Dell EMC World 2016: Dell EMC strengthens its position to modernise enterprises

Information Technology (IT) is moving from the backroom to become the business and  organisations must modernise, automate and transform to succeed in the new digital age. This was Dell EMC’s key message at Dell EMC World 2016.

At Dell EMC World 2016, Michael Dell – chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, said that the Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the world. “It’s moving from information technology to business technology,” he said adding that this development is unleashing a torrent of innovation where physical reality is transforming into digital technology.

“Information technology is becoming business technology.” – Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell EMC

As connected devices increase, a large number of futuristic new applications will be made possible such as driverless cars, drone delivery, nanobots for curing cancer and repairing cells and virtual reality and augmented reality to redefine work, learning and play.

Dell EMC, with its reputation as a trusted provider of essential infrastructure, is ideally positioned to modernise an organisation’s infrastructure with its flash storage technology, scale-out networks and software-defined networks, and automate systems with its infrastructure software using VMWare.  Instead of an organisation going to the cloud, Dell EMC can help them make on-premise infrastructure more competitive.

In a recent survey of 4,000 IT executives, “Ninety-two percent see digital transformation as being critical,” said David Goulden, president of the infrastructure solutions group at Dell EMC.

The software differentiation

He believes that their software offerings differentiates Dell EMC from the competition. “The availability of dense flash, high-speed ethernet technology and software-defined storage are the three drivers of change from converged to hyperconverged architecture,” he said.  Companies also benefit from the lower capital and operational cost of using this simplified technology.

Dell EMC announced a plethora of new technology at Dell EMC World  2016, that simplifies IT and helps organisations with the modernisation process. These include the VX Rail entry-level data centre offering that’s priced under USD$50,000 (affectionately called a data centre-in-a-box), the VXRack and the VMax 250F flash storage array.

It also announced enhancements to its data protection offerings which bundles data, threat mapping, identity protection and management into a one console offering.

All of these products are important as the portfolio is starting to be influenced by Dell CPUs and EMC storage coming together in a converged infrastructure.  “The challenge is going to be doing a really good job of communicating our value propositions to the customers who are interested in transforming their IT,” said David Webster, President, APJ Enterprise Business, Dell EMC.

Organisations in Asia Pacific and Japan have a huge appetite for reducing the cost of infrastructure and as a result VXRack and VXRail are going to be very popular in organisations and as a channel product.

“Our APJ channel partners are very excited about these products too as they can add a lot of value and differentiation to the base product,” he added.

In APJ the market is starting to shift towards an understanding of the impact that IT can have in enabling an organisation to change in the tech world. “You can’t become a relevant company unless you have the proper IT,” said Webster.

And this shift is being driven from the top down in organisations. “CEOs are looking at their industry sector and their competitors and there’s not one industry sector that has not been disrupted by a new entrant that is digitally oriented,” he said.

CEOs see this and realise that to stay relevant they must become digitally oriented too. This filters down to the CIO, who now has to step up and use technology to drive innovation within the company.

(This journalist is a guest of Dell EMC’s to Dell World 2016 in Austin, Texas)