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!
