Unleash the Value of Your Data with Context-Specific GenAI

The business benefits of generative AI (GenAI) are compelling. A recent McKinsey report estimates that GenAI could add the equivalent of $2.6 to $4.4 trillion annually across 63 use cases they analyzed. Over time, organizations will reengineer their IT environment, data architecture and processes to capitalize on this transformative opportunity.

But what about the nearer term? Organizations are identifying generative AI opportunities in the present that can’t wait. How can businesses target the power of GenAI to enhance business effectiveness now?

Get the Most Out of Your Data by Limiting Scope

The GenAI large language models (LLMs) that have received so much attention have been trained and fine-tuned with massive amounts of data. Yet very few organizations have the resources or expertise today to train a model from scratch.

A more feasible option for many organizations, particularly in the nearer term, will be to fine-tune or augment an existing model with their own context-specific data. To further control scope and expense, the base model can be a language model specific to a particular domain, such as healthcare, legal services or finance.

Fine-tuning or augmenting a pre-trained model limits the scope of data discovery, exploration and enrichment to those datasets that are relevant to the use cases you select. It is also much less time-consuming than training a model and results in a more relevant and accurate model, compared with using a pre-trained model “as-is.”

RAG and Vector Databases Enable Better Outcomes

Retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, is a method to rapidly augment an existing language model with enterprise or context-specific information. Dell Technologies believes that model augmentation will be a popular alternative early on, as it allows organizations to bound GenAI use cases.

RAG takes data from structured and unstructured sources, which can be contextual or up-to-date data the language model cannot access on its own. The target data must be converted into a compatible format for the retrieval mechanism. For enhanced accuracy and RAG retrieval speed, target data can be converted into vector representations and stored in a vector database.

By drawing from vector databases, GenAI models can process complex relationships between data for better outcomes. Tools and best practices to create these representations with reasonable effort are available and are continually being improved.

Discover, Explore and Enrich Key Data, then Observe Output

Data to be ingested by a GenAI model requires preparation to ensure data quality, proper formatting and data sensitivity classification. Both structured and unstructured data are needed for augmenting or tuning language models, so the methods for data cleansing, labeling and anonymizing must address data traditionally located in both data lakes and data warehouses. Much of the unstructured data may need to be organized and enriched before it can be used as a tuning data source.

A major consideration for certain use cases is the flow or sequence of words, steps or activities—for example, an insurer’s claim processing steps or the question-answer sequence to resolve a customer issue. Data preparation for GenAI models may include quality improvement and summarization of text or workflow data, question-answer-context and instruction-response datasets.

GenAI models should be tuned with the best data sources aligned to the use cases. Before a GenAI project is released to production, data scientists should verify that the transformed data meets the project objectives. In addition, it’s vital to ensure sensitive or proprietary data is handled properly and protected.

It Takes Expertise to Move Fast with GenAI

It’s no surprise one of the constraints organizations face in accelerating their GenAI projects is the scarcity of professionals with skills in data discovery, data exploration and enrichment. An ESG report stated that “39% of organizations said expertise or skills is one of the biggest challenges they face with implementing GenAI,” which was the highest percentage for all the challenges listed.

A competent, experienced partner can make a big difference in quickly identifying and prioritizing use cases and then preparing the data and selecting and fine-tuning models. Organizations who want to address more use cases sooner to maximize GenAI impact can turn to Dell Consulting Services and leverage our consulting experts to accelerate time to value from bringing generative AI to their data.

Source: dell.com

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Meet Dell’s Newest Workstation, Featuring 96 Cores

I’m a big believer that the workstation industry has always been fast-paced and exciting. We’ve had a front row seat for more than 25 years helping creators, engineers, architects, researchers and more bring their ideas to life and make an impact on the world. Workstations have played a critical role here, viewed as a necessary tool to make the impossible possible. Now the world is buzzing with AI and generative AI (GenAI), and workstations are in the spotlight in a different way.

New Dell Technologies research shows that 65 to 75% of organizations are already reporting quantified outcomes with GenAI initiatives. As a result, approximately three-fourths of organizations are identifying incremental funding to support GenAI initiatives. This is consistent with the interest that we’re seeing with workstations. Our Dell Precision workstations are no longer just tools, they’re the engines of innovation. They let companies develop and fine-tune complex GenAI models locally before deploying them at scale.

As the global leader in workstations, our Precision portfolio caters to the diverse needs of professionals. Whether running GPU- or CPU-intensive workloads, Precision means performance, reliability, scalability and innovation.

That’s why we’re especially excited to introduce the new Precision 7875 Tower featuring AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 7000 WX-Series processors. It’s Dell’s most scalable and powerful AMD processor-based workstation ever.

Built for It All

Designed for engineers, architects, creatives and product designers, the Precision 7875 Tower is a multithreaded computing workstation for demanding professional applications. Users can power it all. It supports AI initiatives with massive datasets, to graphical design and virtual reality. With up to 96 cores, the Precision 7875 Tower has the most cores of any single socket Dell Precision workstation.

The Precision 7875 Tower is a performance powerhouse. With its high CPU core count, users can scale the device to handle large changes in workloads or demands. The workstation can support a variety of AI functions, such as model training, GenAI, machine learning and more. It is also a flexible option for a variety of high-end creative applications, including rendering, film production, design analysis, simulation and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) visualization.

Customers across industries are using Precision workstations to power creative projects. Whether you’re an architect designing an apartment complex or an animator creating for the next feature film, Dell Precision workstations provide powerful and reliable options for all types of intensive workloads.

“As an AI center on the forefront of medical innovation, we understand the critical role that technology plays. It’s the unseen partner in healthcare that analyzes the vast volumes of data within our technology space that will lead us to research enhancements that can ultimately enhance patient outcomes,” said Dr. Hooman Rashidi, Director of PLMI’s Center for AI & Data Science at Cleveland Clinic. “Dell Precision workstations provide us with the performance and reliability we need for our AI model building and tuning needs. This is a major part of the technology backbone that’s required as we help advance AI within our medical research.”

