other lab is located in Round Rock, Texas.

In addition to having access to Dell’s expertise and technology, customers and industry partners will be able to test and deploy open telecom solutions at the heart of 5G and 6G networks. By unlocking the business potential of 5G, the new Lab can help accelerate the development of smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0, smart mobility solutions and digital cities.

The €2m investment in the new Lab further reinforces Ireland’s position as a global strategic location for Dell Technologies. The company’s team members at its three campuses in Cherrywood, Cork, and Limerick have been at the forefront of embracing new technologies. In recent years, Dell has opened an Innovation Lab in Limerick and its redeveloped Customer Solutions Centre in Cork.

“As emerging technology accelerates the pace of change within every sector of our economy, it has never been more important for technology leaders and telecom providers to work together to advance Ireland’s position as an innovation leader,” said Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney TD at the opening of the new facility. “This investment by Dell Technologies in its new Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab is welcomed as it not only strengthens Ireland’s position as a hub for emerging technology but will also help create new business opportunities linked to 5G and the future roll-out of 6G. I want to congratulate Dell Technologies on this important milestone and look forward to seeing the Lab evolve and grow.” 

“We’re delighted to open Dell’s first ever Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab outside the US here at our campus in Cork,” said Bob Savage, Regional CIO for EMEA and Cork Site Leader at Dell Technologies. “As telecoms providers look to accelerate the pace of digital transformation within their sector, the new Lab will provide an important space to collaborate, innovate and push the boundaries of an open and modern telecom system. This new investment places Cork at the heart of Europe’s open telecom ecosystem. Our talented team of engineers and leading industry partners such as Vodafone, Ericsson, VMware and Druid Software can accelerate the roll-out of next-generation services.”

 IDA Ireland’s Executive Director Mary Buckley who attended the event said: “Dell’s decision to locate its second Open Telecom Ecosystem (OTE) Lab here at its Cork campus is very welcome news. This new lab adds engineering consultation, partner testing, and a new Ireland location for global telecom ecosystem collaboration meaning that Dell customers and partners will now have an EMEA location to collaborate across the globe on open innovation projects. I wish Dell continued success.”

For more information about Dell’s Open Telecoms Ecosystem Lab, visit: https://www.dell.com/en-us/dt/industry/telecom/open-telecom-ecosystem-labs.htm#scroll=off

Dell Technologies Storage Software Innovations Bolster Cyber Resilience and Advance IT Efficiency

Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) advances software-driven innovation across its industry-leading storage portfolio, driving increased cyber resiliency, energy efficiency and automation to power customers’ multicloud journeys.

Dell’s commitment to software development has resulted in more than 2,000 storage portfolio advancements in the past twelve months across every category of the external storage industry. These advances are available at no additional cost to existing customers and are consumable through on-premises software or as-a-Service via Dell APEX.

“As data continues to pile up, and skilled IT talent often difficult to find, companies are finding themselves in a position to do more with less,” said Jeff Boudreau, president and general manager, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies. “We’re helping customers rise to this challenge by enabling them to make the most of their IT investments with storage software innovation that is more energy efficient, boosts productivity and strengthens cyber resiliency.”

Built to meet the most stringent security requirements across any industry

PowerStore, Dell’s intelligent all-flash data storage array, is delivering increased security to help today’s leading businesses adopt a Zero Trust model — a security architecture that provides continuous verification of users and resources to ensure the authorization of only known entities and actions.

Through PowerStore’s new security software enhancements, Dell is helping customers accelerate Zero Trust adoption to better protect, prevent and respond to cyberattacks. New advancements include:

  • STIG-hardening – Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) meet the most stringent configuration standards as defined by the U.S. federal government and the U.S. Department of Defense.  STIG hardening adds to PowerStore’s adherence with the NIST Cyber Security Framework standard, which is required for U.S. federal networks and other government entities worldwide.
  • Secure and immutable snapshots – Prevents unauthorized deleting or modifying of snapshots before their expiration date.
  • Streamlined file permissions – Allows storage administrators to manage access directly from PowerStore to respond quickly to security threats.
  • Increased file resiliency – Up to 4x more mounted snapshots per system, giving users more protection points for granular recovery if needed.
  • Multi-factor authentication – Protects administrative access to PowerStore by requiring increased verification of a user’s identity.

