Secure, Isolate and Recover Critical Data with Google Cloud

As critical data expands across multiple platforms and multiple clouds, it becomes an easy target for cyberattacks. These fears are consistent with those found in the 2022 Global Data Protection Index, which reported that 67% of IT decision makers are not confident that all business-critical data can be recovered after a destructive cyberattack. Regardless of your data location and industry, you still need strategies to reduce the impact of cyberattacks and improve cyber resiliency.

Customers want to unlock the benefits of multicloud with flexibility and choice, while still protecting their organization from ransomware and cyberattacks. To address this demand, Dell Technologies has expanded the availability of cyber recovery offerings so organizations can increase cyber-resiliency in the Google public cloud.

PowerProtect Cyber Recovery for Google Cloud lets organizations deploy an isolated cyber vault in the Google cloud so they can securely protect and isolate data away from a ransomware attack. Unlike standard backup solutions, this isolated vault locks down management interfaces, requiring separate security credentials and multi-factor authentication for access. Completely managed from within the vault in Google. If an attack occurs, it provides flexible recovery options, including recovery within the data center, a new Google private network or a Google environment not impacted by the cyberattack to best support an organization’s needs.

PowerProtect Cyber Recovery for Google Cloud uses proven capabilities similar to Dell Technologies’ on-premises version but adapted to leverage the power of Google. The PowerProtect Cyber Recovery software, which automates and orchestrates the data vaulting process, runs within a Google virtual network (VNet), where it is isolated from normal access through secure design and Google security capabilities. Data synced into the vault is protected with PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE), offering proven security and efficiency. Administrative access to the Cyber Recovery management console, when necessary for changes, is provisioned through a secure jump host, with access further limited by IP whitelisting and multi-factor authentication.

PowerProtect Cyber Recovery for Google Cloud is the latest Dell Technologies data protection solution that enables customers to leverage their existing Google subscription. Dell Technologies is committed to providing fast access to Dell’s portfolio of data protection offerings for Google with a simple purchase.

At Dell Technologies, we are focused on helping you secure, protect, and recover data in the event of a cyberattack with the industry’s most innovative solutions. We stop at nothing to be your trusted partner for modern security solutions and services that enhance IT resiliency, reduce complexity and provide peace of mind that your organization and its data are protected.

Source: dell.com

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Demystifying Observability in the SRE Process

We live in a complicated world of interconnected IT systems and growing data in which customers demand flawless experiences and businesses strive to accelerate innovation. IT can no longer rely on traditional monitoring techniques to keep these modern systems up and running with the speed and agility of the market we serve. That is where observability comes in.

Observability is a mechanism that helps Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams understand and explain unexpected system behavior with the help of logs, traces and metrics. It helps IT proactively manage the performance of complex distributed systems running on evolving infrastructure.

The right observability strategy and solution translates into increased site reliability, better customer experience and higher team productivity. With the surge of data, we need to quickly identify signal versus noise to be able to aggregate it, analyze it and respond to it as needed. A key success metric for observability is the average time to find and resolve issues. Speed defines success in today’s digital economy.

Now, more than ever, learning to simplify complex systems is essential.

The only way to troubleshoot an unknown failure condition and optimize an application’s behavior is to instrument and collect all the data about your environment at full fidelity. However, the mere availability of data doesn’t deliver an observability solution.

While out-of-the-box solutions can get you a head start with observability, they tend to fall short of providing a complete solution for your unique needs.

Fortunately, a few observability techniques can help simplify complexity and lead to better clarity and success.

Brainstorm with Subject Matter Experts

Modern distributed architectures have numerous interdependencies, which means they also have many points of failure. A key component of resilient systems is being able to quickly pinpoint the exact location of a detected problem. That’s why, when building an SRE strategy, one of the first steps an SRE Enablement team takes is to work with subject matter experts who have an end-to-end view of their ecosystem.

Start by holding a brainstorming session with architects, engineering team leads, SREs, DevOps, on-call support teams, incident management and a user experience designer to create a bird’s-eye view or ecosystem end-to-end view of the organization’s ecosystem.

The session helps cut the clutter and identify high-level services that can be represented onto a single screen and that depict the end-to-end flow of interconnected applications. This rough end-to-end flow is a living and breathing artifact that will evolve as the application ecosystem goes through transformation.

Set Up KPIs and Scoring 

Once you have a list of services to observe, you identify the key performance indicators for each service. KPIs are derived from logs and metrics, and we need to get them from various sources.

After the data is instrumented into the tool of your choice, look back into history (ideally four weeks) at the behavior of the service to determine optimal thresholds. Outline the “Good,” the “Bad” and the “Ugly.”

Depending on the domain, what entails a service can vary quite a bit, including web service, app, network, database, message queue, email and many more. Every service has different stakeholders, KPIs and criteria for measuring success and performance.

So how can you build an observability solution that is easy to understand for everybody despite various subject domains? That’s where scoring comes in.

Scoring is a mechanism imbibed into the human DNA. While we all had different subjects in school, they were generally graded using one through 100 percent. Everyone understands what 50 means and what 90 means, irrespective of the subject. Measuring health or performance of a service should be treated no differently.

A common way to calculate a service health score is to identify the three most important KPIs within a service and assign each a weight from most important to least important. Factor the KPI weights with the percentage at which the KPI is degraded to score the health of that service.

You can further simplify your service health score by equating score levels with another widely understood gauge: the traffic light signals of red, yellow and green.

Standardizing the decision-making process using a scoring model means faster and more automated decisions.

Putting Everything Together 

Once an IT organization creates an architected design, KPIs and service health scores, an SRE team can then combine them into a diagram to create a single pane of glass via a ready-made observability tool or a custom-built solution. The single pane of glass is designed to be completely interactive and intuitive to drill down into problem areas by anyone using it.

The SRE teams or the engineering teams should build the drilldown views and maintain them to match the health scores depicted on the single pane of glass.

While the SRE dashboards provide continuous monitoring of ecosystems, the strategy doesn’t depend on watching them 24×7. Monitoring results are used in tandem with other data available to correlate and address performance events.

For instance, you may see degradation to a webpage, a database latency creeping up and a domain name system service degradation. Traditionally, that might trigger three separate alerts. But at Dell, our notification strategy, with the help of custom orchestration, generates one notification encompassing the cause and the effects.

The system avoids duplicate notifications about the same incident by centralizing datasets and designating only one tool for incident creation.