Packed with Innovation

We are always looking to evolve our workstation design to deliver more performance. The Precision 7875 Tower introduces a taller and deeper chassis than the previous generation. The purposeful build allows for more air space to cool the processor and now a sixth PCIe slot for increased expandability options. For the first time in Precision towers, the system features an integrated Wi-Fi slot, instead of taking the space of a PCIe slot. Users have more flexibility to take advantage of the machine for their specific workload needs and environments.

With a choice of professional graphics options (up to two 48GB AMD Radeon™ PRO W7900 or up to two 48GB NVIDIA RTX™ 6000 Ada Generation GPUs), up to 56TB of storage and 2TB of DDR5 memory, and support for NVIDIA AI Enterprise, the Precision 7875 Tower features top capabilities for intensive workloads.

We’ve also incorporated advanced reliability and security to protect confidential data. The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0, self-encrypting drives and lockable chassis design with intrusion detection provide the tools to keep customer projects secure.

There’s no better time to innovate and expand our Precision portfolio. As we learn more about the opportunities of AI and GenAI, our workstations will remain at the forefront to meet customer needs. The Dell Precision 7875 Tower will be available globally on December 5 with prices announced closer to shipping.

Source: dell.com

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Plan a Seamless Transition to Microsoft Fabric

“Data” has undoubtedly been a buzzword. Microsoft recently concluded the preview for Fabric, a comprehensive solution that promises to unify data analytics tools within the Microsoft ecosystem. With Fabric, data scientists, data engineers and data analysts can work together in a common environment from the same data. This means less focus on infrastructure and more focus on data science.

Transitioning to Microsoft Fabric is a strategic move that requires careful planning and execution. Given that Fabric is an expansion of existing Power BI capabilities—by its joining with other Azure AI tools—we should consider the advantages and disadvantages that come with adding such tools to your existing solutions. It can also be helpful to conduct a cost-benefit analysis with the single storage location for the entire toolset and with the reduction in infrastructure decisions.

As a trusted Microsoft partner, Dell Technologies is uniquely positioned to help your organization harness the full potential of Fabric through a comprehensive analysis of your environment to propose strategies based on your unique needs.

Considerations for Adding Synapse Tools to Your Power BI Solution

If Power BI is your only analytics tool and is meeting all your requirements for data transformation and insight generation, there may be no need to make a change. New technologies require training time and expenses not only for the users of the technologies, but also to determine how those tools fit into your solution architecture. If, however, you have considered how machine learning might provide better predictive or prescriptive analytics or if your data transformations need the big data power Spark provides, it could be time to consider Fabric. Here are some advantages and disadvantages related to a move to the Fabric toolset.

Data transformation options. Power BI alone limits your team to a single transformation tool: Power Query. Fabric expands that to a selection of tools to better fit different scenarios such as Spark, fast copy and data warehouse store procedures and views.

Versioning confusion. Power BI has never supported version control systems such as Git. Power BI does have a deployment pipeline, which continues to work for Fabric-based Power BI objects. Synapse Studio supports using Git repositories to version control the objects in its workspace. This is a loose end that Microsoft has not yet tied—a common versioning and deployment system for all the components of Fabric. If your team is segmented by roles, each team member can focus on their versioning. If, however, you have a smaller team with multiple hats being worn by each team member, there will be some learning to keep versioning straight.

The Pros and Cons of Common Storage

A common storage location and format for all tools, named “OneLake” within Fabric, gives data scientists, data engineers and analysts the opportunity to all work on and with the same data. The advantages include reduced data duplication and a common location for data set endorsement through certification or promotion. The pitfalls include the need to carefully plan security and architectures that support dev/test/prod environments for your various roles.

Reduced Infrastructure Decisions: Not Always the Best Choice

Much of the documentation around Fabric labels it or parts of it as a SaaS environment. Many of the Azure Synapse configurations are simplified or handled behind the scenes for users of Fabric. Previously you would have to decide different options for the various tools under the Azure Synapse umbrella (Data Warehouse Units, Spark Pools, etc.). Fabric, instead, asks customers only to select the compute and storage that support all tools in the Fabric capacity. You still must monitor your compute and storage usage and adjust your chosen environment based on actual usage, but the decisions are reduced and thus simplified.

For some scenarios, separate billing and compute may be preferred over the combined compute of Fabric. For example, if your solution heavily depends on Data Warehouse and has no Spark pools, the separate compute selections could be more performant for comparable or less cost.

For the foreseeable future, these separate billing and configuration options are still available, so teams can decide if they want to fine tune different infrastructure elements or if they want the combined toolset that Fabric provides.

Finding Guidance from Dell Services

Having been a close partner of Microsoft for over 35 years, Dell has deep design, implementation and troubleshooting knowledge and skills across Microsoft’s product line. Dell Technologies consulting experts can guide you to the right solution that meets your specific needs.

Dell can help your organization make the most of its move to Fabric from a variety of angles including training, advisory workshops, staff augmentation, health checks and complete solution design and development.

Source: dell.com

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Unlock the Potential of Microsoft 365 Copilot

We are witnessing the beginning of the next big leap in productivity. Generative AI is primed to significantly accelerate our creation and synthesis of content, freeing time to focus on more creative, thoughtful and impactful work.

As the de facto standard among productivity suites, the ubiquity of Microsoft 365 places Microsoft 365 Copilot in a unique position to bring GenAI capabilities to employees directly within their existing workflows faster, and with built-in governance and security features that homegrown options may lack.

However, getting your environment ready and enabling your teams to benefit from Microsoft 365 Copilot will still require planning and a thoughtful rollout. Dell Technologies is a longtime Microsoft partner, and we are uniquely equipped to help organizations unlock the potential of Microsoft 365 Copilot, with a strategy to:

• Prepare your data, including security and compliance considerations
• Enable the right set of users
• Measure what matters, establishing productivity baselines before you begin

Get Your Data Ready

Beyond meeting the prerequisites and technical guidelines released by Microsoft, which outline specific needs in terms of licensing, data privacy and security, data hygiene and tenant management, you will need to prepare your data to be accessed by Microsoft 365 Copilot, ensuring secure but broad access to business information.

