Dell reacts to latest IT challenges, outlining future data centre and cloud objectives
Fri 19 Sep 2014
In its Solutions Summit in Brussels yesterday, Dell outlined its future data centre and cloud strategies based on four main imperatives; transform, connect, inform and protect.
Michael Dell, founder and chief executive of Dell, who presented the objectives, said that the company would seek to tackle recent IT challenges, including security concerns, changes to software-defined networking, as well as looking at new approaches to big data and the internet of things (IoT).
Speaking about the first target area ‘transformation’, Dell revealed that efforts would be made to develop a future-proof software-defined data centre and cloud model. He promised that this would be facilitated by its strong industry-spanning partnerships and its platform-agnostic technologies.
“We have no legacy architecture to protect, so we are all about new ways of doing things – microprocessor-based, cloud-based infrastructures,” Dell explained.
Dell vice president Tony Parkinson emphasised that flexibility is key for customers looking for an alternative to supplier lock-in systems.
“We have been in the server business for about 20 years and our newest, 13th-generation PowerEdge server family is inspired by customers’ needs,” Dell added.
Dell’s r730-xd from its PowerEdge range features 36 microprocessor cores, 100TB capacity in a 2U platform, and is near-field communication (NFC) enabled.
“It has huge RAM capabilities and users can run Oracle, VMware, Hadoop – anything they want,” he highlighted in his keynote address.
Regarding its data centre products and services, including the PowerEdge portfolio, Dell emphasised how they were looking to shape the future of business IT by improving and investing in this area.
“Datacentres are changing really quickly to converged infrastructure because of the enormous improvements in microprocessors.
“Virtualisation is running across the entire datacentre – so all layers of storage, network and servers are becoming virtualised. All elements in the datacentre, including network, are becoming applications running in virtual machines,” Dell said.
“Everything is going to the cloud. We’re seeing this idea of the integrated appliance taking hold,” he continued.
Finally, Dell focused on developments within the big data and IoT space, as well as insisting that security would remain at the core of Dell’s data centre and cloud operations.
“Security is a top concern for CIOs all over the world […] When we ask customers what is keeping you up at night, they say security,” said Dell.
In response to these concerns, Dell announced it would be researching and promoting its security services to help its customers secure their data, stored in data centres and cloud services such as Dropbox.