It is important to target observability notifications to the specific development teams impacted by the system issue and use the communication channels that best connect with those teams. While email was once the traditional communication channel for alerts, collaboration today might include MS Teams, Slack, SMS, Mobile Apps and WhatsApp, to name a few.

The observability strategy should include mapping microservices to development teams and establishing the communication channels for critical issue notification.

Ultimately, the goal of observability is to enable multiple teams to act with shared data, connect people with processes and align with larger business objectives.

Source: dell.com

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64 x 400GbE: A Faster, Greener Data Center

The machine-to-machine traffic required by HPC, virtualization and cloud-based applications that are being rapidly adopted is resulting in bandwidth-hungry data centers. The arrival of faster storage such as NVMe is also having a similar effect. The amount of data and application traffic organizations must manage today drives the need to increase overall data center network throughput and capacity.

We’ve seen link speeds throughout data centers increase from 10/40GbE to 100/400GbE. The higher port density of 100/400GbE technology also helps lower capital and operating expenses, when compared to older connectivity infrastructure at 10/40Gbps. Fewer switches to purchase and manage, fewer cable and optic connections and lower power and cooling requirements result in optimal data center efficiency.

The new Dell PowerSwitch Z9664F-ON 100/400GbE fixed switch is the latest in Dell Technologies’ disaggregated hardware and software data center networking solutions, providing state-of-the-art, high-density 100/400GbE ports and a broad range of functionality to meet the growing demands of today’s data center environment. This next-generation open networking switch offers optimum flexibility and cost effectiveness for the demanding compute and storage traffic environments necessary for web 2.0, large enterprises and cloud service providers.

The Dell PowerSwitch Z9664F-ON enables the latest generation of servers, storage and HCI platforms to increase throughput while providing agility, automation and integration in the data center. In addition to higher density with 100/400 GbE speeds, the new Z9664F-ON helps simplify complex network design while reducing deployment and maintenance tasks when running Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies, SmartFabric OS10 with integrated SmartFabric Services or CloudIQ for cloud-based monitoring, machine learning and predictive analytics.

This new Dell PowerSwitch open networking switch enhances the top end of our software-defined networking Z-series family of switches for the core to help organizations with their IT transformation journey:

◉ Scaling data center spines to 400 GbE is easier to accomplish when deploying this switch with its high port density and 2U footprint. With its 64 ports of 400GbE, Z9664F-ON enables organizations to implement fewer switches without sacrificing throughput and capacity.

◉ Z9664F-ON’s footprint results in lower power and cooling requirements, further decreasing capital expenses.

◉ With Z9664F-ON’s multi-rate support, organizations can provision the appropriate port speeds as business needs require without adding additional switches and capital expenses. It also minimizes the need for hardware upgrades as the network scales and traffic patterns change. Thus, organizations can migrate up to 400G easily and more cost-effectively.

ESG’s initial review of the Dell PowerSwitch Z9664F-ON revealed Dell Technologies can provide a cost-effective option for building out a 400G data center fabric occupying smaller footprints. Eliminating the need to use multiple 100G capable switches in the data center eliminates unnecessary expenses while maximizing network performance, capacity and throughput.

Watch Bob Laliberte, Principal Analyst at ESG, discuss how Dell PowerSwitch Z9664F-ON enables organizations to implement fewer switches without sacrificing throughput and capacity.

Source: dell.com

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Bringing Dell Data Services and Software Innovations ​to AWS

AWS re:Invent is just around the corner and at this year’s show, Dell is showcasing solutions that bring critical enterprise storage capabilities to AWS, enhance your AWS cyber resiliency and data protection, and help you bring Amazon EKS Anywhere to your hybrid cloud. 

Delivering Enterprise Storage Capabilities to AWS

As part of continuing Dell APEX portfolio momentum, today we are announcing that Dell PowerFlex is now available in the AWS Marketplace. This offer combines the extreme performance, scale, resilience and management of PowerFlex on AWS with the ability to purchase using existing AWS cloud credits. This is the first of Dell’s industry-leading storage software to be made available via Project Alpine, an initiative bringing Dell’s storage software capabilities to public clouds.

Through the availability of PowerFlex in the AWS Marketplace, we’re delivering advanced enterprise data services and capabilities to AWS, including:

◉ Enterprise-grade block storage services: data mobility, snapshots, volume migrations and security.

◉ Linear performance with massive scale: handle millions of IOPS with sub-ms latency and linear scaling out to 1000s of instances.

◉ Multi-region, multi-zone resiliency: Ability to create clusters that span AWS regions and availability zones to create a fault-tolerant block storage services layer.

Enhancing Cyber Resiliency and Modern Data Protection in AWS

Dell Technologies cloud data protection solutions already protect more than 6.4 exabytes of customer data in AWS. With Dell APEX Backup Services, PowerProtect Data Manager and PowerProtect Cyber Recovery organizations get simple, resilient, multicloud solutions that are built for a Zero Trust world.

Dell Data Protection solutions help automate the protection and resiliency of hybrid cloud workloads such as Amazon EKS Anywhere Kubernetes clusters, VMware virtual machines and cloud-native apps with up to 77% less cloud data protection resource costs in AWS than competitive offerings.

To mitigate the risks of cyberthreats like ransomware and malware, PowerProtect Cyber Recovery enables organizations to deploy a secure, isolated digital vault in AWS. In addition to secure isolation in AWS, you can use CyberSense, a powerful AI/ML engine, to proactively identify anomalies to data residing in the vault so that potential threats can be remediated.

“For us, the value in partnering with both AWS and Dell has been the knowledge that we have an enterprise partner that can provide us with solutions across the full stack…and the ability to guarantee that backups will be available in any cloud or any AWS data center globally,” said Matthew Bertram, VP of Technology at Trintech. 

Bringing Amazon EKS Anywhere On-premises

Innovating from anywhere starts with having the right infrastructure and automation to support developers and IT operations teams. Dell Validated Platforms for Amazon EKS Anywhere, running on Dell VxRail or Dell PowerFlex, provide seamless connectivity the public cloud, enabling portability and orchestration of containerized applications to accelerate developer productivity.

These solutions streamline application development and delivery by allowing organizations to easily create and manage on-premises Kubernetes clusters that can be connected to Amazon EKS instances in AWS. Pairing automated Kubernetes cluster management with intelligent, automated infrastructure is truly a match made on-premises. It allows IT organizations to empower applications teams to be the innovation engine for their businesses. For a detailed examination of using Amazon EKS Anywhere on Dell gear see the blog series. 

