Dell arms partners with refreshed server range
With signs that more data is being generated at the edge, the vendor is releasing a range of products to meet that demand
Dell has refreshed its PowerEdge portfolio, with 17 fresh servers being rolled out, as it looks to support customers planning to upgrade their infrastructure.
The vendor has pitched the latest products as ones that will help customers exploit the “next generation” technology and move further down the path to using autonomous infrastructure.
Ravi Pendekanti, senior vice-president for server solutions product management and marketing at Dell Technologies, said that customer needs were changing and that it had to react by arming them with more powerful servers.
“If you look at maybe 10 years ago it was said that almost 75% of data was being created in the datacentres. Today, that has flipped, and 75% of data will be processed outside of a traditional datacentre,” he said. “If you look at the distributed architectures out there, this is going to be further extended upon,” he added, referencing the growth in IoT and 5G.
He said that the core of data creation had moved but so had the demands on the technology, and that users were now looking for servers that could deal with AI and machine learning.
“We’ve noticed that about 53%, over half, of our customers are implementing some form of AI,” he said.
That view of a changing world was backed up by market watchers, with Patrick Moorhead, founder and president of Moor Insights & Strategy, also charting changes. “Infrastructure has long been evolving beyond the datacentre, and workloads at the edge are only becoming more complex.”
Good news for channel partners
Pendekanti added that the products were also good news for channel partners, and that it was investing to make sure they had access to the technology to show it off to customers in solution centres.
Adding more response around the channel benefits, Rob Tomlin, vice-president for UK channel at Dell Technologies, said data needs were changing and that its partners need the tools to help customers react.
“We are at the crux of a monumental data era,” he said. “We’re witnessing a volume, variety and velocity of data never seen before, generated in more disparate locations than we ever could have imagined. Businesses need to adapt to that. From a Channel perspective, Partners need to be on hand with business-critical advice and the latest technological innovations in their arsenal to help their customers succeed.
“According to Gartner, by 2025, 75% of enterprise-generated data will be created and processed at the edge, representing a massive opportunity for channel partners. With the Dell EMC PowerEdge portfolio, customers will be able to analyse and act on data wherever it resides, innovate faster, and ultimately drive better business outcomes,” said Tomlin.
“In 2021, our channel partners will be, as they always are, integral to our success,” he said. “Our newly launched go-to-market sales engagement model, Power Up for Partners, reflects strategically selected opportunities where leveraging a partner’s skills and existing customer relationship is likely to be the best route to penetrating new lines of business.”