The more information Microsoft 365 Copilot can reference, the more useful it will be. The quality of outputs will be better if Microsoft 365 Copilot can tap into the data and signals between all your Microsoft services, including data residing in SharePoint and OneDrive repositories.

The centerpiece of these signals is the Microsoft Graph, a unified interface and map for accessing the wide range of interconnected data and services within the Microsoft 365 suite. Your organization can give Microsoft Graph a strong foundation by structuring content optimally and ensuring your most important and relevant content is moved to the Microsoft cloud. This evaluation should include ensuring stale content is archived and incomplete drafts are organized in a way that can be easily excluded from Microsoft 365 Copilot visibility.

Data permissions and security will also be critical to Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness. Businesses will need to closely evaluate permissions to make sure users have access to the “right” amount of content, preventing sensitive company data from being inadvertently made available to the wrong audiences.

Taking a carefully balanced approach to managing permissions—not too much, but not too little—will boost results while mitigating the risks of excessive access. Compliance tools, such as Microsoft Purview, can be used to assess your data and control visibility using labels, policies and tags.

Put Microsoft 365 Copilot Into the Hands of the Right People

We believe GenAI can have a meaningful impact on the entire workforce. Some roles, however, will realize greater productivity gains from Microsoft 365 Copilot. It is important to identify which users and work styles within the organization will benefit most and prioritize these employee personas for access to Microsoft 365 Copilot.

As general guidance, employees that create and synthesize content will likely benefit most in the initial use cases of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Marketing and product teams, for example, can use it to accelerate creation of artifacts and discover insights and correlations much more rapidly.

After identifying your priority users and their needs, one of the most significant aspects of Microsoft 365 Copilot effectiveness will be ensuring they are equipped with the knowledge and ability to effectively use it within their applications. A thoughtful communication and training plan, tailored to user roles and inclusive of prompt engineering concepts, is necessary as a part of a larger adoption and change management program. We also recommend creating a champions network to facilitate peer collaboration.

Measure the Effectiveness of Your Investment

As with every major technology investment, organizations need a way to track and measure the impact of GenAI. Since Microsoft 365 Copilot is designed to improve productivity, businesses need to establish a productivity baseline as a key point of reference before implementation.

To effectively measure such a nuanced concept as productivity, businesses should consider both quantitative and qualitative measurements. Formal experience measurement programs yield the best results from the quantitative side, since they align initial vision with desired outcomes.

The native tools within Microsoft 365 are a good starting point for basic insight. Microsoft’s adoption score and usage analytics, for example, can help quantify how your organization performs work across pre-defined productivity categories and technical experiences. Microsoft Viva Insights is another solution that can provide useful productivity metrics.

However, measuring sheer output will not by itself yield a meaningful baseline. Qualitative analysis is important and can be addressed with sentiment measurement, which typically involves non-intrusive survey tools that ask users simple questions post-rollout.

This analysis can help determine how much time Microsoft 365 Copilot has saved employees when creating new presentations, for example, or how helpful the technology has been to reduce time spent reading and responding to emails. My recommendation is that even sentiment questions should be quantitative in nature—ask how much time was saved instead of if time was saved.

To help businesses with this process, Dell provides Digital Employee Experience services to establish baseline measurements and monitor the impact of technology change on their organization.

Are You Ready for Microsoft 365 Copilot?

As organizations consider investing in Microsoft 365 Copilot, we advise beginning readiness activities early in order to hit the ground running with this game-changing technology.

Dell Technologies is an end-to-end solutions provider ready to assist with Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness, including licensing agreements for Microsoft 365 Copilot and other Microsoft software products. Once licensed, Dell Services is here to help prepare both your environment and employees for generative AI and Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Source: dell.com

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Fine-Tuning Creativity with Precision AI-Ready Workstations

The rapid advancements in artificial intelligence over the past few months are remarkable, and staying ahead in this dynamic environment is crucial. The rise of generative AI (GenAI) has companies trying to create value from a technology that is evolving daily.

A critical phase in the GenAI lifecycle is model fine-tuning. Due to its seamlessness and efficiency, this transformative technique has gained popularity among data scientists, independent software vendor (ISV) developers and creators, as it levels the playing field in innovation. It allows exploration of new horizons of possibility, experimentation with novel approaches and breathes life into the boldest AI visions.

Model fine-tuning involves taking a pre-trained neural network model and training it with domain-specific data, enabling it to perform a specific task or generate content tailored to a particular domain or to an individual’s own work. Fine-tuning allows someone with little background in coding to leverage the knowledge and features learned by a pre-trained model and customize it according to a specific use case.

Unleashing Creativity through Fine-tuning

In a world where AI applications are becoming increasingly diverse and nuanced, the ability to fine-tune GenAI models at your workstation is a game-changer. 3D Artist and Workflow Specialist Ashlee Martino-Tarr from NVIDIA used Dell Technologies’ Precision AI-ready workstations to fine-tune an existing GenAI model, modifying it on concepts in her vision for designing futuristic cars.

“I was working with another designer, and we took his 3D renderings and 2D sketches and trained an AI network to allow us to design and create around the likeness of that design theme. GenAI can show us renders of the design in different colors and see it from different angles, creating iterations that would have taken hours to draw and manifest,” Martino-Tarr said.

GenAI fine-tuning accelerated Martino-Tarr’s design project—what used to be the manual process of sketching and coloring numerous design iterations has now been automated.

“This fine-tuned model also allowed us to improve the design by inputting more sketches into the AI model. The model then further understands the artist’s style and can modify some parts accordingly. We also use it as an ideation tool and train it to specific rules and boundaries—this is especially important when generating a different car every time because you might build things that are off balance and have precise parameters in height, width, and aerodynamics,” she said.

