Technology must reflect our humanity and values: Michael Dell

“There is an explosion and tsunami of data that is sweeping us into the digital age. Data is our greatest asset and most important resource. Data is unlike any other resource because it is not only completely renewable, it is also inexhaustible, and we just keep making more of it faster and faster,” said Michael Dell, CEO and Chairman of Dell technologies, as he opened Dell Technologies’ annual conference in Las Vegas, US, to more than 14,000 partners and customers.

“Turning that data into action and progress and outcomes and success is the heart of digital transformation,” he added. To exploit newer and innovative technologies, Dell Technologies has invested in over 90 startups around the world (including in India), and these investments are not a "location-specific strategy” but “a thematic strategy” said Dell.

He spoke about the power of technology, and harnessing it for the good. “Technology must reflect our humanity and our values,”he said. The event saw several announcements for partners, customers and all those involved in emerging technologies. The big news, though, was the launch of Dell Technologies Cloud to help businesses deploy and manage hybrid cloud environments. The event saw several new partnerships being unveiled to provide better cloud solutions, transform the way we work, exploit edge computing and 5G, and explore AI and IoT.

The focus of the conference was on transformation, so when YourStory asked Dell what, according to him, defined real transformation; he summed it up in one word: infrastructure.

Here are the top takeaways from Dell Technologies World, and how it can impactyour business. 

Dell Technologies, Microsoft and VMWare become cloud partners

Dell technologies, VMWare and Microsoft are combining their data centre, workplace solutions and cloud technologies, and this will help customers accelerate digital transformation. Through this collaboration, the companies will deliver a fully native VMware cloud infrastructure on Microsoft Azure. Additionally, joint Microsoft 365 and VMware Workspace ONE customers will be able to manage Office 365 across devices through cloud-based integration with Microsoft Intune and Azure Active Directory.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talks about the importance of digital transformation

“Together with Dell Technologies and VMware, we are providing our mutual customers with an integrated cloud experience and digital workplace solutions to open up new opportunities and meet their evolving needs,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft, who joined Michael Dell and Pat Gelsinger, CEO, VMware, in announcing the partnership.

The companies also said they aim to better tap into the potential of technologies like artificial intelligence and Internet of Things.

Also read: Microsoft announces new tools to ensure smoother and more secure elections

New cloud solutions, by Dell EMC and VMware

More and more companies are shifting to hybrid cloud to ensure seamless migration of workloads. According to IDC, more than 70 percent companies are using multiple cloud environments to manage their data. The shift to hybrid cloud is driven by the need to create a more flexible and agile environment for a business without interrupting its core activities.

Companies, however, do face the challenge of developing a multi-cloud strategy for their business. Dell Technologies unveiled Dell Technologies Cloud, a new set of cloud infrastructure solutions to make hybrid cloud environments simpler to deploy and manage. Combining VMware’s virtualisation power and Dell EMC’s infrastructure, Dell Technologies Cloud offers infrastructure and operations for IT resourcesacross public and private clouds and the edge, regardless of location. The cloud platforms are available globally now.

“Cloud is not a destination; it’s an operating model. With Dell Technologies Cloud and joint engineering between Dell EMC and VMware, we are offering a unified hybrid cloud experience. This provides consistent infrastructure and operations at every location the cloud resides—from on-premises data centres to public clouds and the emerging edge,”said Jeff Clarke, vice chairman of products and operations, Dell Technologies.

VMware also announced its cloud service, VMware Cloud, was available on Dell EMC, and would offer customers simple, secure and scalable infrastructure delivered as a service on on-premises data centres and edge locations. This will help businesses consume infrastructurelike a public cloud service, in data centres and edge environments, allowing IT organisations to eliminate the need for basic taskssuch as infrastructure management and maintenancewith a subscription-based pricing.

This Dell Technologies Cloud Data Center-as-a-Servicewill be available in the second half of 2019.

Simplifying the future of work

How often does it happen that when an employee joins a company, the induction extends on because a new laptop has not arrived, or is getting updated, or the IT team needs to add security features?

The future of work is one where there is flexibility to work anytime and anywhere. In response to the growing demands of companies to have a seamless experience for their employees, and to allow IT teams to focus on matters requiring their expertise, Dell Technologies introduced Unified Workspace.

Unified Workspace is an intelligent solution to ensure employees are productive from day one. Itstudies customers’ specific usage and provides specific applications and devices that meet their needs. These personalised devices are delivered to users pre-configured with all applications and security features.

Unified Workspace integrates solutions across Dell devices and services, VMware and Secureworks to deliver smooth end-user experience.

The approach helps IT deploy, secure, manage and support virtually all devices from the cloud. “The core agenda of any organisation is empowering their employees,” said Michael Dell.

Testing and development of 5G use cases and business models

Dell Technologies and Orange, one of the largest mobile and internet operators, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly explore key technology areas for distributed cloud architectures to deliver the real-time Edge use cases and the new services opportunities that 5G will create.

The companies will collaborate on meeting demands for new distributed architectures for 5G that combine the best of cloud and mobility. They will explore the development of AI/ML-enabled software to support remote automation of multi-technology and Edge infrastructure platforms supporting telco environmental requirements.

“We believe it’s essential to prepare the ecosystem for telco use cases while progressing in our knowledge of the future technologies. Orange expects from this partnership with Dell EMC not only technical but also business outcomes in order to fuel our strategy towards Multi-access edge computing transformation,” Said Stéphane Demartis, vice president, Orange, Corporate Cloud Infrastructure.

AI to tackle unconscious biases

Often, unconscious biases tend to creep in and impact judgement. There is a constant need to have impartial decision-making and more so when it comes to hiring. Brian Reaves, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Dell Technologies, spoke to the media and analysts during a session at Dell Technologies Worldabout the power of diverse teams saying, “best thinking comes from diverse teams” and explained what Dell Technologies was doing to overcome biases in hiring.

To create more diverse teams, empower women and have balanced representation of minorities, Brian revealed some innovations in the diversity and inclusion chapter being used internally. “Dell has teamed with HR consultancy Mercer to build an artificial intelligence platform that can understand the impact of unconscious bias in hiring new talent. The idea is to use AI in hiring to ensure biases are not reflected,” he said.

“We are experimenting inside Dell Technologies' human resources on how we can make sure that biases are not reflected in our activities and we are using AI to enable that…We all have to work together to make sure that these new technologies reflect our humanity, our ingenuity and our genius and not emphasis our frailties and our biases,” added Dell.

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