Thanks to increasingly effective servers, meteorologists are predicting weather more accurately, scientists are crafting new vaccines using genetic sequencing, and doctors are diagnosing patients faster with the best resources available. As technology advances, however, the demands placed on servers also increases. indicate that by the end of 2023, the internet will be comprised of 114 zettabytes of information, and that number will only increase with time. This equation leads to increased energy consumption which means more heat production. Increased heat production often results in a decrease in system performance.

To combat this issue, Dell has incorporated AI-driven cooling into its . This exciting technology uses thermal and mechanical simulation tools to optimize cooling and ensure sustained system performance. In this article, we discuss the benefits of smart cooling technology and how it is helping Dell EMC continue to push the boundaries of technological innovation.

How Does Smart Cooling Technology Work?

There are three primary methods servers employ to ensure that the system is not overwhelmed by heat production. This includes air cooling (or multi-vector cooling), direct liquid cooling (DLC), immersion cooling, or a combination of these technologies.

Each of these options come with their own benefits and methods, which I have outlined in detail below:

Air Cooling: Multi-vector cooling (MVC) maximizes the potential of air cooling. This cutting-edge technology employs a complex system of cost-effective and high-performing fans and heatsinks that streamline airflow and air temperature distribution across the chassis.

If the fans and heatsinks were not enough, the design of the system itself is engineered to prevent systems from overheating. In PowerEdge servers, the motherboard is T-shaped, and the power supply units are located at each corner of the chassis. This allows for improved airflow and system cooling.

Direct Liquid Cooling: This smart cooling technology uses liquid to absorb and remove heat created by high-power processors. For those concerned about potential leaks, Dell solutions also include Leak Sense technology. This intelligent system alerts customers of minor and major leaks and offers increased configuration.

Immersion Cooling: This cooling method is designed for power-dense systems operating in spaces with little or no conditioned air. In immersion cooling, the systems are submerged in a tank of liquid which captures 100% of the heat.

Making Smart Cooling Technology Smarter

When combined, air cooling, direct liquid cooling, and immersion cooling provide increased assurance that your system will not overheat or suffer any performance issues. But what really sets PowerEdge servers apart is the integration of artificial intelligence and system tools.

Dell’s servers now offer OpenManage Enterprise Power Manager, a tool which gives customers full insight and control of how their system prioritizes cooling. Here are a few ways this system serves customers:

• Allows users to monitor and manage power and thermal consumption for individual and groups of servers.
• Provides reports to help meet sustainability goals.
• Utilizes policies to set power caps at the rack or group level.
• Supports enhanced visualization of data center racks with power and thermal readings.
• Informs users of the power of virtual machine usage for a physical device.
• Shares information on server performance metrics.

This smart cooling system includes an integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC). This tool allows users to maximize resource use and adjust power when there is a decreased demand for performance. The Power Manager also provides pre-defined power policies, ensuring that users’ key workloads continue to operate.

Smart Cooling Technology And Sustainability

While performance is a primary concern for most IT-centric companies, preserving the environment is also of growing importance. Fortunately, customers who implement PowerEdge servers into their system will have a clean conscious.

Here are a few ways these servers have integrated environmentalism into their strategies:

• Decreased Drain On Energy º£½ÇÖ±²¥: Using the tools Power Manager provides, users will reduce expenses, maintain availability, and decrease power usage.
• Fewer Replacements: By using tools like MVC and DLC to keep your systems cool, users will replace tools less frequently. This will not only save you money but also decrease your carbon footprint.
• Power Caps: OpenManage allows administrators to place power caps on racks/rows/rooms of servers. When used effectively (especially when performance demand is lower) this has a significant impact on the energy drain of a data center.

Final Thoughts

Whether you are looking for ways to decrease your expenses, reduce your carbon footprint, or improve your system performance, smart cooling technology is the right choice for you. If you would like to begin integrating Dell’s PowerEdge servers into your system, we can get you started. We help businesses of all sizes every step of the way, from purchase through implementation. Contact us today to discover which tools are the right fit for you!

Next Steps: Discover more about refreshing your servers and enhancing digital transformation by downloading our tech brief,

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In most cases, technological developments are worth celebrating. Over the past five years alone, our technology strategies have become more efficient and integrated than ever before. Unfortunately, the same advancements that are used to develop a streamlined IT infrastructure are also used by data miners, malware, and viruses.

Years ago, cybersecurity was carried out using software, and for a while, that was enough, cyberthreats were not able to penetrate further. While an unchecked virus could cause serious damage, an equally clever application could protect your data. But as technology has evolved, so have malicious events.

Software-based security can easily be changed in a cyberattack. If your protection software is compromised, there could be nothing to stop your data from being compromised or hijacked.

The last few years have shown that software and data are not the only things at risk in a cyberattack. Your hardware can also be compromised. It is no longer enough to protect your software and data; a comprehensive security strategy needs to include hardware-based infrastructure. This is especially true when it comes to threats to servers.

defines hardware security as “the protection of physical devices from threats that would facilitate unauthorized access to enterprise systems.” These physical devices include firmware, BIOS, network cards, Wi-Fi cards, motherboards, graphic cards, and all the other parts that make up your system.