The success of this process hinges significantly on choosing the right solution—not just selecting the right hardware but also the right-sized dimensions needed to support and power your AI initiative. Model fine-tuning requires significant computational power, memory and efficiency. And more than anything, it requires a balanced system.

For this specific design project, Martino-Tarr used a Dell Precision 5860 AI-ready workstation powered by an Intel (R) Xeon processor and an NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPU with 48GB VRAM.

“It really comes down to your system and what’s in your system—because at the end of the day, if you do not have enough power, memory or storage, then you’d have to cut corners on your project. My Precision workstation and NVIDIA RTX GPU setup help generate images faster and work consistently with GenAI” she said.

Built for Innovation

As the world’s top workstation brand, Precision workstations have long been popular with AI developers, data scientists and creators, as it offers a comprehensive selection of AI-ready devices, providing the tools they need to prototype, develop and optimize AI and GenAI models locally and securely. Fine-tuning workloads on Precision workstations allows for cost-effective experimentation and calibration, ensuring users can refine their projects and accelerate the iterative process without excessive expenses.

Source: dell.com

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Helping Manufacturers Protect Their Operations from Cyber Threats

Today’s factories are rapidly adopting new technologies to continue to improve operations, factory output and overall quality of the products they produce. In order to further optimize along Industry 4.0 concepts, it is important to extract data from production systems found in operational technology (OT) systems. These systems, which manage machines, robots, production lines and other systems doing the work on a factory floor, are often segmented and separate from traditional IT systems. The process of extracting, consolidating, analyzing and managing data from these systems provides insights that can lead to overall improvements for yield optimization, equipment effectiveness, production quality and other manufacturing outcomes.

Manufacturers may not realize the exposure they face, even with cyberattacks on the rise. But much like IT systems, OT systems also face threats. Firewalls and other enterprise security practices may not provide sufficient protection, or worse, manufacturers may think OT is not a target for cyberattacks in the first place. ICSs (industrial control systems) and other OT devices are often outdated, obsolete or designed without security features built in, as is the case with isolated network-connected devices.

Traditional IT security solutions may be unprepared for the challenges posed by OT. Tools that do well at protecting and monitoring IT systems simply do not have the visibility needed to find and identify malicious anomalies in OT. Coupled with a lack of expertise within organizations and resources to respond to incidents, disastrous consequences can occur.

A Holistic, Secure Manufacturing Portfolio

Manufacturers need a comprehensive, end-to-end security portfolio that can ensure cyber resiliency across IT and OT environments. Not all environments have the same needs and not all environments have modernized multifaceted security approaches to combat site, data and worker safety. For this reason, Dell Technologies leverages several solutions, including robust infrastructure delivered through secure supply chain, consulting and managed services, air-gapped data protection and integration with leading security software tools to achieve a holistic approach to securing the modern factory.

Dell Technologies designs, sizes and validates a security architecture for each customer’s unique factory floor needs. Our validated designs are engineered, purpose-built solutions created by our team of experts, who have years of experience in manufacturing cybersecurity. Lab validation helps deliver a solution that works for manufacturing organizations from day one. Manufacturing customers get a robust and secure architecture that reduces time to implementation, protects IT and OT systems and reduces vulnerability risk.

Our independent software vendor (ISVs) partners are leaders and innovators in their respective fields, bringing manufacturers the best IT and OT security solutions. Whether it’s running a production application critical to business operations or expanding an existing system seamlessly, Dell Technologies and our partners are ready to work toward a secure solution. Secure manufacturing products and services include:

• Isolated, air-gapped backups with Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery. Synchronizes applications and data to an air-gapped, locked vault, which physically and logically isolates the data while software performs integrity check by analyzing data in the vault to ensure it’s free from manipulation or corruption.
• Managed detection and response. Checks device vulnerability, performs penetration testing and determines if the network can be accessed through OT devices; can also monitor for threats and perform remediation, when needed.
• Continuous monitoring with purpose-built OT platforms. Extends existing IT security controls to the OT environment for continuous monitoring of OT and industrial control system (ICS) devices; also performs deep-packet inspection and strategically integrates with MDR solution.
• Dell safety and security solutions. Combines Dell Technologies’ validated workloads for computer vision video analytics, video management systems (VMS) and access control systems on bare metal or hyperconverged infrastructures, along with partner-supplied appliances, in a scalable architecture. We work with a customer’s existing surveillance camera network, if possible, to simplify support, consolidate workloads and enhance surveillance systems with new capabilities like worker safety, site security, safe zones, enhanced access controls and other computer vision use cases.
• Secure supply chain. Dell Technologies’ desktops, servers, storage arrays and other hardware are “cybersecurity-hardened” in Zero Trust environments throughout development and manufacturing to delivery. Our multifaceted approach protects our supply chain, enabling us to deliver solutions that manufacturers can trust. Working together with Intel we can deliver the level of trust manufacturers need. Intel uses Compute Lifecycle Assurance (CLA), developed to extend trust throughout the product lifecycle, for example -Transparent Supply Chain, providing visibility from manufacture to deployment.

Dell Technologies Services helps customers at every phase of a secure manufacturing deployment. Our sales and security professionals assist customers in designing a cyber-resilient architecture they can trust to recover from a disruptive cyber event. PowerProtect Cyber Recovery services include advisory, design, deployment, implementation, test, recovery, operations and ongoing management of recovery services. Solution security analysts can assist with the initial setup, monitoring, detection, remediation, response and ongoing recommendations of improvements to keep security practices current. Each capability in the portfolio can stand on its own.

Some organizations have standardized on a cybersecurity solution leveraged by IT but may also look to extend their OT and IoT reach as they expand their Industry 4.0 projects. Isolating networks can provide additional security, which can be further enhanced through virtual network technologies. By integrating capabilities, OT security platforms can also integrate data from edge “listeners” to alerting and remediation in IT security tools, providing OT and IT flexibility to manage their preferred operations while centralizing alerting and response.

Finally, Dell Technologies’ secure manufacturing portfolio aligns with the Purdue Model framework for OT cybersecurity. Our digital safety model and validated designs can help manufacturers comply with industry standards and regulations, such as the ISO/IEC 27001 standard.

