Dell, Microsoft Tout New Collaboration Plans

Dell Technologies and Microsoft Azure are working together to make it easier for partners to source joint solutions.

Dayne Turbitt, SVP and general manager, Dell Technologies, revealed that he is pushing for closer collaboration between the vendors. The result will be the introduction of more hardware-software combinations of “cloud appliances” for partners.

Dell’s Dayne Turbitt

“It’s easy when you buy a laptop — it comes with a Windows license. My partners resell it; it’s easy. In the future, will there be an Azure component embedded in that piece of hyperconverged infrastructure that you buy? Like an appliance with Microsoft built in? For sure.”

Turbitt says the new approach will make it easier for partners to sell Dell and Microsoft.

“Go back 20 years, they were buying hard drives and motherboards and stitching it together. Now they buy it as a package. That makes life easier for IT professionals. Just plug and play and off you go — especially as you push to the edge.”

The exec said we will start to see more and more “cloud inside” appliances.

“We’re working on some developments, which you’ll see in the upcoming product releases,” he said.

Easier for Partners

Partners are surprised but welcome the push for greater collaboration between Dell and Microsoft, said Turbitt.

“In our partner ecosystem, we have the likes of Kyndryl, we have Computacenter, we have CAE. “They have Dell practices and Microsoft practices. “I’ve been [saying] to the [Dell] Partner Advisory Board, ‘Guys, we might want to connect these two.’

“They’re excited because they’ve already made a big bet on Microsoft, and they’ve made a big bet in Dell. I’m super excited about the opportunity for the channel,” he added. “Because we depend on the channel to service our clients.”

Microsoft’s Michael Wignall

“It will make it easier for the channel to work with us. It’ll make it easier from a technology perspective,” added Michael Wignall, Azure business lead, Microsoft. “We’re also talking [about] the same thing to our clients, and so we’ll be talking about the opportunity together.”

The execs were speaking at the launch of Dell’s $5 million EMEA Executive Briefing Centre (EBC) in London. Its 10th centre globally, the EBC gives a further boost for London as a hub for Dell’s EMEA business.