Dell Technologies is Committed to Innovating and Creating Technologies
Advanced technology plays a vital role helping companies adapt quickly, stay agile and best serve their customers in an increasingly digital world. With the accelerated pace of digital transformation, progress can only be made when we push relentlessly to innovate, improve and advance. Dell Technologies believes that, by harnessing the transformative power of technology, businesses can build the secure digital foundation needed to be ready for what’s next. During an interaction with Vidushi, Ramesh Jampula, Vice President, IT, India and APJC Regional CIO, Dell Technologies discussed about technologies that drive the need for specialized infrastructure to handle resource-intensive workloads in the multi-cloud world.
How is technology a key enabler for companies looking to adapt quickly and stay agile in today’s digital world? What specific solutions or strategies does Dell Technologies offer to support businesses in this endeavor?
Unlocking the potential of digital transformation for many key industries and sectors is no longer an aspiration but a necessity to future-proof, secure, and flourish in the years ahead. Innovation can help organizations deliver new products and services, automate repetitive processes, and ultimately improve performance. It can also help make the lives of consumers and employees more efficient, enriching and stimulating.
Digital transformation is essential for business growth because it helps organizations keep up with the latest technology trends, build smarter products, reach new markets, and improve operational efficiency. Dell Digital, our IT organization, is leading our digital transformation journey. Built on our solutions, Dell Digital is reimagining how it does business to meet everchanging needs, driving innovation and creating a cultural shift throughout the company. At Dell Technologies, we support our customers with the technology expertise, end-to-end solutions, world-class services and relentless spirit that will stop at nothing to help them harness the transformative power of technology for the needs of their organization and the demands of our 24/7 digital economy.
- Addressing the digital imperative – As businesses across the globe continue to make digital transformation a priority, Dell continues to focus on key challenges and needs. What’s clear is that digital transformation will continue to gain momentum. IDC predicts that by 2024, more than 50% of all IT spending will focus directly on digital transformation and innovation initiatives (up from 31%)
- Modernizing IT, applications and delivering a cloud operation model – Modernizing IT infrastructure enables businesses to become more agile, productive and competitive. A key factor is the ability to leverage cloud-native technologies like containers and Kubernetes to accelerate micro-service applications development and delivery
- Integration that powers digital future – At Dell, we are focused on helping customers to achieve their goals, we offer a unique combination of infrastructure and application delivery and management solutions that make IT scalable, efficient, secure and sustainable. We have solutions designed for the workspace, app modernization, multicloud and edge. Many of our offerings support enterprise, mid-market, industry-specific, and other environments. Operating together, these solutions make it easier for businesses to harness the power of technology to drive it forward
Dell is determined to continuously enhance and broaden its offerings to support businesses in their digital transformation efforts. We are committed to innovating and creating technologies that simplify the customer experience and promote advancement.
AI is an essential component for businesses and industries. How is Dell Technologies facilitating its customers with the right infrastructure for AI workloads, and what unique advantages does Dell bring to the table in this domain?
The growth of artificial intelligence (AI) applications and use cases is astounding, impacting nearly all facets of business and personal lives. Hence, it requires significant amounts of computational power and storage and often involves the use of specialized accelerators such as GPUs. Also, high-speed networking solutions are important to minimize latency during distributed training. By carefully considering these requirements, businesses can build and deploy generative AI models that are fast, efficient, and accurate.
There are many important considerations regarding the various hardware infrastructure components for AI workloads, including high performance computing, high-speed networking, and scalable, high-capacity, and low-latency storage, to name a few. Some of the infrastructure components are listed below:
- Compute: Generative AI models require significant amounts of computational power, particularly during the training phase, because they typically involve large-scale matrix multiplication and other computationally intensive operations
- Accelerators: As mentioned earlier, accelerators such as GPUs are often used to expedite the training process. These accelerators are designed specifically for parallel processing of large amounts of data, making them well-suited for the matrix multiplication and other operations required by generative AI models
- Storage: Generative AI models can be sizable, with many parameters and intermediate outputs. This volume means that the models require significant amounts of storage to hold all the data. Scalable, high-capacity, and low-latency storage components for both file object and file store are essential in AI systems
- Networking: Networking is an important consideration for generative AI, particularly in distributed training scenarios. High-speed networking solutions such as InfiniBand or RDMA are often used to minimize the latency of these communications and significantly improve the performance of the training process
The as-a-service model is gaining prominence. Could you discuss the emergence and importance of this model in the tech industry, and how Dell Technologies is participating in this shift to deliver value to its clients?
Organizations all around the world are going digital in order to modernize operations and foster innovation. IT leaders want technology solutions that simplifies their operations, offer the most flexibility, and empower them to run their business on their terms. Never has the need for agility been more profound than in the past years, especially with rapidly changing dynamics forcing organizations to adapt quickly. Enterprises have increasingly turned to as-a-Service models to gain the agility and cost predictability required to stay competitive amid unpredictable circumstances.
