We are entering the ‘data era,’ Dell Technologies Vice Chairman Jeff Clarke says
LAS VEGAS–At a high-level, digital transformation encompasses technology investments that allow a business to capture, analyze and use data to improve operational efficiencies and create new revenue streams. A necessary and complex task, particularly in the context of the sheer volume of data generated by a connected workforce and increasingly connected physical world.
During a Tuesday keynote address at Dell Technologies World, company Vice Chairman Jeff Clarke said projections of data volume is both “beyond comprehension” and, from his perspective, “under-called We are in the early innings of what is undoubtedly a data era.” Mix in 5G and 5G-enabled applications like autonomous vehicles and the result “will only accelerate that timeframe and actually grow the number.”
In order for businesses to take advantage of these complementary technology trends and successfully execute on digital transformation plans, the approach has to focus on modern IT infrastructure, a cohesive edge-cloud-core strategy and an embrace of running workloads in a multi-cloud environment–overarching messaging repeated throughout the conference and exhibition.
Clarke called out five “key imperatives” for strategic investment and consideration:
- A powerful, modern IT infrastructure capable of processing data at scale, which he characterized as “fuel for new innovation;”
- A hybrid-cloud, multi-cloud strategy–”It is private and it is public. We’re going to see clouds that are going to be closer to the edge to be able to respond to the real-time workloads.”
- “Get ready now. The edge is coming,” Clarke said projecting 25% of data will be consumed at the edge through new applications enabled by 5G. “Your edge compute strategy needs to evolve.”
- There are five generations currently active in the workforce from Baby Boomers through Gen Z and all of them “demand innovation.”
- And enabling a modern workforce experience based on “kick-ass devices” He also contemplating virtual and augmented reality and 5G networks. “And now we’re talking about all new interesting ways to work and collaborate. Now we’re talking about new work methods and new work models on a go-forward basis.”
Those factors, Clarke said, are at the “heart of digital transformation.”
Dell Technologies CTO John Roese said a holistic edge, cloud, core strategy is how a modern enterprise can “unlock the value of this data in new ways. It’s now a software-defined world. Our networking strategy has been focus on the future.”