Building a Cloud Strategy That Works for You with Dell Services

Choosing the right approach and the right cloud model is critical to delivering on the full potential of your deployment. Dell Services has consulted thousands of customers on their cloud adoption journeys. Our proven four-step approach helps organizations better understand the tasks that are necessary to meet objectives across various lines of business. Dell Services can help you capture your current state, define a sustainable cloud vision and accelerate your cloud journey with professional services.

Spend Time with Us at AWS re:Invent

◉ Session: For more on PowerFlex on AWS and how you can get the best of both worlds – Dell and AWS – join us for the Dell sponsored session “Bring your favorite Dell enterprise capabilities to AWS” on Monday, November 28 at 11 a.m. PT in session room Forum 113 at Caesars Forum.

◉ Watch Party: We also invite you to join our Dell Technologies cloud experts and watch the live stream of Peter DeSantis’s AWS re: Invent Keynote on Monday, November 28, 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. PT over cocktails and refreshments at the CAPRI Pool Restaurant and Bar located on the pool deck at The Palazzo. The first 300 eligible guests at the Dell Technologies AWS re:Invent Keynote Viewing Party will receive a cozy welcome gift (who doesn’t love a Dell branded hooded sweatshirt for chilly Las Vegas evenings) and a chance to win a Yeti Backpack Cooler. Register here.

◉ Booth: As you make your way around the AWS re:Invent Campus, be sure to schedule time to visit the Dell Technologies Expo booth (#2745) located in The Venetian. ere you will get to see PowerFlex on AWS in action, learn about Dell’s comprehensive storage and data protection solutions for AWS, and see how you can run EKS Anywhere on Dell infrastructure. You will also get the opportunity to ask our cloud experts your most pressing questions and learn how the Dell Services team can help you choose a cloud model that delivers on the full potential of your AWS deployment.

We hope to see you AWS re:Invent. If you are not able to attend the event, additional info on Dell’s offerings for AWS is available here. You can also reach out to your Dell representative.

Source: dell.com

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Managing Your Organization’s Digital Transformation Costs with Dell APEX

We hear it everywhere – the economy is uncertain, and in the face of rising inflation and interest rates, businesses need to adapt. The common refrain that we hear from business leaders is, “how can I do more with less?” How can IT organizations continue to modernize and create a competitive advantage, while continuing to support the business at the same time?

To help us answer this question, we asked Forrester senior analyst Tracy Woo to share Forrester’s research and insights on changing cloud trends and strategies that organizations are using to continue modernizing their infrastructure in the face of economic headwinds. The full webinar is available to view here.

Why Multicloud Matters

Organizations have always wanted access to best-in-class capabilities from any provider that can help them innovate, and they want the flexibility to choose the right path to meet their objectives. Nearly three out of four decision-makers agree it is critical to align their technology with their business needs.¹

Cloud delivers this flexibility for organizations. They can quickly peruse and procure a variety of solutions, from infrastructure services to applications delivered via SaaS. The ability to scale resources on-demand is quite important as well. Organizations reveled in this experience, and public cloud quickly became a key tool in the arsenal of businesses as they digitally transformed.

Now, most organizations are relying on three or more cloud environments to meet their business needs. Forrester research shows that 93% of firms are planning to implement, or have already adopted, a multicloud strategy.

Multicloud Benefits and Challenges

Multicloud offers options to organizations, giving them the freedom to right-size their IT investments to their business needs. However, the reality is that each cloud environment tends to function as a silo with its own set of tools and procedures. Consequently, multicloud can quickly spawn an array of challenges.

We have previously discussed some common multicloud challenges and how they can impact organizations. Forrester has also conducted research on business requirements for infrastructure. Some of the challenges that impact organizations the most include:

◉ 86% of respondents reporting trouble with security vulnerability

◉ 83% citing difficulty understanding risk exposure

◉ 82% mention challenges in deploying resources in a controlled way

◉ 80% report issues managing compliance requirements

These challenges mean multicloud can cause complexity and make it even harder to match business needs with investments. How can businesses leverage the cloud experience everywhere and right-size their IT while also overcoming some of these challenges?

IaaS is an Answer

One way firms are making some forward progress with multicloud is by focusing on delivering Infrastructure-as-a-Service to their dedicated IT environments. This delivers the cloud experience to wherever businesses have their workloads and simplifies the process of matching technology and business needs. Put simply, it combines the agility of the public cloud and the control of the private cloud, creating a truly unified experience.

Customers have told us the benefits of IaaS include augmenting existing staff, reducing overprovisioning and enabling self-service. The Forrester research highlights several other benefits of bringing the cloud experience “down to the ground,” including:

◉ 52% of respondents mention increased security

◉ 49% highlight increased agility and control

◉ 40% an improved ability to budget for IT spend

◉ 40% flexibility in configurations

The key theme to these benefits is that organizations have more control over their IT investments and ensuring those investments directly address business needs. Whether it’s a better understanding of security postures or a better understanding of how much an organization is spending each month, bringing IaaS to dedicated IT environments can help firms do more with less.

Dell delivers the ease and agility of the cloud experience with more control over applications and data through Dell APEX, our portfolio of subscription-based technologies. With APEX, we are making it easier to bring IaaS to wherever you need it – in the data center, in a colocation facility, or even out at the edge.

Source: dell.com

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Enabling Open Embedded Systems Management on PowerEdge Servers

Introducing Dell Open Server Manager built on OpenBMC™ enabling open, embedded systems management as an option on select Dell PowerEdge cloud scale servers available as part of the Hyperscale Next Program for CSPs.

We have heard from many customers running large datacenters the challenges they face managing infrastructure across different vendors, or even across different generations of hardware from a single vendor. They desire simplicity in datacenter operations that goes beyond having a single pane-of-glass, but by having a single management stack across all your infrastructure.

The foundation of systems management starts with the Base Management Controller – or BMC – that’s embedded on every PowerEdge server as well as most industry servers. In a multi-vendor environment, the BMC management stacks vary and have different levels of capabilities, causing customers to manage to the “lowest common denominator.” To solve this, customers are looking at open-source BMC management stacks such as OpenBMC™, rather than vendor-specific ones.

Open-source Software with OpenBMC

OpenBMC is an open-source BMC firmware stack designed to run on a variety of infrastructures. It is a Linux Foundation project with the backing of Intel®, IBM®, Microsoft® and Google™. The goal of OpenBMC is to run the exact same embedded management software on all systems, bringing consistent management across the environment.

