Disclaimer: I recently attended Dell Technologies World 2019. My flights, accommodation and conference pass were paid for by Dell Technologies via the Media, Analysts and Influencers program. There is no requirement for me to blog about any of the content presented and I am not compensated in any way for my time at the event. Some materials presented were discussed under NDA and don’t form part of my blog posts, but could influence future discussions.
Here are my very rough notes from Tuesday’s General Session “Innovation to Unlock Your Digital Future” at Dell Technologies World 2019.
Jeff Clarke takes the stage. Dell is creating a substrate, with
- Dell Technologies Unified Workspace;
- Dell Technologies Cloud; and
- VMware Cloud on Dell EMC.
It’s the “Data Era”, and you need to focus on your “data capital”. IT has to modernise to meet the data needs of today and tomorrow. Dell is investing in data management and data services.
- Powerful and modern infrastructure to handle things like AI / ML
- You’ll need a hybrid cloud strategy for your multi-cloud strategy
- The edge is coming. 25% of all data volume will be real-time generated at the edge
- Software-defined
- It’s about a modern workforce experience
Five generations spanning the workforce today. Generation Z is the latest. Focus on workforce, IT, application, and security transformation.
[Customer testimonial video – Under Armour]
John Roese, President and CTO, takes the stage. We’re creating more data than we ever have before. That’s the fuel of the modern enterprise. But all the data and algorithms don’t matter if we can’t turn that into value quickly. You need the Cloud – core – edge working as a system
Edge
There are 2 types of edges. The first type are entities that are smart and mobile – people. Keeping them productive is a focus. A new range of laptops is announced – the 7000, 5000, 3000.
Rahul Tikoo takes the stage to talk with John about laptops …
And a new dock.
The second edge is dominated by IoT and sensors. We are redistributing IT back out into the real world – in hospitals, factories. 5G is about distributing compute into the edge. You need to be able to deliver IT anywhere it’s needed. And it needs to be hardened, resilient. Roese talks about Dell Technologies as being a strategic partner to most telcos. They’re helping companies building not just smart factories, but “insightful” factories.
The edge – it’s where most of the data is created and where most of the action happens.
Core
The core is becoming more distributed and multi-cloud is becoming important for workload migration.
- Scale up and scale out
- NVMe and SCM
- SW-defined
- Cloud-enabled
- Trusted
- Built-in AI/ML
From a PowerEdge perspective, Dell EMC announced the Dell EMC DSS 8440. You can add up to 10 accelerators, such as Nvidia GPUs.
Storage
From a storage perspective, there have been a few announcements, including
- A new Isilon model, and support for up to 58PB, and 252 nodes;
- PowerMax is now supports dual-ported storage class memory – using it as a primary tier of storage; and
- The new Unity XT range has been announced.
Craig Bernero takes the stage to talk about the XT and Dell EMC Cloud Storage Services. There’s a brief CloudIQ demo.
Data Protection
Beth Phalen takes the stage with John to talk about data protection. Data protection requirements are changing. They still have IDPA, DPS, and Data Domain. They now also have PowerProtect.
- X400 – Multi-dimensional data protection appliance
- Software-defined offering as well
- Scale out or “grow in place”
First ever all-flash data management appliance. PowerProtect demo.
Roese: “It’s not secondary storage – it’s protected, managed infrastructure”.
Networking
Strategy has been focus on the future. The Dell EMC networking range has now been rebranded as PowerSwitch.
Roese says they’ve always built products for the hybrid cloud. Dell are most used hardware and software to build clouds (public and private) – whatever that means. Chad Dunn takes the stage and talks about all things VxRail and Pivotal, including VxRail Analytical Consulting Engine (ACE).
Roese says “every industry will go through these transformations. You can’t execute it with just a great product, or a great data centre. You need a great modern essential infrastructure”.
Jeff Clarke comes back on stage. By next year we’ll have finished modernising the entire Dell EMC portfolio
[Customer testimonial video – Home Depot]
Cloud
Pat Gelsinger takes the stage and talks about the “superpowers of tech”
- Cloud
- Mobile
- AI / ML
- Edge / IoT
“If I take your AMEX, I can build a 10000-core supercomputer over the weekend. If I take Michael’s AMEX, I can build the world’s biggest super computer”
VMware’s Vision has been “any cloud, any application, any device”
3 laws of hybrid cloud
- Physics – low latency. You can’t do 250ms RTT if you want 50ms response time.
- Economics – intelligence at the edge
- Land – if it needs to be on-premises then you can’t take it to the public cloud
VxRail as a core unit of computing
CloudHealth
“Everyone needs to become a great software company”
VMware PKS
- Enterprise PKS
- Essential PKS
- Cloud PKS (Beta)
Laptop / edge announcements dominated the conversation, rather than some of the cool storage stuff. Interesting. I’ll have some more coverage of the storage and data protection announcements soon. 3 stars.