Achieving Multi-Cloud Flexibility

Any technology strategy should be based on what customers are looking for. Dell Technologies has long listened to customers, understanding their needs and defining our strategy, products and solutions to address them.

The definition and the usage of the term cloud has been hotly debated for the past decade, changing significantly over the years from access to computing resources over the internet to now reflecting an operating model designed to help IT. One that is agile and delivers IT as a service, while reducing costs through efficiencies, and managing risk, regardless of locality. And now, one that can consistently manage cloud operations from on premises to cloud instances off premises in multiple public clouds – out to the edge – all from a single location.

According to IDC, the largest data center challenge companies currently face is developing a multi-cloud strategy with more than 70 percent of companies using more than one type of cloud environment. Companies are running multiple cloud environments to optimize application and data performance in the context of a much larger IT ecosystem, which introduces another set of challenges with inconsistent operations and management across on and off-premises clouds.

Enter Dell Technologies, the operational hub of the hybrid multi-cloud future…TODAY…delivered through best-in-class software, infrastructure, services and solutions – including the acquisition and consumption of cloud that enables flexibility in planning the right mix of public, private, hybrid clouds customers need now and in the future. We’re helping companies manage the totality of their hybrid multi-cloud assets from a single operational hub hosted on our multi-cloud platform, which seamlessly combines Dell EMC infrastructure and VMware software that includes support of multiple public clouds, private cloud and traditional on-premises infrastructure. Dell’s broad array of consultative and implementation services and solutions complement this core cloud operating environment with security solutions and services, data management and protection solutions.

Our approach places our customers at the center of their cloud operations, offering consistency of operations and singular management across bare metal on-premises IT to multiple cloud instances. You may be asking how we do this today. First, it’s the result of the Dell Technologies family of businesses innovating to deliver solutions that help customers with their digital transformations. For example, there’s VMware, the core operational platform that centralizes management and orchestration software to define and bind together the hybrid multi-cloud environment across server, storage and network. This becomes the foundation for solutions including VxRail and VxBlock that can be combined with solutions like VMC on AWS and the broader VMware Cloud Provider Program (VCPP) ecosystem. Pivotal builds and manages cloud-native applications. And Boomi provides a data integration platform as a service offering programmable information mobility and transformation across a multi-hybrid cloud environment supporting hundreds of cloud-based and on premises applications and platforms.

Put all of this together with Dell EMC’s world-class infrastructure, within the Dell EMC Cloud Marketplace, with the best performance and tightest integration for VMware environments along with partners like AWS, Azure, Google and Virtustream on this multi-cloud journey. It’s the platform of choice for customers looking to solve their cloud operational challenges.

Bottom line, customers tell us they want control of their IT closer to “home.” This validates our point of view that customers’ cloud strategies should pull data and applications out of silos, to enable a hybrid, multi-cloud environment that speeds decision-making. Dell Technologies is uniquely positioned to help customers solve their data challenges and be in a position to take advantage of the intelligent world we’re moving toward.

Matt Baker

About the Author: Matt Baker

Matt Baker is Dell Technologies’ Senior Vice President of AI Strategy. Working closely with the Chief AI Officer, Matt partners across the company to understand domain-specific use cases, building, define and standardize future architectures, and integrate AI across the product portfolio. Following his tenure leading the Corporate Strategy Office, Matt was asked to go deep into the world of data science and artificial intelligence, working in partnership with Dell’s senior leadership team to drive Dell’s AI strategy and to make this game-changing technology more accessible for everyone. Matt is an 18-year Dell Technologies veteran. In addition to leading the Corporate Strategy Office for two years, he drove the company’s Infrastructure Solutions Group strategy team for ten. He has also directed the strategy behind Dell Technologies’ Storage business and held a variety of product management responsibilities. Prior to joining Dell in 2005, Matt held a number of diverse roles at Intel Corporation over a 10-year span. Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Political Science from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland.