Dell Technologies World: The Best of Michael Dell's Keynote
“We prevented a complete societal economic meltdown; that isn’t hyperbole," said Michael Dell.
![Michael Dell at Dell Tech World Virtual feature Michael Dell at Dell Tech World Virtual feature](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt3db90dcc691ebc6e/65245289e3333d963d3c864c/Michael-Dell-at-Dell-Tech-World-Virtual-feature.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Dell Technologies
To kick things off in his Dell Technologies World virtual keynote, Michael Dell reflected on the changes the past year has brought. He said technology firms like Dell Technologies helped to avoid “a complete societal economic meltdown.”
“I stand here, grateful for our role in keeping your organizations up and running and delivering for your customers. For your patients, your students and your citizens. Together, we prevented a complete societal economic meltdown; that isn’t hyperbole. It’s what we as technologists did for the world since the shutdowns begin.
“It was the culmination of decades of work, combined with a burst of innovation, reinvention, reengineering, that has been incredible. Scope and speed. Technology is no longer the IT department; it’s now the entire organization. It’s how you enable everything. And we’ve never been more central or more relevant, and I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of this community.”
A subject that several of the executive speakers focused on during the keynote was the increasing importance of edge computing.
“Momentum is building toward a hybrid distributed future, fueled by data analytics that are processed in real time. And increasingly, it’s a future that will unfold at the Edge,” said Dell.
Citing Gartner, he said that 10% of data is processed outside of the data center today. However, 75% of will be processed outside of a traditional data center or cloud by 2025.
“That data will be generated in the real world, at the edge. To transform that data into outcomes will require real-time analytics and intelligence. In fact, it’s estimated that more than $700 billion in capex will be spent within the next decade on edge infrastructure.”
He said Dell was “integrating and innovating edge solutions” with VMware and across its capabilities and partner ecosystems.
“You have consistent infrastructure and operations from the public cloud to the private cloud to colocation, and the edge. Together, Dell Technologies and VMware are the multicloud platform for digital transformation.”
Next, Dell described the PC as “the most important device in the hybrid world … the PC is our lifeline.”
“We couldn’t go out into the world; the world came to us through our PCs,” he said. “Hybrid living requires a modern PC experience: Zoom calls, gaming, virtual collaboration.”
In 2020, Dell shipped 142,827 PCs, every day. That’s 5951 every hour, 99 every minute, 1.65 PCs every second, every day.
However, Dell noted it was “painfully apparent” there are still many people without technology who could benefit from it.
“In the U.S. alone, there are 10 million students without a PC. Ten million in Japan, and over 40 million students in Western Europe without a PC. Increasingly, it takes a one-to-one person-to-PC ratio to be connected in today’s world. There is a huge opportunity – some would say a mandate – to close this gap.”
The CEO revealed that 60% of Dell employees will remain in hybrid and remote work situations post COVID-19.
“People who never imagined they could work from home quickly realize that work isn’t the place. It’s an outcome that they can achieve from anywhere, and they like it,” he said.
“It’s good for your people and good for your company. People are flipping the narrative on the work-life balance. It’s now life-work. As a company, we’re able to move faster, make decisions faster, respond to you faster, and make changes faster inside our company. We can open the aperture on talent without geographical limitations and engage underrepresented populations and communities around the world. Greater diversity means a broader perspective.”
Dell said new skill sets are needed for cloud, edge and as-a-service. But now recruiting and retaining talent from anywhere is possible.
“We can level the playing field for the opportunity and the strength of our company,” he said.
Dell said that while 2020 “brought great loss,” it delivered a glimpse of what technology can make possible for a better future. “And we’re not going back.”
He cited McKinsey figures that show investment in computer equipment grew 17% in 2020’s fourth quarter. Dell’s own research shows that 80% of organizations globally have fast-tracked digital transformation programs. Also, customers that accelerated their digital transformation investments “have weathered 2020 better than those who did not.”
“Dell services have been instrumental in helping you move to remote work and automate processes. This has all been at a time when the power of our supply chain has been a major differentiator. I am proud of how we’ve been able to deliver for you during your time of need.”
He said Dell Technologies has been on its own transformational journey.
“More than 90% of our team members went remote in a weekend. It worked. We scaled up our VPN infrastructure in record time, to keep working and serving you. I could not be happier with how our teams responded as they continue to deliver customer-inspired innovation in the height of a global pandemic.”
Over 37 years, Dell has shipped more than 800 million PCs, 37 million servers, and 160 million terabytes of storage. It has filed more than 32,000 patents worldwide.
The big launch of the event has been Apex, Dell’s new as-a-service consumption model. Apex enables customers to procure Dell EMC infrastructure like cloud services.
In a briefing with journalists, Dell said he was “excited for technology that’s easier to operate and easier to consume. That’s outcome-oriented. That’s built intelligently to move your data, compute and workloads where you need them, which increasingly will be at the edge.”
He described Dell’s road map as “a business model transformation.”
“The next step is everything-as-a-service. So we’re excited about this. It’s a whole new chapter for our company. We’ve had a history of reinventing the business, time and time again. This is just the latest version of that.”
The big launch of the event has been Apex, Dell’s new as-a-service consumption model. Apex enables customers to procure Dell EMC infrastructure like cloud services.
In a briefing with journalists, Dell said he was “excited for technology that’s easier to operate and easier to consume. That’s outcome-oriented. That’s built intelligently to move your data, compute and workloads where you need them, which increasingly will be at the edge.”
He described Dell’s road map as “a business model transformation.”
“The next step is everything-as-a-service. So we’re excited about this. It’s a whole new chapter for our company. We’ve had a history of reinventing the business, time and time again. This is just the latest version of that.”
DELL TECHNOLOGIES WORLD — Dell Technologies on Wednesday kicked off its second virtual conference, Dell Technologies World. Its first keynote, entitled “Moving Forward – Together,” saw CEO Michael Dell take to the stage.
Reflecting on the last year, he praised technology for saving society from economic meltdown.
“It’s been a year of humanity, and a year of humility, a year of desperation and inspiration,” he said. “A year of loss and learning about what we are, about what we can be in the future, and about what we can build together.”
He talked investments in technologies like edge computing, and the launch of Apex, Dell’s new as-a-service consumption model.
The CEO explained how the firm helped customers over the past year — not least some staggering figures around PCs shipped. Dell also revealed the company’s own plans for remote working post-COVID-19.
The slideshow above features the highlights of Dell’s speech and what it all might mean to partners.
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