Start With Outcomes: A Business-First Strategy for Digital Twins

Key takeaways:

• • Digital twins deliver the most value when aligned to specific business outcomes and ROI
  • A business-first approach guides use cases, data, and models to solve real operational challenges
  • Proven examples span automotive, healthcare, and retail operations, supported by Dell Technologies infrastructure

Digital twins are gaining momentum as organizations work to modernize data center operations, improve resiliency, and improve resource use. As the complexity of power, cooling, and workload distribution continues to grow, many leaders see digital twins as the next lever to accelerate decision-making and reduce risk.

Forrester’s Alvin Nguyen is launching a new research series on digital twins for data centers, exploring the available solutions, the expected outcomes, and the use cases that deliver measurable success. His series comes at a pivotal moment for the industry: digital twins hold enormous promise, but the value depends entirely on providing a genuine return on investment. The most successful implementations focus on use cases that digital twins can accomplish more effectively than alternative solutions and are tightly aligned with desired business outcomes.

At Dell, we believe the answer begins long before any modeling or simulation work begins. It starts with the specific needs of the customer and their business.

The business-first digital twin strategy

Organizations across industries are discovering digital twins’ potential to improve data center management in an era when every percent of operational improvement can translate to significant gains for the bottom line. These continuously updated virtual models synchronize with real-time data from sensors, analytics platforms, and AI systems to mirror physical infrastructure behavior and performance. However, the key to success lies not in the technology itself, but in how it addresses specific business challenges.

Dell Technologies’ business-first methodology starts with identifying clear business outcomes before selecting technology solutions. This approach ensures digital twin implementations solve real problems rather than creating sophisticated displays without practical value.

To support that approach across the AI lifecycle, organizations can take advantage of the Dell AI Factory to standardize data, modeling, and deployment on proven infrastructure.

Real-world digital twin applications

When the McLaren Formula 1® Team needed to improve race strategy and accelerate design cycles, they used Dell AI Factory to deploy digital twins and AI simulations to run thousands of scenarios, cutting tests by 40%. Explore how McLaren uses digital twin technology in racing.

Healthcare organizations are seeing transformative results through customer-focused digital twin implementations. Mark III Systems used Dell Precision workstations with NVIDIA RTX GPUs to create virtual recreations of Texas Children’s Hospital labor rooms, enabling dispersed teams to design and collaborate remotely. Medical staff can now access equipment more efficiently while reducing their number of steps, directly improving patient care outcomes. Learn more about how Mark III uses digital twins in healthcare.

The retail sector demonstrates how digital twins improve operations when aligned with business goals. Lowe’s leverages Dell PowerEdge servers with NVIDIA accelerated compute to run digital twin simulations that improve store layouts and operations. This technology empowers their 300,000 associates across 1,700+ stores to make real-time decisions that enhance customer experiences and operational efficiency. Explore how Lowe’s uses digital twins in retail.

Moving forward with purpose

Organizations considering digital twin technology should begin by identifying specific business processes that need improvement. Whether optimizing power consumption, reducing maintenance costs, or improving operational efficiency, the business objective must drive technology selection.

Dell Technologies has a proven methodology that helps organizations navigate this process through clear prioritization frameworks. By starting with business discussions about desired transformations and outcomes, companies can select digital twin implementations that achieve meaningful ROI and business impact.

The evidence speaks clearly: Organizations that start with business outcomes and then apply appropriate technology consistently achieve better results than those who begin with technology-first approaches. Digital twins succeed when they solve real problems, deliver measurable value, and support specific business objectives.

Ready to explore how digital twins can transform your data center operations? Contact Dell Technologies to learn how a business-first approach can help you identify the right use cases and carry out solutions that deliver real value for your organization.