A Trusted, End-to-end Security Partner

Dell Technologies is a leading technology provider with a focus on both IT and OT, dedicated to helping manufacturers develop an enterprise-wide strategy to protect their operations from cyber threats.

It’s critical for manufacturers to proactively implement validated technologies that are supported by tested and documented recovery programs, to form a strong line of defense for the business. That’s what we provide and stand behind.

Source: dell.com

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Seize the Opportunity at Your Edge

Today, almost every electronic and mechanical device generates and collects data. From smart watches and smart home systems, to vehicles, to the video surveillance system at the mall, to a production line in the factory—all these systems generate vast amounts of unstructured data at the edge. Sending this data deluge to one central location for processing and storage is complex, expensive and—for our data-driven era—much too slow. In today’s business environment, organizations demand agility, speed and constant innovation to maintain competitive advantage. Data is the lifeblood of successful organizations, and the race is on to turn data at the edge into instant value to deliver the next breakthrough innovation.

Real-time Processing of Data at the Edge

Recent advances hold out the promise of real-time processing of data at the edge, bringing new opportunities to generate value and make faster, data-driven decisions. Centralized locations such as a data center, colocation or the cloud may not be suitable for all workloads. In traditional, centralized IT architectures, the missing component is a compute capability placed close to the source of the data, such as a remote office/branch office (ROBO) location, a retail outlet with security cameras, a fast-food restaurant chain, warehouse, a cell tower or a public transport system, among others. For scenarios where the time to value for data-based outcomes is critical, edge compute has become a fundamental part of the business landscape.

Challenges at the Edge

To unlock the value of data at the edge, there are several challenges that organizations must solve. These include harsh environments (for example, temperature extremes, dust, vibration), no dedicated space for IT equipment, limited access to technical support staff, physical and cyber security, and an accumulation of legacy and diverse systems. The interplay of these factors creates great complexity for organizations looking to swiftly innovate and unlock the value of their edge estate.

Dell Simplifies the Edge

Simplification of the edge is crucial to maintain high productivity, secure, standardized and efficient operations, especially in multiple distant locations. Reducing proliferation of equipment at the edge and providing standardization allows for the use of a centralized platform that will gather legacy, modern and future applications in secure way. To meet the challenges of the edge, Dell Technologies has developed the Dell PowerEdge XR series of servers, purpose-built for edge locations outside of data center environments and including all the performance, features and security benefits common to the PowerEdge range of servers.

Read More: DEA-3TT2: Dell EMC Data Protection and Management Associate

Additionally, the recent launch of Dell NativeEdge provides organizations with an edge operations software platform to securely scale their edge footprint. NativeEdge centralizes edge management across locations, automates operations, offers flexibility with its open design, enables Zero Trust security and provides multicloud connectivity.

Keeping in mind legacy applications, current needs and future developments, IT managers are looking for open designs that will keep up with their evolving business needs. To optimize their investment in edge operations, they need a solution that will support existing, new and future edge use cases with an open design that works with their choice of software applications, IoT frameworks, Operational Technology (OT) vendor solutions and multicloud environments.

Dell PowerEdge XR Servers

The guiding principle for the PowerEdge XR series is that hardware should no longer be a bottleneck for any type of workload in almost any environmental condition. With its small form factor, ruggedized design and front-facing I/O for simplified maintenance, the XR series server can make itself at home in any location, no matter how constrained. The XR series delivers scalable, secure edge compute for a wide range of use cases, including telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, defense, energy, AI/ML heavy workloads and AI inferencing at the edge.

Ruggedized design and small form factor of the Dell PowerEdge XR series.

Experience the Edge at the Dell Technologies Customer Solution Centers

Dell Technologies Customer Solution Centers put you in control to explore, architect and validate the edge solutions that will drive your organization forward. To experience the capabilities of the Dell XR series of edge compute platforms and Dell NativeEdge, ask your account executive to set up a technical deep dive session remotely or in one of our dedicated labs. During your time, you’ll see real-world edge use cases in action from several industry verticals, including manufacturing, retail, safety and security, healthcare and energy.  Our role at Dell Technologies is to simplify your edge so you can generate more value from your data everywhere it exists.

To request an in-person or virtual tour of the Customer Solution Centers Innovation Labs, contact your Dell Technologies sales representative.

Dell PowerEdge XR Series servers at a Customer Solution Centers Innovation Lab.

Source: dell.com

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New Dell Latitude Rugged Extreme Tablet: Portability Without Compromise

Professionals working in harsh environments require not only rugged durability but portable solutions that don’t weigh them down in the field. Dell Technologies’ new Rugged product achieves this combination. In fact, it is the world’s lightest 10-inch fully rugged Windows tablet.

Featuring a robust ecosystem of accessories and hot-swappable batteries for extended performance, the 7030 Rugged Extreme Tablet was designed for workers who spend most of their time away from a desk. So, whether you’re on the factory line, in a machine shop or atop a snowy mountain, the 7030 Rugged Extreme Tablet will make for the ultimate companion.

Dell’s Most Portable Fully Rugged Tablet

Marrying durability and mobility, the 7030 Rugged Extreme Tablet is Dell’s most portable fully rugged tablet. Its lightweight 2.2-pound chassis and convenient accessories mean the tablet won’t feel unwieldy, so your muscles get relief during a long shift on the warehouse floor, at the scene of an accident or when navigating construction sites.

Last year, Dell launched the Latitude 7230 Rugged Extreme Tablet, a 12-inch fully rugged slate that shares key performance, security, connectivity and durability features with the 7030 Rugged Extreme. We see the new 10-inch model as a companion to its larger sibling. Where the 12-inch tablet performs well on short commutes or during hours-long shifts on the factory floor, the 10-inch slate offers all-day mobility. Imagine using the extra port and larger screen on the 12-inch model to connect to machinery then moving to the 10-inch tablet for line inspections.