 Dell helps customers drive increased productivity while keeping costs down

New PowerStore software automation and multicloud advancements help customers make the most of their existing IT investments while keeping operational and energy costs down. These new PowerStore features include:

  • Dell PowerProtect native integration – Organizations now have increased simplicity and choice driving their multicloud data protection strategies with convenient backup to the cloud capability through PowerStore’s deeper integration into Dell’s physical and software-defined data protection solutions. Backups can be configured in less than two minutes, directly from the PowerStore user interface, allowing customers to easily take advantage of PowerProtect appliances with up to 65:1 data reduction, DD Boost technology and other capabilities. The solution can enable cost-effective cloud archiving, reducing on-premises capacity requirements which can help reduce power and cooling costs.

  • DevOps workflow enhancements – New integrations with Ansible and Terraform and new application mobility capabilities with Dell Container Storage Modules help PowerStore customers accelerate innovation with flexible storage automation. By supporting these open source solutions, PowerStore gives DevOps workers easy-to-use storage automation tools and the ability to build repeatable, automated processes across diverse environments to provision storage without low-level coding or help desk support.

PowerStore delivers up to 60% more IOPS (input/output operations per second) per watt, now available with ENERGY STAR certified configurations, providing dramatic increases in both density and performance per watt as the most energy efficient PowerStore system to date. With this advancement, Dell is addressing the increased need for energy efficiency and sustainability, one of the most important criteria for IT buying decisions according to a recent IDC survey.

“With Dell PowerStore’s compression technology, we reduced our old storage area network from as much as 20 systems, down to two—a 90% reduction in our footprint,” said Nathan Young, IT director, Maricopa County Recorder’s Office. “As a result, PowerStore has improved our energy efficiency while allowing us to innovate to meet changing demands from constituents and the increased expectations of our staff.”

Dell ramps up software-driven storage innovation

In addition to PowerStore, new software innovations address a wide range of advancements across the Dell Storage portfolio:

  • Dell PowerMax, the world’s most secure, mission-critical storage, strengthens cybersecurity by enabling an operational airgap to allow customers to expedite recovery of compromised production data following a cyberattack.
  • Dell PowerFlex, Dell’s software-defined infrastructure, speeds modernization with enhanced NVMe/TCP and security.​
  • Dell ObjectScale, Dell’s software-defined object-storage platform, introduces faster enterprise S3 object storage performance with a simpler deployment and support experience.
  • Dell CloudIQ, Dell’s AIOps software, extends its AI/ML-driven performance and capacity analytics and VMware integration to simplify and accelerate IT and DevOps.
  • Dell Unity XT, Dell’s flexible hybrid storage platform, increases Ansible support to enhance storage automation, helping customers lower costs, reduce errors and increase productivity.

Availability

  • Dell PowerStore and ObjectScale advancements will be globally available in June 2023.
  • Dell PowerMax, CloudIQ and Unity XT capabilities are globally available today.
  • Dell PowerFlex advancements will be globally available in the third quarter of 2023.

 

Catherine Doyle Appointed Managing Director for Dell Technologies Ireland

Dell has announced that Catherine Doyle was named Managing Director for Dell Technologies Ireland.

Catherine now has overall responsibility for the commercial and enterprise business in Ireland and will be focused on delivering solutions for both public and private sector organisations. In her new role she will be responsible for helping them to take advantage of the latest technologies in areas such as 5G, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, edge and multicloud to support their digital transformation and business goals. Catherine will also take the lead on delivering the Irish team’s contribution to Dell’s ESG strategy to advance sustainability, cultivate inclusion and transform lives through the power of technology.

“I’m delighted to take up the role of managing director at such a critical time for not only Dell Technologies but our partners and customers,” said Catherine Doyle, MD of Dell Technologies Ireland.

“With an evolving economic environment businesses and organisations across Ireland continue to face the challenge of meeting the needs of their customers and managing volatility while also transforming at speed. Emerging technologies such as 5G, AI and Edge will play a vital role in helping organisations to navigate these challenges. I’m really looking forward to working with the team to support our customers and partners with market-leading solutions to accelerate the pace of digital transformation and unlock breakthrough innovation. Working with our global and regional experts in our campuses in Cork, Limerick and Dublin we are uniquely positioned to deliver real impact for organisations in every sector,” she added.

