The third annual EMEA Dell Technology Camp has officially come to a close. More than 400 press, analysts, customers and Dell team members were given the opportunity to speak with Dell and partner experts – including Intel and Microsoft about our latest products and solutions portfolio alongside simulated environments.
Quite a bit of the discussion at this year’s event yielded itself to Dell’s strategic direction and how we’re forging ahead – so on that note, I’d have to say that my top five impressions, in no particular order, are:
1) Feedback from attendees were we’ve got the strongest-ever selection of products, services and solutions – unique to this year’s Tech Camp was the inclusion of both our commercial and consumer portfolios. Just to name a few…
- For the public sector, we featured a range of solutions including the cloud-based ‘Virtual Learning’ environment for education and Mobile Clinical Computing desktop virtualization solution for healthcare.
- In the data center, efficiency was the name of the game with virtualization and storage solutions. For virtualization, Dell’s vStart offering accelerates and simplifies virtualization adoption by providing an easy way to purchase a complete virtual infrastructure solution ready to run physical and virtual workloads. Dell’s Fluid Data storage solutions optimize efficiency, agility and resiliency to slash storage costs up to 80 percent, scale on a single platform and secure data against downtime and disaster.
- Now the ‘bright and shiny’ – the gaming den featured Alienware’s rich history of innovation and the very latest technology to excite gamers and performance enthusiasts. The connected living room brought to life how every home can achieve the ultimate entertainment experience.
2) Customers are looking for innovative ways to transform their data center – our approach of leveraging what customers have while also providing the bridge to the future is perceived as unique within the industry.
- For example, Dell’s Virtual Integrated System helps customers capitalize on the efficiencies of the Virtual Era with converged architectures that also preserve and fully leverage existing data center infrastructures without creating technology silos or undertaking a rip-and-replace strategy. With VIS, customers can dynamically scale their environments up or down to match the variability of workloads.
3) Customers are placing value on our single point of accountability for delivering solutions – our design principles of Open, Capable and Affordable resonates with customers who want choice and the ability to pick ‘best in breed.’ But with Dell, once the choice has been made, customers can trust us to be the one provider to give them the service necessary to build a complete solution and the post-sales services to support the environment.
- For example, if a customer needs to upgrade an exchange server environment, once the hardware is determined through choice, Dell can provide them with the services to build the whole ecosystem – and remain accountable for the system post sale.
4) We’ve taken our partnerships to the next level – Dell is actively working with its partners to jointly develop solutions that drive efficiency for customers.
- With Microsoft, we’ve embarked on a strategic initiative to drive growth of and deliver integrated management and virtualization solutions. Together, we offer a cost-effective approach that delivers lower total cost of ownership and improved management integration across the physical and virtual layers – which includes the combination of Dell‘s Virtual Integrated System, Dell Advanced Infrastructure Manager and System Center with Microsoft Windows Server 2000 Hyper-V R2.
5) The convergence of consumer and commercial devices is happening even faster than originally anticipated – due to the convergence of consumer and enterprise computing, knowledge workers today want business-class tools with consumer appeal.
- New to Tech Camp, the design lab team discussed Dell’s overall design philosophy and how we’ve incorporated customer feedback to re-engineer products that have the right level of aesthetic appeal and durability. And, based on these important design principles, we showcased products from across our consumer and business client portfolios. In doing so, we proved that we have a plethora of devices available to suit any task, job or organization.
- But, equally important, customers are challenged to identify and implement the necessary technologies to manage these devices. As a result, our capabilities in security, desktop virtualization and systems management were well received.
Overall verdict – I think it was a fantastic event where a wealth of information was shared and learned. Our message continues to resonate with customers and influencers alike. They appreciate our drive for efficiency and our Open, Capable and Affordable approach to delivering the right choice for customers.
You can check out more of my thoughts below following a video interview with Darren Waters
Co-sponsor and partner Intel have also included a series of videos and blogs on their Intel IT Galaxy community. Please also check out our YouTube channel for more video footage and Flickr for images from the event.