Swappable Batteries for All-Day Endurance

When portability is a priority, so too is the need to keep your system powered without interruption. That’s why Dell engineered the 7030 Rugged Extreme with a dual hot-swappable battery option as an alternative to the 36Whr internal battery. Those who elect to go with this feature can easily pop in two additional batteries to keep the tablet powered as time passes in the field.

Small in Size, Big on Durability and Security

Though diminutive for a rugged, the 7030 Rugged Extreme boasts IP-65 and MIL-STD 810 ratings to survive the most extreme conditions. Military-grade spec means the new Latitude is drop-tested from up to four feet and temperature-tested from -20 F to 145 F. An IP-65 rating means maximum protection from dust, dirt and water ingress to give you peace of mind that your tablet—and the sensitive data housed within—survive intense weather environments.

We equipped this fully rugged tablet with modern security features to ensure it is as safe from cyber threats as it is from environmental ones. Its TPM 2.0 ControlVault is a hardware-based encryption tool that helps users secure data with integrated encryption. An infrared camera for Microsoft Windows Hello-based facial recognition, a touch fingerprint reader, camera privacy shutters and a contacted or contactless smartcard reader round out a suite of security options.

Powerful Performance and Modern Features

The 7030 Rugged Extreme Tablet comes equipped with up to a 12th Gen Intel Core™ i7 processor, integrated Iris Xe graphics on i5 and i7 configurations and up to 32GB of LPDDR5 memory for powerful performance on the go. And don’t worry about running out of space because the 7030 Rugged Extreme supports up to a 2TB NVMe SSD.

To some professionals, robust connectivity options are as important as strong performance. To that end, the 7030 Rugged Extreme supports Wi-Fi 6E with dual broadband to help ensure you get the fastest possible speeds. The 7030 Rugged Extreme also comes with GPS and 5G, and even supports 5G Private Network for improvements in security, speed and wireless range.

Real-time data is viewed on the 7030 Rugged Extreme’s 10.1-inch FHD+ (1920 x 1200) display which has a 16:10 aspect ratio that maximizes screen real estate. You won’t have to look for shade because the panel can reach 1000 nits, making it visible even in direct sunlight. Plus, those who work with harsh chemicals or dangerous equipment can stay protected thanks to the 7030’s glove-touch capability.

Purpose-Built Accessories for Every Industry

Where the 7030 Rugged Extreme can accommodate a range of diverse tasks, its Dell-branded accessories are purpose-built to tackle specific demands. Here are a few highlights:

• Rigid handle and passive stylus. This pairing gives you a grip for carrying the 7030 Rugged Extreme and a passive stylus for greater precision when writing or drawing. The handle, which conveniently stores the pen, has a rubber mold and rigid polymer structure for a satisfying feel. The passive stylus can also be purchased separately.
• Detachable keyboard. Convert the 7030 Rugged Extreme into a 2-in-1 with the IP-65-rated detachable RGB backlit keyboard that easily locks into place. Once attached, the tablet can be propped upright for standard “laptop” mode or folded 180 degrees.
• Rotating hand strap. A 360-degree rotating hand strap allows you to comfortably secure the tablet to your wrist as you use it in static or mobile environments. The strap attaches to a 50×50 VESA mount and includes a convenient place to store your stylus.

The versatility of these accessories extends to the 7030 Rugged Extreme Tablet’s configurable ports which can be customized with a barcode scanner, RJ-45, universal audio jack or USB-A. As you can see, Dell built the 7030 Rugged Extreme Tablet to adapt to various industries which is why it also features two hardware buttons that can be programmed in the Rugged Control Center application.

The 7030 Rugged Extreme will be available globally later this year, with pricing announced closer to shipping. For companies deploying rugged devices at scale, fleets of tablets can be seamlessly deployed, managed and secured over the cloud, with additional support through enterprise services such as next business day on-site support and predictive ProSupport tools. And by going with Dell, you have a one-stop shop for all of your commercial needs, be that PCs, workstations, rugged devices, monitors, servers and even services— with reassurance we can scale to your needs.

Source: dell.com

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Forrester Consulting Examines the Impact of PowerProtect Cyber Recovery

In today’s digital age, data is at the heart of every organization’s operation. Protecting data has become paramount, especially in the face of continuous cyber threats. You’ve likely heard of, witnessed or been a part of a scenario where an organization falls victim to a ransomware attack. And behind the scenes, production servers and standard backups are rendered inaccessible and critical data has been lost. The organization has been compromised, employees and customers are frustrated, and revenue is lost due to downtime.

Data resiliency is focused on being able to recover the right data, to the right location, at the right time, making it available as needed. When it comes to recovering data that has been affected by a cyberattack, having a non-compromised clean copy of that data is imperative for recovery to continue running the business as quickly as possible. This is where PowerProtect Cyber Recovery with CyberSense plays a key role.

Dell’s PowerProtect Cyber Recovery vault is revolutionary in the realm of cyber security and data resiliency. It empowers organizations to create immutable backups and store them in an isolated recovery vault, offering a lifeline in the event of a cyberattack when standard production backups are compromised. Access to the vault is not possible from any of the production servers so the ransomware attack is unaware of the vault contents. CyberSense is the watchdog that scans the immutable backup copies in the vault for signs of corruptions due to ransomware. This added layer of protection uses analytics and AI-based machine learning to detect malicious activity and help customers determine the clean version of files needed to recover quickly and minimize data loss and downtime.

The Results are in the Numbers

Dell commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery. The purpose of the study is to provide practitioners with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of PowerProtect Cyber Recovery on their organizations in the event of a cyberattack. The study identifies the costs, benefits, flexibility and risk factors that affect the investment decision, and the study results are from a composite organization derived from interviewing multiple organizations that have implemented the solution.

Here’s what the Forrester study found:

◉ Reduction in data recovery time by 80%. Following a ransomware attack, the composite organization recovered its data with 80% less effort with the solution in place versus without the solution. Data protection teams spent less time locating uncompromised data in the vault and spent less time restoring to resume normal business operations.