Additionally, many customers are adopting open-source software for code transparency and trust while moving towards an open-ecosystem philosophy and away from vendor-specific implementations. OpenBMC is part of a broader portfolio of projects inspired or designed by the Open Compute Project (OCP) to increase innovation through open standards and collaboration.

Screen capture of the Dell Open Server Manager software application.

Open Ecosystem Embedded Software = Dell Open Server Manager

Dell Open Server Manager built on OpenBMC enables open, embedded systems management as an option on select Dell PowerEdge cloud scale servers. Explicitly designed for Cloud Server Providers managing large-scale data centers, Open Server Manager is Dell’s implementation of OpenBMC. It is designed, tested and validated as an option on PowerEdge R650xs CSP and PowerEdge R750xs CSP servers. The complete image is signed by Dell and integrated at the factory upon order.

Since the goal of OpenBMC is to provide consistent systems management, we did not create a differentiated vendor-specific offering and stayed as close to upstream OpenBMC as possible. However, enabled OpenBMC to run securely on PowerEdge cloud scale servers leveraging the same silicon as Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC).

This ensures that our customers maintain a choice as to which embedded system management stack they wish to run. When ordering a cloud scale system, there is an option for embedded systems management – either iDRAC – Dell’s industry-leading, full-featured management stack – or Open Server Manager. Both run on the same silicon with the same hardware and ship directly from the factory. At any time, there is an option to convert back to iDRAC if there is a need for specific capabilities provided by iDRAC.

Security, Support and Manageability

Dell takes security seriously and does not want unknown or malicious firmware to find its way onto PowerEdge servers. If the BMC is compromised, bad actors can access the entire server and potentially the entire data center environment. With that in mind, we have enabled silicon Root-of-Trust to ensure that only Dell’s version of OpenBMC – one that has been thoroughly tested and validated – runs securely on PowerEdge R650xs CSP and PowerEdge R750xs CSP servers.

Dell lifecycle management is enabled to install Dell-signed firmware update packages through Open Server Manager for the BIOS, backplane, power supplies, iDRAC and Open Server Manager as required. These are the same firmware update packages used to update firmware via iDRAC, eliminating the need to manage two different firmware repositories.

OpenBMC logs and system configuration information can be exported into a log package for SupportAssist providing full warranty and support coverage.

Open Server Manager is pure OpenBMC wrapped with the security, support, and manageability that only Dell can provide. Contact your Dell account team to learn more about Open Server Manager – available exclusively through the Hyperscale Next program for select customers.

Source: dell.com

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Coming Soon: Backup Target from Dell APEX

As organizations of all sizes and across all industries digitally transform, data has quickly become the most vital asset to their business. Data plays a central role as a source of competitive differentiation, with the ability to drive innovation through new products, services, and business models. That is why it is imperative to keep this asset protected.

The increasingly important role of data, combined with the substantial proliferation of threats to that data, have created a perfect storm in terms of the overall reliance on data protection solutions. Ensuring data remains recoverable and accessible has never been more important, and the challenges to protect it have never been greater. In a recent survey of 1,000 IT Decision-Makers from Dell’s Global Data Protection Index, 67 percent indicated they are concerned existing data protection measures may not be sufficient, and 69% indicated they are concerned about a disruptive event in the next year.

While organizations are grappling with the complexity of ensuring their data is protected, they are also seeking a simplified experience managing it. The process for acquiring and utilizing data center infrastructure is in the midst of a transition from the traditional capital expense (CapEx) model to cloud and as-a-Service consumption where usage is metered like a utility, equipment is vendor-owned and billing is treated as an operating expense (OpEx). In a recent survey by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), 359 IT decision makers were asked about their preferred consumption model for on-premises data center infrastructure, and over half indicated they preferred a pay-per-use model such as a variable monthly subscription.

Knowing how crucial backup is to a company’s data protection strategy, we are excited to announce that Dell APEX will be expanding its Data Storage Services portfolio to offer additional choice and flexibility with a Backup Target offer that combines the resiliency of Dell Data Protection appliances with the agility of as-a-Service consumption. APEX Data Storage Services Backup Target will provide the ability to take advantage of a pay-per-use storage model and eliminate the need to forecast usage years in advance by removing the burden of over-provisioning to accommodate unanticipated spikes in usage. It will help customers reduce their overall backup storage footprint with fast backups, high compression levels and advanced deduplication – typically delivering 65:1 data reduction. It will be ideal for backing up and protecting all your critical workloads, from remote locations to core data centers.

Like our other Dell APEX Data Storage Services offers, Backup Target is being designed with simplicity top of mind. Using the Dell APEX Console, you will be able to quickly find the service that best fits your business needs based on a few key service parameters such as capacity, performance tier and term length.

Dell APEX Data Storage Services Backup Target will be available in Q1 2023, building on the success we’ve been seeing with data protection offers across the Dell APEX portfolio, including Dell APEX Backup Services and Dell APEX Cyber Recovery Services, which both launched earlier this year.  Mr. Ayaki Kawase of TMS Entertainment had this to say, “APEX Backup Services can resolve errors with the click of a checkbox, so we’ll no longer be troubled again. Being able to free valuable engineer resources is really big for us.”

As the landscape for data protection evolves, it’s critical that we design and launch solutions with simplicity and ease of use in mind while ensuring the security and integrity of your most valuable asset – your data.

Source: dell.com

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Build the Private 5G Network of Your Dreams

My sister recently decided it’s time to renovate her home. Her house still worked as is – it was functional and it made her happy for several years, but it began losing its luster and she started noticing things she wished she could change. It no longer fit the way she lived or functioned how she wanted it to. She needed more. A home is supposed to be a place where you can relax and grow your life, not stand in the way of it. It was time for a remodel.

The challenging part quickly became what to do, who to hire and where to begin. What was supposed to be an exciting process and the start of a new beginning quickly turned into a nightmare. Deciding on the endless contractors, coordinating across them all to align on her common goal, not to mention the inevitable timing and budget constraints. She soon realized it would be much easier to simply hire a general contractor to manage and drive the project for her.

Time for a Renovation

We know that enterprises face similar circumstances as you review the state of your business. Your business is progressing fast and without changes, the current state won’t be sustainable. It’s critical that you have the ability to drive innovation and meet the on-demand requirements of your teams and customers, now and in the future, so you can save time, reduce OpEx and find new ways to monetize your business.

This situation is no different than the one my sister’s home renovation challenge. If your business needs updated technology to drive faster innovation that’s not being delivered, then you won’t be able grow your business or keep up with the pace of change. Regardless of if you’re trying to extend wireless coverage across indoor and outdoor campus facilities, provide connectivity to various IoT devices, or inform doctors’ decisions of a patient’s status with real-time data, your connectivity solutions shouldn’t stand in your way. If your technology no longer meets your growing needs, then it may be time for a remodel. 