Catherine succeeds Jason Ward who is taking on leadership of the Dell Technologies EMEA Global Alliances team.

Dell Technologies study reveals that innovation leaders are 2.2X more likely to accelerate their way through economic uncertainty

The Dell Technologies Innovation Index, a new study polling 6,600 respondents across 45+ countries, including 100 from Ireland, reveals that Irish businesses are confident in the strength of their organisation’s innovation in the face of global challenges. Over three quarters (84%; Ireland: 78%) say that they agree their business has a vibrant culture of innovation, but the research shows a clear ‘innovation gap’ between perception and realisation.

To understand organisations’ innovation maturity across the globe, respondents were placed on an innovation maturity benchmark ranging from Innovation Leaders to Innovation Laggards. This reveals an innovation perception gap, as the results show, despite the positive view of innovative business cultures, only 18% (Ireland: 6%) of organisations worldwide can be defined as Innovation Leaders and Adopters.

This is important, as Innovation Leaders and Adopters are 2.2X more likely to accelerate their innovation during a recession than Innovation Followers and Laggards (who are more likely to decelerate). The good news is that the Innovation Index is a snapshot in time, and organisations can improve by priming their people, processes and technology for innovation.

People-primed innovation

Organisations need help to develop an innovation culture where all ideas can make a difference and learning through failure is encouraged. Businesses recognise this and are confident in their ability to deliver: over three quarters (78%; Ireland 68%) believe that, in part, people join their company because they believe they’ll be empowered to innovate, which is a major achievement.

However, they need to ensure that they fix the innovation gap. 59% (Ireland: 69%) of respondents believe people also leave their company because they haven’t been able to innovate as much as they hoped they would. And 64% (Ireland: 68%) say aspects of their company’s culture hold them back from being as innovative as they want to / can be.

The report also gives businesses a guide on how they can course-correct these issues, highlighting both opportunities to innovate more as well as the barriers that impact innovation.

Process-primed innovation

In addition to people-specific changes, businesses should also look at how they can improve their processes around innovation. The prime barrier to innovation for respondents’ teams is a lack of time to innovate, which underscores the importance of senior leaders modelling prioritisation. Presently, 68% (Ireland: 53%) of respondents say their leaders are more focused on the day-to-day running of the business than innovation. Without true, visible commitment at a leadership level, ambitious, skilled individuals can’t achieve their full potential on innovation.

Providing more structure around innovation can also lead to better outcomes. While by its nature, innovation may be seen as an organic, ad-hoc pursuit, 63% (Ireland: 50%) of Innovation Leaders and Adopters say their innovation is driven by special, dedicated projects.

Technology-primed innovation

The study findings point to the power of technology to enable innovation, and the consequences of falling behind. The vast majority (86%; Ireland: 80%) are actively seeking out technologies to help them realise their innovation goal. Conversely 57% (Ireland: 61%) believe their technology is not cutting-edge and fear they will fall behind their competitors.

The study also explores where organisations are making gains and facing obstacles, across five technology catalysts for innovation: multicloud, edge, modern data infrastructure, anywhere-work and cybersecurity. In nearly all areas, the greatest stumbling block to unlocking that potential is complexity.

These struggles are evident in the top cited global technology obstacles to innovation:

  1. Growing cloud costs
  2. Difficulties integrating the overall business architecture with the IT infrastructure architecture
  3. Time and money spent to migrate apps to new cloud environments
  4. Cybersecurity threats: can’t innovate with data and insecure edge devices
  5. Lack of IT infrastructure to meet and process data at the edge

 

“In the context of non-stop change and uncertainty, it’s never been more important for Irish businesses to innovate. Resilient organisations with a culture of innovation are best placed to drive growth and compete internationally,” says Jason Ward, Vice President and Managing Director, Dell Technologies Ireland.

“The new Dell Technologies Innovation Index showcases that businesses across Ireland can innovate at speed once they have the right people, processes and technology. It’s clear from the research that small, small, practical ideas can create a ripple effect that leads to greater productivity, profitability and purpose. By embracing breakthrough technologies, building a culture where learning through failure is encouraged and embedding data-driven processes at every level, Irish businesses can become global innovation leaders.”

To support organisations on their innovation journey, Dell Technologies will share “lessons from Innovation Leaders and Adopters”. Visit www.dell.com/innovationindex for more information and read our executive summary report.