◉ Reduction of system downtime by 75%. Following a ransomware attack, the composite organization got its systems back online 75% faster with the solution versus without the solution. This reduced the disruption in employee productivity, operations and services and resulted in less negative publicity that might affect the business brand reputation.

Faster data recovery and reduced downtime result in less business disruption and reduction in loss of business.

Every day that we’re not open, we are losing revenue. If we’re not providing services to the public, we could lose millions of dollars.“ – CISO, Local Government

Additional Benefits of PowerProtect Cyber Recovery

While the quantifiable benefits are considerable, there are other qualitative benefits that came from the study that are harder to put a number on but are very valuable to the business:

• Insurance savings. Having PowerProtect Cyber Recovery in place reduces insurance risk, leading to more favorable insurance pricing and acceptance.
• Resiliency mindset. The solution boosts the organization’s cyber resilience maturity, guiding future security and resilience decisions.
• Easier audits. PowerProtect Cyber Recovery streamlines audit preparations and compliance checks.
• Employee reassurance. Knowing their data is secure improves employee peace of mind and trust in the organization.
• Dell partnership. Confidence in Dell’s expertise and solutions foster a strong partnership with customers.
• Proactive integrity scans. Assurance that data is clean from malicious corruption via automated CyberSense scans.

Dell’s PowerProtect Cyber Recovery isn’t just a cyber security solution, it’s an investment in peace of mind. It empowers organizations to safeguard their data, recover from cyberattacks with speed and efficiency and build resiliency in an increasingly digital world. The numbers speak for themselves, but the true value lies in the confidence it instills and the protection it offers in the face of ever-evolving cyber threats.

When you’re effected by a cyberattack, you want the right solution in place to help mitigate the attack, restore uncorrupted data and resume normal business operations as quickly as possible.

Source: dell.com

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GenAI and the PC Revolution

Three years ago, we talked about the Renaissance of the PC. While the PC has always helped us connect and collaborate, in 2020, at the height of work-from-home and virtual learning, we saw just how critical the PC is to all aspects of our lives. It was at that time we laid out our vision for the future, outlined where our investments were going and predicted how the PC-human experience would evolve.

Now, we have another pivotal moment at our fingertips. This time it’s with generative AI (GenAI). The advances we’ll see from GenAI will compare to the introduction of the PC 40 years ago when it brought unseen levels of productivity to the world. But what exactly does this mean for the future of the PC? How will GenAI shape the PC-human experience?

First, the Here and Now

To understand the future opportunities of AI, let’s first look at where we have been and where we are today. Chances are you’ve been using some type of AI in your daily life already (let’s not forget AI and machine learning have been around for a while). We saw the opportunity for PCs to help drive human productivity and became an early AI adopter, making our PCs more intelligent, self-aware and user aware.

For example, with Dell Optimizer, the software uses AI to automatically configure itself to make you more productive by doing things such as running apps faster, preserving battery life and blocking out unwanted background noise on conference calls. This is why we can proudly say we have the world’s most intelligent commercial PCs.

As the power of the PC increases, so does its ability to have a hand in developing GenAI. Our Dell Precision workstations support GPU and multi-GPU acceleration, CPU multi-threading and more. All this power helps app developers train large AI models anywhere from five-million to 500-million parameters locally on the device—to prepare, develop, prototype and deploy GenAI models.

The Opportunities of GenAI – Near Term

GenAI will influence how we live and work. While there’s still a lot to imagine, AI-enabled PCs are increasingly becoming part of this discussion. We saw how GenAI will unlock new levels of productivity with the recent announcement of Microsoft Copilot. Demo after demo, we observed how we can collate and create information faster than ever before. This puts ideas at the center, letting you shift your time to creativity, problem-solving and innovation.

We’re working closely with Microsoft as it rolls out new Copilot in Windows (in preview). Windows 11 users can start realizing these benefits today. But we won’t stop there. You’ll see us focused on being the leading PC provider for the AI era, with additional emphasis and investments centered around intelligence, security and being a trusted end-to-end AI advisor.

Then, as we ask our devices to do more, it will require PCs that use language modeling, language processing and machine learning capabilities to improve the user experience. These experiences bring a lot of efficiencies like cost effectiveness, improved privacy and security, reduced latency and sustainability benefits. It will also require a new architecture that doesn’t purely rely on the CPU or GPU for processing. We’re actively working with partners throughout the industry to make this new architecture a reality. We can’t wait to show you more.

The Possibilities of GenAI – Long Term

Looking beyond the next few years, we see your future PC as a true digital partner. PCs will move beyond driving human productivity to driving human performance. This will require you to reimagine how you work with the familiar laptop and desktop of today.

For example, instead of mostly command-and-control interactions driven by you typing on a keyboard, there will be additional non-text-based ways to prompt technology to have a bi-directional experience between humans and PCs. Imagine a future where you can collaborate or co-create with voice, visual commands and gestures. Envision allowing your PC to interpret your mood, facial expression, tone of voice or even a change in the way you type for a much richer experience that delivers the result you are looking for, how you will best receive it. Your PC experience will transition from searching to prompting, from reading to understanding, from editing to directing.

It’s exciting to think about what’s to come, not just for devices, but the entire PC ecosystem. We take our cues from human experiences to drive human progress, and our broad portfolio of products, solutions and services will play a critical role in powering this future.

We Are at an Inflection Point

I’ve been in the tech industry for 30 years. It’s always been fast-paced and exciting, but the opportunity we have ahead is unlike anything we’ve seen since PCs were introduced 40 years ago. We’d be lying if we said we have all the answers—we don’t. The collateral benefits alone are so immense. But I can tell you humans will remain at the core of progress. Between new software developments, new architectures on the horizon, new services capabilities and our ongoing explorations that center around human connection and experience, we’re at an inflection point. End-user experiences will change for the better and become quicker than ever. We’ve been handed an opportunity—go revolutionize the PC experience. We’re here for it.