Reconstruct Your Connectivity Solutions

Private 5G networks provide the ultra-reliable low latency and high performing operations that are needed to drive your business forward. Legacy private LTE or Wi-Fi solutions serve a purpose, but they lack the capacity to keep up with your business in new ways. By renovating your existing solutions, you empower your business to improve performance through enhanced connectivity, data collection, security and control across multiple locations to create a truly connected enterprise.

Today’s private 5G solutions are open and disaggregated, which offer significant benefits to your business, however the amount of technology providers can seem overwhelming to work with. There’s also the added challenge of managing the environment. A lot of internal teams lack the skills to manage operations and the cost and time to educate them can quickly become burdensome. Similar to beginning the remodel of your dreams, building a private network for your business can seem like a challenging task. But with the help of a trusted partner to serve as your general contractor, it doesn’t have to.

Call In the Experts

Dell Technologies has all the tools to design, build, and manage a modern private 5G solution that your organization needs. We serve as the prime integrator – think of us as your general contractor – bringing together top industry providers and infrastructure, best practices, and a progressive 5G strategy to construct a private 5G network that’s designed specifically for your business. Plus, you get the added benefit of streamlined access to a single Dell point of contact for simplicity and easy insight into the entire engagement.

Your private network needs to be able to withstand the growing expectations of your business and provide connectivity on an ongoing basis. Our solutions are built on high availability, backed by our complete support and lifecycle management services. We bring our expertise working across multiple vendors plus our proactive monitoring capabilities to create a high performing solution that brings you peace of mind that your network will remain functional, even as you scale or in the case of an outage. With our fully managed services, your team can free up internal resources so they can focus on what really matters – driving your business forward.

The best part of it all is that it couldn’t be simpler. You get all the benefits of best-in-class technology solutions from leading vendors plus the ease of working with a single provider to drive the whole project. Dell services professionals work across the industry’s top providers to construct a private 5G solution designed for your organization. You worry about what matters to your business, and we simply take care of the rest.

Not everything has to be hard – the best contractors make even the toughest projects look easy. Learn more about how Dell Technologies Services can simplify your path towards a disaggregated network.

Source: dell.com

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Shift into High Gear with High Performance Computing

Today’s racing teams need to extract every bit of performance out of their cars and technical teams to succeed in such a competitive sport. They rely on high performance computing to not only design their cars and engines but to analyze race telemetry and make timely decisions that get them to the finish line first.

High Performance Computing also provides data-driven insights in other industries, leading to significant innovation. The power of HPC to discover is increasing the pressure on organizations to deploy more HPC workloads faster. Additionally, new capabilities in artificial intelligence and machine learning are expanding the scope and complexity of HPC workloads.

The implementation and ongoing management of HPC is complex and not suited for many IT organizations. The primary obstacles are financial limitations, insufficient in-house HPC expertise and concerns about keeping data secure. Dell APEX High Performance Computing helps solve these issues so you too can shift your HPC workloads into high gear.

Start in the Pole Position 

A managed HPC platform that is ready for you to run your workloads is the best starting point. Dell APEX High Performance Computing provides:

◉ All you need to run your workloads: including hardware and HPC management software consisting of NVIDIA Bright Cluster Manager, Kubernetes or Apptainer/Singularity container orchestration and a SLURM® job scheduler.

◉ Managed HPC platform: eliminate the internal time and specialized skills required to design, procure, deploy and maintain HPC infrastructure and management software, so you can focus your resources on your HPC workloads.

◉ Convenient monthly payment: skip upfront HPC capital expenditures with a 1-, 3- or 5- year subscription that can be applied as an operating expense.

◉ Easy to order: choose between validated designs for Life Sciences or Digital Manufacturing while at the same time having flexibility on basic requirements, like capacity, processor speed, memory, GPU’s, networking and containers.

◉ Flexible capacity: additional compute power and storage that Dell makes available beyond your committed capacity so you can scale resources to meet periods of peak demand.

◉ Customer Success Manager: your main point of contact and a trusted advisor throughout your Dell APEX High Performance Computing journey.

Rely on a Skilled Pit Crew

A good race team doesn’t need a pit crew for just speedy fill-ups and tire changes, they are essential to the ongoing maintenance and fine-tuning of the race car. With APEX High Performance Computing, a Customer Success Manager is your crew chief, coordinating Dell technicians in charge of platform installation and configuration, 24×7 HPC platform performance and capacity monitoring, ongoing software and hardware upgrades, 24×7 proactive solution-level hardware and software support and onsite data sanitization with certification.

Safety First

In racing, it is imperative to implement the features that will keep the drivers safe in their seat. With Dell APEX High Performance Computing, we deploy your HPC solution securely in your datacenter. The infrastructure is dedicated to your organization, and not shared with other tenants through partitioning. This is ideal if you process sensitive or proprietary data that you need to keep safe, as follows.

◉ Keep your data close: minimize data latency and keep it secure in your datacenter, avoiding the need to migrate large amounts of sensitive data to the public cloud

◉ Lifecycle management: one of the most important features of our managed service is the regular updating of the system and HPC management software codes to ensure the most recent security patches are in place

Get to the Winner’s Podium

Our solutions are based on Dell Validated Designs with state-of-the-art hardware optimized for Life Sciences and Digital Manufacturing workloads. But even the fastest race cars require ongoing maintenance to stay in the race. Dell APEX High Performance Computing includes ongoing system monitoring, tuning and support and regular updating of hardware and software to ensure your workloads run on reliable, optimized systems.

Strong Partnerships Win Races

Many industries count on Dell to help them steer through the complexities of High Performance Computing, including Formula 1 racing teams. You too can count on Dell to manage your HPC infrastructure, backed by our deep global IT expertise, so you can focus on what you do best: discover and innovate.

Source: dell.com

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Protect Your Data from the Most Sophisticated Cyberthreats

There are many products on the market today that are focused on preventing a ransomware attack: firewalls to stop viruses from entering, scans that detect unusual activity and signatures of common malware, and more. These pre-attack products are critical in supporting a cyber resiliency strategy; however, what happens when these solutions fail and an attack is successful? How does an organization detect, diagnose and recover quickly?

