There was a lot to celebrate at the first ever Dell World. The advent of Dell Technologies, of course. Advances in security, data analytics, workforce transformation. A heartfelt performance by Alabama Shakes. Malcolm Gladwell’s insightful thoughts on what it really takes to innovate.
Personally, I found myself celebrating Dell’s expanding Technology Alliance partnerships and the myriad joint solutions they make possible, like the many solutions showcased by Microsoft at Dell World and our new VxRail hyper-converged appliances based on PowerEdge servers with VMware.
Of course, the ones with the biggest reason to celebrate are – as it should be! – our customers. With the merging of the former EMC and Dell partner programs into a single ecosystem of Technology Alliances, our customers have access to the broadest portfolio of solutions in the industry. Dell has always stood for choice, and now Dell customers have more options than ever before.
When I spoke with theCUBE at Dell World (you can stream the full interview below), the question arose how to navigate such a broad range of options. Having so many decisions to make sounds exhausting; how can we keep from drowning in a sea of possibilities?
Fortunately, choice doesn’t have to be overwhelming or confusing. With the expansion of our partner ecosystem comes a proportionately expanded Dell Blueprints program. Our Technology Alliance partners are a cornerstone of Dell Blueprints, which organizes solutions by use case, making it faster and easier for customers to identify, evaluate, and acquire the solutions they need. Having a lot of options doesn’t mean customers are stranded in the Wild West.
Furthermore, our Blueprint solutions span the “build-to-buy” continuum. Hands-on customers who prefer to build systems themselves can do so with guidance from reference architectures, certified hardware and software bundles, or validated systems, where our strategic partnership with Intel for HPC and SAP workload-based solutions are essential. Alternately, customers who prefer the speed and simplicity of turnkey systems can move toward the buy end of the spectrum, into engineered systems, where our Cisco alliance is critical, and ultimately hybrid cloud platforms, where our VMware, Microsoft, and Pivotal Cloud Foundry partnerships are key.
In short, our expanded partner ecosystem enables Dell to provide the broadest portfolio of solutions in the industry. At the same time, we’ve also created a structure that guides customers as they zero in on the best solution for their particular needs. And connecting a customer with exactly the right solution, one that speeds them along their path to digital transformation, is something worth celebrating, indeed!