Source: dell.com

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Delivering on the Promise of Carrier Grade Support

No one wants unplanned downtime. Yet, it’s an unfortunate reality for which all communications service providers (CSPs) must prepare. Consider a catastrophic natural disaster that causes widespread, inescapable damage and disruption. Amidst the destruction, network interruptions are virtually expected. While these events don’t occur every day, it’s the day-to-day downtime due to power outages, environmental factors, cyberattacks or even human error that—while unavoidable—is the most prevalent, and often the most frustrating and unforgiving, among end users.

Prepare for Anything

When the inevitable happens, CSPs must have the right level of support to promptly identify the issue, resolve the outage quickly and implement processes to mitigate the risk of downtime again, while keeping costs as low as possible. A key part of this is having maximum comprehensive support to enable service continuity for critical applications and end users with access to designated industry experts that monitor the network and resolve issues in designated timelines.

That’s precisely what Dell Technologies delivers with our carrier-grade support. It provides full hardware, software and solution-level support specifically for CSPs, topped off with agile and streamlined access to telecom experts to enable customers to maximize uptime and minimize downtime. It also covers end-to-end network assets for all locations from the core to near and far edge for Dell and third-party products including Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Wind River, Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat and Dell Bare Metal Orchestrator.

A key benefit of Dell’s carrier grade support is the service level agreements (SLAs) with financial risk that ensure a timely return to operation after issue detection and reporting. These penalty-backed SLAs include predefined response, restoration and resolution timelines with automated case creation and customer-facing reports to track SLA adherence and provide actionable insights on root cause. In the event of a critical incident, all Dell functional teams collaborate in real time to ensure customers are productive within the defined SLA period. With this, customers can feel confident their issue will be resolved quickly and transparently.

Dell further tailors our traditional support for CSPs with enhanced account management and reporting provided by industry-trained experts. Customers have immediate access through a single call to dedicated telecom experts including a service account manager (SAMT), technical account manager (TAMT) and customer success executive (CSET) who ensure customers obtain value in line with their goals and desired outcomes. After issue resolution, the SAMT implements recurring, scalable systems maintenance to ensure the network is consistently up to date with the latest firmware and BIOS that improve performance and availability on an ongoing basis.

Our carrier-grade support also includes proactive, predictive monitoring and enables connectivity through AI/ML capabilities that continuously oversee the environment and mitigate risk with Dell Secure Connect Gateway. Through gathered real-time connectivity information, the designated SAMT can then provide tailored intelligence and recommendations unique to each customer environment. These technologies are a foundational part of our support and enable us to continuously monitor the environment so customers can focus on network operations.

The Right Level of Support

Organizations must do all they can to maintain business continuity and minimize the chance of lost revenue or reputational damage in the future. We understand the significance of continuous service delivery to uphold end user expectations and drive revenue. With our carrier grade support, CSPs can be confident Dell is consistently monitoring their network infrastructure and keeping it continuously up to date. Our specialized account management understands their environment and unique requirements, and if things go wrong, we’ll get their network back up and running in a timely manner.

Unplanned downtime will happen, but when the inevitable occurs, Dell Carrier Grade Support with ProSupport Plus makes issue resolution and mitigation simple and much more manageable. It is highly scalable and provides the ability to extend elevated support across critical network assets from the core to the far edge. Leveraging Dell’s global scale, technical expertise and advanced tools, we offer the very pinnacle of support for CSPs to remedy their challenges quickly, efficiently and with as little disruption as possible.

Source: dell.com

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Delivering on Our Promise of Long-term Value Creation

Today I had the privilege of standing on the stage at the Dell Technologies Securities Analyst Meeting to unveil our new long-term value creation framework and capital allocation plan. It was a first for me as chief financial officer and a point of pride as both a long-time Dell team member and shareholder.

Let me tell you why.

Together our leadership team laid out a vision for the future of our company, steeped in the realities of today and a long history of adapting and redefining ourselves to meet the moment. Moments like the one we’re in where technology innovation, like generative AI, opens a whole new realm of possibility for humanity.

Built for Long-term Growth

For almost four decades, we’ve made it our mission to be at the center of technology innovation in service of our customers—first with the PC, then with the data center, now with multicloud, edge and AI. And with each new wave of innovation, we’ve tapped into new growth opportunities, delivering $102 billion in revenue last fiscal year.

We built our company for long-term growth. We have a unique operational model that can adjust to any economic environment, driving consistent revenue growth over time and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) growth that’s faster than revenue.

And importantly, it comes with some distinct competitive advantages:

◉ Leading end-to-end solutions, we’re #1 in 20 technology categories

◉ The industry’s largest go-to-market engine

◉ The world’s leading supply chain

◉ A global footprint operating in 180 countries

Our growth and financial discipline generate a lot of cash. This is nothing new—we’ve largely been cash flow positive for nearly 40 years. Since the EMC transaction in 2016, we used our cash to reduce core debt by $38B, became investment grade again and over the past five years, generated more than $40B in cash flow from operations. And over the last six quarters, we’ve returned on average 90% of adjusted free cash flow to our shareholders.

Value Creation Framework and Capital Allocation Plan

All of that—the vision, the track record of growth, our operating advantages and cash generation—position us to extend our leadership and capture new growth opportunities in this next cycle of innovation…and the next. And when we do, our customers, partners, team members, communities and shareholders will share in our success.

We believe we will deliver:

◉ 3-4% revenue growth, outpacing GDP

◉ 8% or better growth in non-GAAP diluted EPS

◉ Net income to adjusted free cash flow conversion of 100% or better

◉ Over 80% return of adjusted free cash flow to shareholders—a sizeable bump from the 40-60% target previously announced

◉ Annual dividend growth of 10% or better through FY28

The World is Headed Our Way

I’ve been at Dell for 26 years. I’ve experienced first-hand numerous economic cycles, technology trends and disruptions. Time and again, our company has pivoted, adapted and continued to grow.

But this moment feels different. AI, multicloud, edge, work-from-anywhere—it all means more data, more computing power and more demand for what we sell. The world is headed our way like never before, and we’re ready for it.

Source: dell.com

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