This is where CyberSense fits into the tech stack. CyberSense is a software option available with Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery. CyberSense is a post-attack product that is focused on data resiliency and does not replace the ransomware prevention approaches of the pre-attack products. Rather, it is a last line of defense that helps determine what data has been corrupted, and what backups are good in order to facilitate a clean and rapid recovery when prevention fails. This is especially important as new, more sophisticated variants are deployed.

A new variant, BianLian, appeared on VirusTotal in August 2022. This new variant utilizes the Google Go programming language for portability across OS platforms, so the ransomware authors only need to write the ransomware once and can then run it on Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc. allowing them to get to market quickly across a range of targets. The BianLian variant encrypts inside a file and adds a new file extension. For encryption, the malware divides the file content into small chunks is a method to evade detection by Anti-Virus products.

What BianLian shows us is that the community of bad actors are getting smarter, using advanced technology and outsmarting existing and traditional security tools. There are several approaches that are becoming less effective against these new variants.

Signature-based Scanning

Many data protection vendors have added signature-based scanning tools to their backups to find known malware. Signature-based scanning has some value with backup data during restoration, such as scanning for known malware with a known signature to avoid restore the malware after an attack. The question to ask here is if the malware was not detected using the current signature watchlist in production, then why do you think you will have any success in scanning your backups with these same signatures?

New variants, including BianLian, are being designed to evade signature-based approaches. A simple change in the encryption algorithm will change the signature of any variant. This is why signatures must be updated on a continual basis, a never-ending and less successful battle.

Metadata Analysis and Data Thresholds

The use of concepts such as metadata analysis and data thresholds have also become commonplace for backup software vendors, but they can be easily outsmarted by bad actors using more advanced approaches. Examples of metadata analysis includes scanning for extensions known to be used when data is corrupted. In the case of BianLian this will be a new extension that may not be known by the scanner and will be passed over. These scanners will need to be frequently updated to support the latest variants, which are continually changing to evade this simple approach.

In addition to metadata, the use of threshold analysis can be performed to determine if the number of files created or modified daily is outside the norm. If so, this will trigger an alert.

In addition, file entropy, looks to see if the modified files show increases in entropy which would represent possible encryption. BianLian is taking a more stealth approach to circumvent this approach. BianLian is performing intermittent encryption, not full file encryption, inside the file to avoid detection. This is purposely done to evade these lightweight analysis tools that are looking for obvious thresholds or changes in metadata properties or entire file encryption.

The CyberSense Approach

CyberSense takes a fundamentally different approach to detecting corruption due to ransomware that is not easily circumvented by bad actors who are deploying more advanced techniques. Without any updates, CyberSense detected the BianLian variant when it appeared on the VirusTotal website.

CyberSense looks for unusual patterns of behavior based on analysis of file and database content. This includes metadata properties which are a limited set of statistics that are available, something other vendors have implemented, however, CyberSense goes deeper and looks at hundreds of content statistics across the entire set of files and databases contained in each backup, which no other vendor is performing.

With the volumes of advanced metadata and content analytics, fed to machine learning that has been trained on all the common approaches that are utilized to corrupt data, a new and advanced variant such as BianLian is easily detected. Others need to update their software to detect new variants. CyberSense is designed to be smarter and more advanced so that with no updates to the analytics or machine learning is needed to detect a new variant like BianLian.

Relying on techniques that constantly need to be updated and modified to support new variants is a thing of the past. Content based analysis of files and databases combined with advanced machine learning is the only way forward to deliver confidence that data is protected from the most sophisticated cyberthreats.

Source: dell.com

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Driving Machine Learning Solutions to Success Through Model Interpretability

Despite the improvements the field of data science (DS) has made in the last decade, Gartner has estimated that almost 85 percent of all data science projects fail. Further, only 4% of data science projects are considered ‘very successful’. Among the major drivers of data science project failure are poor data quality, lack of technical skill or business acumen, lack of deployment infrastructure and lack of adoption.

The last of these, model adoption by users, can “make or break” the entire project, but can be overlooked in project planning under the assumption that adoption will follow, as long as the model helps the business. Unfortunately, the observed ground reality is not that simple. The key reasons for low adoption of data science models are a lack of trust and understanding of the model output.

Many machine learning models operate as a “black-box”, where they take a series of inputs to give a series of outputs but do not offer any insight into what factors in the input drove those outputs, be it classification or regression outputs. Nor do they provide any rationale about how an undesired output can be changed to a desired outcome in the future for a similar case by impacting the input.

Explanations about which input variable impacted the output in what manner is critical for efforts to influence the key underlying metrics that may be being tracked for that product/process. The success of a data science model largely depends on how well the model is adopted and used by these consumers of the model outputs.

Frequently, the adoption fails to generate traction because the end users do not understand why the model generated a given prediction. In most cases, the responsibility of identifying the drivers of the prediction falls on the product owners or business analysts who use their experience and tribal knowledge to make assumptions about the reason behind the predictions. This necessarily relies on subjectivity and human bias and may or may not align with the true underlying data patterns the model uses to make its prediction. This problem is particularly acute when the model predictions are not aligned with end users’ tribal knowledge or gut instincts.

Likewise, user trust also gets affected when the model predicts an incorrect output. If the end user were able to see why the model made a particular decision, it can mitigate the ensuing trust erosion, restore trust and also elicit feedback for the model’s improvement. In the absence of trust restoration, the lack of trust may precede a gradual fall back to the old way of doing things, leading to the DS project’s failure without clear feedback to the developers about why the model was not adopted.

Adding interpretability and explanations for predictions can increase user confidence in the data science solutions and drive its adoption by end users. A key learning from our work in increasing and maintaining data science adoption is that explainability and interpretability are significant factors in driving success of data science solutions.

Even as machine learning solutions are touted as the next best thing for making better and quicker decisions, the human component of these systems is still what eventually influences their success or failure. As the advancements in artificial intelligence come progressively quicker, it is the solutions that incorporate this human component along with the cutting-edge algorithms that will rise to the top while the ones that ignore it at their own peril, will see themselves left behind.

Not sure where to start? A successful use case detailing how explainable AI was used in a real-world ML product at Dell can be found in a whitepaper here.

Source: dell.com

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Three Ways to Drive Down Data Center Energy Cost

As increased wholesale prices and global current events drive energy prices to record highs, energy efficiency has become a popular conversation among data center managers. I am often asked what can be done to drive down power requirements and lower energy cost. My answer is that energy efficiency is a multi-pronged approach and consideration should be given to everything from efficient hardware to overall infrastructure such as cooling, consolidation, among others. In addition to a holistic strategy around data center energy reduction, here are three actions which can influence an efficient outcome and lower energy bill:    

Enable Power Management

At Dell Technologies, we integrate industry standard and vendor specific power management features into how we design our PowerEdge portfolio to help reduce energy consumption. With the Dell BIOS and integrated Dell remote access controller (iDRAC), you have control over the server’s power consumption. These built-in features help:

◉ Reduce power consumption at run-time via demand-based power management where performance is balanced to workload. An example of this is CPU Performance States (P-States).

