DAAC’s a Wrap: Highlights from the 2015 Dell Annual Analyst Conference

May 27-28, Dell once again held its Annual Analyst Conference (DAAC) here in Austin, TX. From all the times I heard attendees using the words “enthusiasm” and “excitement,” the energy seen at last year’s event has not waned.

Analyst and attendee Rob Enderle noted DAAC shows that we take the analyst community seriously. We know they have the ability to help us keep customers and potential customers informed on our strategic initiatives.

“You might well ask, why bother, since the stock is no longer traded and hasn’t been for a year and a half?” analyst and attendee Roger Kay said today. “The answer would be, the company still needs to maintain a conversation with the community, keeping it up to date on how things are going.”

One thing was echoed throughout the event, Dell has “arrived” as a private company. The leadership team is confident in our unchanged strategy, long-term vision, the company’s agility and our ability to provide end-to-end IT solutions for our customers. Roy Illsley from Ovum did a great job distilling what he heard at the event:

In addition to the analyst community, several employees attended the event as “roving reporters” for our internal employee-facing blog to ensure that everyone on our team has insight into what is happening across the company and around the globe.

Shakil Choudhury, Dell Services strategist and senior program manager, came away with a clear vision of Dell’s Internet of Things (IoT) advantages.

“We’re able to aggregate and integrate de-centralized data with Boomi, enable manageability with Wyse thin client gateways, secure end-points and data with SecureWorks, all while providing valuable consulting to our customers via Dell Services,” he noted. “And we have powerful OEM partnerships forming to take advantage of vertical market expertise.”

During his opening remarks, Michael Dell called IoT the “trillion dollar opportunity:”

In addition to IoT, cloud is another hot topic for our customers who have a mix of technologies and vendors in their data centers. Our hybrid cloud environments give customers the best of both worlds, roving reporter Brenda Rarick said.

“[They can] reap the benefits of instant-on, highly variable public cloud offerings while keeping control of their workload performance and data security through an on-premises private cloud,” she reported. “With hybrid clouds, customers are able to invest in both public and private cloud offerings, giving them more flexibility and control.”

One of our customers who attended the event, Allan Leinwand, vice president and CTO Cloud Platform and Infrastructure at ServiceNow, commented on the benefits of working with Dell:

And, of course, security is a topic that crosses all others. Below are highlights from one panel discussion of the topic that including industry analysts, Dell customers and several Dell experts in the field.

“It was a fascinating panel that discussed the landscape of security and explored future possibilities while articulating the Dell advantage in the space,” Sr. Manager, Marketing, and roving reporter, Andre Piazza said.

It amazed me how much insight and information our team packed into just two days – way more than I’m going to attempt to cram into one blog post. So, expect more to come over the next week or two!

About the Author: Laura Pevehouse

Laura Pevehouse was profiled as one of five “social media mavens” in the March 2009 issue of Austin Woman Magazine and named an AdWeek’s TweetFreak Five to Follow. She has been part of the Dell organization for more than 15 years in various corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, marketing, branding, social media and online communication roles. From 2014-2018, Laura was Chief Blogger/Editor-in-Chief for Direct2DellEMC and Direct2Dell, Dell’s official corporate blog that she help launch in 2007. She is now a member of the Dell Technologies Chairman Communications team. Earlier in her Dell career she focused on Global Commercial Channels and US Small and Medium Business public relations as part of the Global Communications team. Prior to that, she was responsible for global strategy in social media and community management, as well as marcom landing pages, as a member of Dell’s Global SMB Marketing, Brand and Creative team. When she was part of Dell’s Global Online group, Laura provided internal consulting that integrated online and social media opportunities with a focus on Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. She managed the home page of Dell.com, one of the top 500 global web sites in Alexa traffic rank, and first brought web feeds and podcasts to the ecommerce site. In her spare time she led Dell into the metaverse with the creation of Dell Island in the virtual world Second Life. Laura has earned the designation of Accredited Business Communicator from the International Association of Business Communicators, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Louisiana State University. Before joining Dell Financial Services in 2000, she worked at the Texas Workforce Commission and PepsiCo Food Systems Worldwide.