One of the main advantages of as-a-service model is that it allows companies to reduce their capital expenditures and shift to a more predictable, operating expense-based model. This can help businesses better manage their cash flow and reduce the risk of investing in technology that may become obsolete quickly.
Dell Technologies had launched Project APEX earlier, a breakthrough portfolio of as-a-Service offerings that simplifies digital transformation by increasing IT agility and control. APEX is a radically simplified technology experience, delivering as-a-Service infrastructure wherever it is needed. Building on Dell’s as-a-Service expertise, Dell Technologies APEX reduces the time and complexity of acquiring, managing, maintaining and servicing physical IT infrastructure. Customers can scale IT as needed to launch new applications, kickstart new projects, and address the changing needs of their organizations – all managed by Dell and accessed through a single console. We are focused on what we can control – execution, relative performance, prudent cost management and delivering for customers.
With the rise of AI and automation, what types of skills and competencies should technology professionals focus on to stay relevant and competitive in the ever-evolving tech landscape?
AI and Automation are dramatically reshaping industries and reinventing the future. AI allows organizations to improve productivity, reduce risk, move faster, and gain deeper insights and value from their data. As digital innovation continues to transform the workplace, enterprises are focused on adopting solutions that will power the ‘Future of Work’. These continuous advancements will require new skills and capabilities for employees to excel in current as well as future work environments. Generative AI skills are in short supply, so many customers have a critical need to build the skills to deploy and manage GenAI platforms. Dell Generative AI Scaling Services address operational concerns with expert residents, Education Services for AI and custom managed services.
Artificial intelligence is the ability of a digital system to perform tasks commonly accomplished by humans. This includes things like solving complex problems, automating tasks, improving decision-making and enhancing efficiency and productivity. It is an evolving relationship between people and machines. AI fluency is critical in today’s world, leveraging machine intelligence to manage workflows and accomplish tasks as well as knowing the limitations. Team members should focus more on upskilling and re-skilling themselves to stay up-to-date and relevant in the industry. Organizations need to invest in developing human capital, enabling team members to acquire new skills in this data-driven economy. Here are a few skills that would set them to this path:
- Data Analytics
- Coding
- Critical and innovative thinking
- Cybersecurity
- Adaptability to new changes
- Understanding and effectively leveraging new technologies like multicloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML)
Are there any upcoming innovations or trends you can share to give us a glimpse of what we can expect in the tech industry?
At Dell Technologies, we are committed to creating technologies that drive human progress. With hyperconnectivity spanning multiple cloud environments and the edge, we now have data everywhere. Simply put, it’s growing not only in quantity but in value every day.
Some of the continued themes of innovations or tech trends that we see include: advances in AI/ML, data continues to be one of the most valuable assets, democratized Generative AI, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, IoT and Edge Computing, sustainable technology and AI-augmented development.
At the forefront of this advancement and growth, we will expect technology to make our lives easier, and our businesses more successful. We will expect technology to help us advance forward in big areas from education to healthcare to government services and beyond. As a result, we will see essential technologies and their corresponding user experiences rise to meet the challenge.
In the context of digital transformation, how do emerging technologies like IoT, multi-cloud, edge computing, and AI/ML play a role in accelerating a company’s growth and innovation? Can you provide examples of how Dell Technologies is leveraging these technologies for its customers?
Businesses and organizations have varying needs that influence their IT strategies, but they all share common goals of reducing costs, increasing flexibility, and creating new value. The Edge is a crucial component in achieving these goals, as it is changing how people and machines interact with digital services. By processing data closer to where it is generated, the Edge enables new experiences, increases efficiency and improves control for businesses. As the world becomes more connected and IoT, AI/ML becomes more prevalent, the Edge provides a significant opportunity for businesses to create new value.
The utilization of AI/ML is becoming more widespread as companies seek to take advantage of the benefits these technologies offer. At Dell, we have been exploring this field and currently have multiple projects and products focused on using AI to improve our business. We are observing similar patterns among our customers, and in coming years, we expect to see more significant impacts of AI/ML.
We are dedicated to assisting our customers in achieving their goals by utilizing technology most securely and efficiently. We are also focused on helping our customers navigate the rapidly changing landscape of multicloud environment and take advantage of the opportunities it presents. Multicloud has emerged as a key strategy for companies looking to harness the power of the cloud to drive their digital transformations. As data-driven outcomes become more important, we see a growing need for multicloud services that can help companies leverage the best of different cloud providers. With a strong track record of delivering innovative solutions, Dell is well-poised to help customers navigate the multicloud world.
By harnessing the transformative power of technology, businesses can build the secure digital foundation needed to be ready for what’s next. These technologies are also driving the need for specialized infrastructure to handle resource-intensive workloads, and at Dell, we are well-positioned to meet this need with our advanced servers and storage solutions.