◉ Minimize power consumption during IDLE period when there is no active workload, such as CPU C-states and DDR5 self-refresh.

◉ Save energy costs as power consumption is reduced over time when there are opportunities.

Minimize Stranded Power  

Power and cooling equipment are significant investments in a data center and not fully utilizing their capacity is a poor return on investment. To make matters worse, cooling systems are less efficient when not highly utilized. Dell offers online tools and features integrated into platforms to help you rescue power stranded in your data center.

◉ PSU portfolio, with wide range of capacities, enables PSU Right Sizing to avoid stranding power in your server, as many data centers allocate power based on PSU label rating.

◉ Fault Tolerant Redundancy enables more aggressive PSU Right Sizing by utilizing the capacity of the redundant PSU during normal operation.

◉ Dell iDRAC provides input power and current limiting features to enable PSU Right Sizing based on typical instead of worst-case workload while being protected if any unexpected excursions occur.

◉ Open Manage Enterprise (OME) Power Manager Plug-in (PMP) supports group level input power and current (future release) limiting to maximize compute density within the data center’s rack power limit thus minimizing stranded power at the rack level.

Eliminate Zombies and Ghosts

The ghost servers can create unintentional electricity consumption as they sit on the rack unused but still connected. Further, there is the matter of the space that they take up. The problem is that administrators are not compelled to check for energy use at the individual server level, so they are not always aware that zombie servers exist. Dell OME PMP can help identify both unused and underused servers and create immediate relief to the energy bill.

◉ OME PMP monitors power and compute utilization and identifies lost ghost servers that are consuming power but providing little to no value to your business.

◉ Dell sales utilize Live Optics technology to find the zombies consuming power in the data center. A Dell sales proposal will include high efficiency next generation servers to replace the zombie servers found.

Most data center managers are eager to reduce high energy bills and take a hard look at how to lower their overall carbon footprint. These tips can be a quick win in the race towards greater energy efficiency, but the ultimate strategy includes proper management including visibility, monitoring and action is the key to managing energy efficiently. With the right Dell software and solutions activated, you can have visibility and control over your energy use and put those overwhelming energy bills behind you.

Source: dell.com

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New PowerMax Architecture Adds NVIDIA BlueField DPU Technology

The latest generation of PowerMax 2500/8500 models are the first mission-critical storage systems to integrate the NVIDIA BlueField DPU (data processing unit) technology into the architecture. This milestone is a testament to the long-standing relationship between Dell Technologies and NVIDIA. Let us explain.

Many leading businesses and organizations around the world rely on mission-critical, enterprise storage arrays to provide super-high availability and predictable high performance. Medical databases, financial transactions, airline operations systems, energy system controllers – pick your favorite example. Some things just have to work, reliably, all of the time! The businesses’ success depends on it. In some cases, people’s lives depend on it. It takes focused attention to the system architecture design to achieve this. Performance matters, scalability matters, resiliency matters, power and space efficiency matters, and cost of ownership matters. This mantra and a deep obsession with performance, scalability, reliability, and efficiency is the reason why     

The Dell PowerMax platform is built on decades of experience and innovation. The integrity and constant availability requirement of customer data, with predictable high performance, and security built in from the ground up are key factors in the design of the system architecture. Add to that the ability to expand capacity and compute power in a flexible and cost-effective way to meet customers’ changing needs. The PowerMax system architecture and PowerMaxOS 10 software platform provide a unique balance of building on a robust, mature base while incorporating new innovative features and the latest available technology across the industry. This is where our work with NVIDIA BlueField DPU technology comes into play.

“For Salesforce, trust is our number one value, and PowerMax has been a key part of that in terms of availability, reliability, and performance.” – Pete Robinson, Director of Infrastructure Engineering, @Salesforce

Our collaboration with NVIDIA on optimizing storage SANs has spanned several years leading up to our integration of NVIDIA BlueField DPU technology into the PowerMax architecture — specifically, into the dynamic media enclosures (DMEs) developed for PowerMax. 

The new DMEs are not just another conventional drive enclosure. These are “smart,” fabric-attached units that each house up to 48 NVMe SSDs. The enclosures have dual LCCs (link controller cards) for high availability. Each LCC includes a BlueField DPU, a multicore system on a chip (SoC) from NVIDIA. The core of the PowerMax architecture is built around NVMe-over-Fabrics with NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand as the transport layer. The BlueField DPUs are key to making this possible.

The benefits of this architecture are huge. In this latest generation of PowerMax, the compute nodes and the dynamic media enclosures are all connected on the dynamic NVMe/InfiniBand fabric. This allows for the compute and media elements to scale independently. Have an application that is highly compute-intensive? Add more compute nodes. Need more capacity? Add more DMEs and NVMe flash drives. The PowerMax 8500 can scale out to 16 nodes and up to 8 DMEs, maxing out at over 18PB of effective capacity.

Another benefit of this dynamic fabric architecture is the fact that any node on the fabric can access any data drive in the system, regardless of which DME it’s physically located in. Customers see this benefit directly in the performance they achieve with the array. I/O from any host connected to any node in the array can be routed to any drive, with low latency and high efficiency. This new, DPU-enhanced architecture streamlines this access. No extra “hops” are required through adjacent nodes to get to the data.

Any-to-any access aids with system resiliency as well (some things have to work all of the time!) since access to any storage is not dependent on any specific node or data path. If, as could happen with any electronic device, there is a failure of some kind that causes a node to go off-line, no data is stranded and no extra overhead is inserted as other nodes pick up the slack. This kind of data availability is critical to the users of PowerMax.

The working relationship between Dell (and EMC prior to the acquisition) and NVIDIA has spanned multiple product generations and has yielded significant advantages to the PowerMax platform. Multiple NVIDIA components are used in the system, in addition to the BlueField DPUs in the DMEs. The ConnectX smart adapter technology is used on the initiator side of the InfiniBand fabric as well, and NVIDIA switches are used in the larger 8500 system. The BlueField DPUs run custom code developed in-house at Dell, allowing direct access to all of the features on the chip.

PowerMax has leveraged T10-DIF technology to enhance data integrity for multiple generations. The NVIDIA components provide hardware offload for this functionality, allowing for maximum performance with the protection that T10-DIF offers. Any workload that can be offloaded from the main compute module CPUs helps with overall array performance. The Arm cores in the BlueField DPUs are utilized for low-level drive management, background scans, hot plug management, and other functions. The entire system is optimized for performance.

The BlueField DPUs also support secure boot, further enhancing the security of the PowerMax platform using built-in hardware acceleration. PowerMax is designed for Zero Trust security architectures, with end-to-end security features in place to safeguard customer data. It’s another critical aspect of being the leader in mission-critical storage.

“PowerMax is the cornerstone of the data center. The PowerMax 2500/8500 cyber resiliency capabilities and intrinsic value of data safety give us peace of mind for trusting enterprise applications on PowerMax.” – John Lochausen, Technology Architect, World Wide Technology

The dynamic InfiniBand fabric, enabled by the BlueField DPU and other NVIDIA technology, like NVMe-oF Target Offload, is key to the advantages of the PowerMax architecture over conventional storage arrays. When combined with the other features of the architecture, such as a 7x increase in capacity per node, a 14x increase in capacity per rack unit, an increase in guaranteed data reduction to 4:1, and a 64-bit file storage capability, you can see why PowerMax is the leader in mission-critical enterprise storage.

Source: dell.com

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As-a-service Solutions for Energy

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) World Energy Report, global energy demand is projected to grow by 16 percent between 2020 and 2030. One of the greatest challenges that the industry is faced with is meeting this growing demand for energy, while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gases. Thus, there is a need to optimize usage to minimize the carbon intensity of energy generation and maximize the use of sustainable energy resources.

Today’s energy industry is in a transformative period. In addition to a global push for sustainability, there is also a shift from a centralized power generation model to a decentralized one. The role of an energy provider is shifting from simply selling energy to providing comprehensive services for people who produce as well as consume energy. Furthermore, rapid advancement in technology is forcing electricity providers to rethink how they work, the services they provide and the business models they adhere to. Companies will need to put more emphasis on smart insights and deploying agile solutions capable of managing the changing dynamics.

This new era for the industry offers utility companies the opportunity to re-imagine operations and enable the convergence of informational and operational technologies. This is where Dell APEX for Energy comes in. Dell APEX is a comprehensive set of offerings that allow customers to consume Dell Technologies in an as-a-service model – on-premises and/or in the cloud. With Dell APEX, customers deploy and utilize modern infrastructure in a true OpEx business model that enables sustainability, innovative power generation models and security.

Why APEX for Energy

Dell APEX for Energy allows our customers to accelerate their digital energy transformation with agile, flexible, reliable and affordable consumption-based, on-demand solutions to meet the world’s growing energy demand:

◉ Accelerate Energy Transition by modernizing the energy grid to support the increasing demand for intermittent capacity generation and maximizing the utilization of renewables. With Dell APEX custom solutions, energy companies can process, analyze and aggregate critical data collected at the edge of the energy ecosystem and the cloud to accommodate distributed generation and storage together with smart consumption. Leveraging Dell APEX to modernize the grid with smart, responsive technology enables sustainable energy generation, simplified operations, as well as affordable and reliable service delivery.

◉ Advance Decarbonization by utilizing Dell Validated Designs to facilitate deployment and adoption of technology to enable net-zero goals. For example, deploying pre-tested and validated solutions for high-performance computing (HPC) and analytics with Dell APEX for HPC, Dell APEX for Analytics, and Dell APEX for Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help speed up the time it takes to develop new approaches and solutions that support decarbonization technology, such as Scale Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS), Direct Air Capture (DAC) and methane reduction. Also, using Dell APEX Cloud Services you can continue hydrocarbon exploration in a safe, environmentally sensitive and economically attractive way by deploying hybrid, multicloud solutions to support exploration and production workflows from the edge to the cloud.

◉ Ensure Energy Security by employing a seamless, scalable, and on-demand approach to protect energy company assets against cyberthreats with Dell APEX Backup Services and Dell APEX Cyber Recovery Services. Moreover, utilize Dell APEX for VDI to avail secure remote access, and AI-enabled computer vision infrastructure to run automated anomaly detection to ensure data safety for your critical energy infrastructure and consumers.

As-a-Services Use Cases for the Energy Industry

Here are a few use cases to demonstrate how energy organizations take advantage of Dell APEX.

 

◉ Energy Transition: Drive edge/core/cloud-based solutions to support decarbonization initiatives, ensure the abundance and affordability of renewables, and propel the clean energy transition forward with Dell APEX Hybrid Cloud.

◉ IT Modernization: Transform the Electric Utility Industry with automated, virtualized and industry-leading hyper-converged technologies with Dell APEX Flex on Demand to support the increasing demand for intermittent capacity generation and reduce the cost of overprovisioning.

◉ Data Security and Compliance: Employ a data-first approach to enable integrated data protection solutions and secure critical infrastructure. With APEX for Data Protection, you can easily adopt solutions to protect and manage data wherever it may live, as well as secure your data with proven modern data protection across the edge, core and clouds.

◉ Connected Workforce: Improve mobility and remote access from corporate operations and customer service to field/grid/substation with an optimized implementation of Dell APEX for VDI.

◉ Integrated Data Analytics: Leverage Dell APEX for Analytics and for AI to transform utilities and distribution grid operations. By taking an integrated approach to analytics, AI and ML, energy companies can have data anytime and anywhere to accelerate forecasting, sustainability goals and business outcomes.

◉ Technology at the Edge: Utilize on-demand APEX solutions and AI-enabled computer vision infrastructure to enable compute functionality at the edge and automate data collection and analysis to identify patterns, anomalies and perceived threats with APEX for AI.

What Customers Are Saying

With Dell’s expertise in business transformation and Validated Designs, here’s what some of our partners had to say about their experience with Dell.

◉ Windcloud knew Dell was the ideal company to partner with in their journey to set new standards in sustainable IT by hosting solutions in its data center powered 100% by green electricity, with Dell’s social impact plan completely aligning with Windcloud’s own central ideology. Using Dell’s servers with fresh air-cooling technology, Windcloud was able to use direct free cooling in their data processing center and use their cloud in an extremely energy-efficient manner.

◉ GEK Terna, a large developer, contractor, and energy producer needed protection from cyberattacks. They partnered with Dell to find innovative solutions to improve the firm’s cyber resilience and achieve greater data protection.

Source: dell.com

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