Cybersecurity Threats Come With A Heavy Cost

Technology has made our lives much easier, but when technology unexpectedly fails, your business can be left in the dark. If your hardware is compromised by a cyberthreat, the cost to your enterprise can be immense.

In fact, a from ITIC reported that a server outage costs a median of $9,600 per minute. That is a staggering $576,000 an hour. The scary thing is, these costs are expected to grow with time. It’s also important to not that this estimate does not include the damage done to your business’s reputation.

When your business experiences a security breach, consumers are also affected. Because of recent events, consumers are more cautious about who they trust with their data. If your customers believe your servers are vulnerable, they will be hesitant to trust your company. It is important that you, as an IT leader, prevent this snowball effect by giving customers a good reason to trust you with their data. At the end of the day, a customer’s data is their most powerful asset, aside from their employees.

Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers Are The Next Generation In Cybersecurity

One of the best ways to increase brand loyalty and trust is to never have a security breach to begin with. This is a tall task, but Dell EMC can help. to the growing concern of hardware-level security threats with their PowerEdge servers. Rather than adding cybersecurity protection as an afterthought, Dell’s PowerEdge servers use security systems that extend across every aspect of the server.

With PowerEdge servers, your business can rest assured that all areas of your system are protected, including:

• Server firmware
• Data stored in the system
• The operating system
• Peripheral devices
• Management operations within the server

Because cybersecurity begins at the ground level, your business can build a process that fits its needs. This also allows for security controls and management tools that extend across hardware and firmware.

All in all, this makes for a highly personalized security system that protects your valuable data, quickly detect system threats, anomalies, breaches, or unauthorized operations, and recover from malicious events.

Dell EMC 14th and 15th generation PowerEdge servers also use a Cyber Resilient Architecture which includes:

• Effective Protection: Hard-drive encryption, silicon-based root-of-trust, secure booting, signed firmware updates, dynamic system lockdown, and enterprise key management.
• Rapid Recovery: Automated BIOS recovery, rapid OS recovery, and rapid system erasure.
• Reliable Detection: Persistent event logging, configuration and firmware drift detection, chassis intrusion detection, and auditing of logs.

Conclusion

Dell EMC’s PowerEdge servers offer a solution to the growing concern over cyberthreats that target hardware, especially servers. If you would like to learn more about how you can integrate Dell EMC’s PowerEdge servers into your enterprise, contact WEI today to get started.

Next Steps: Discover more about refreshing your servers and enhancing digital transformation by downloading our tech brief, .

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It is common practice today for artificial intelligence (AI) to be integrated throughout the components of the datacenter, but what if you could harness the power of AI for your enterprise personal computers (PC)s? Imagine a laptop that could learn how its assigned user actually works and adapt to it to optimize the user desktop experience. Now, that would be something! It also happens to be reality thanks to the world’s first AI-based optimization software for workstations. AI-driving computing is available at the desktop level thanks to Dell’s Precision Optimizer that learns and responds to the way each one of us works.

Dell Precision Optimizer AI Technology

Getting the most out of your digital workforce today is more important than ever in a hypercompetitive global world. Expanding efficiencies through small incremental steps throughout the workday can culminate in greater productivity on a surprising scale over time. The platform does that by improving the critical areas of your PC such as application performance, battery runtime, and multimedia components. Here’s a list of some of the AI-driven components that are constantly working for you:

• ExpressResponse uses built-in AI to manage the speed and performance of your most utilized applications. It boosts application launch times and analyzes how each one consumes resources to identify optimization opportunities.
• ExpressCharge continually regulates screen brightness, CPU performance, and Bluetooth resources to maximize your battery potential every day.
• Context Sensing Technology that automatically detects your presence and wakes the system in time for you to log on. Of course, it also detects your exit as well and locks the PC to enforce enhanced security measures.
• Waves NX Technology provides intelligent audio that can filter out background noise and prioritizes voice streams by adding brightness and clarity for conferencing and podcasting. Input audio signals are continually analyzed to ensure louder output levels without annoying feedback.

Each of these AI-driven enhancements culminate in experienced By maximizing the performance of your PCs, you maximize the productivity and effectiveness of your digital workforce. The right tool in the right hands creates a powerful combination.

Expanding the Possibilities with AI, PCaaS

We live in extraordinary times when standard computer users have access to AI-driven technology to empower them. But here’s something else to ponder – what if you could deploy and provision laptops to your remote employees regardless of where they were located without involving internal IT support personnel at all? In fact, let’s take it a step further. What if your IT personnel never had to touch your enterprise PCs? Let’s top that off with the ability to have a high-performance computer in the hands of all your employees with no upfront investments required and no hassles of ownership. It almost seems too good to be true!

Introducing PCaaS from Dell

It is true, however. Just as Dell now delivers the power of AI in its Precision Desktop series, Dell is revolutionizing the way in which organizations finance and support their enterprise computer fleets. Just like any “as a service” solution, Burdens such as financing the purchase of them, supporting them, updating them, securing them, and retiring them at the expiration of their life cycle. In exchange, you pay a predictable price each month for the culmination of services.

It starts with the direct receipt of a laptop by your employee regardless of location. The machines are provisioned with the exact software portfolio required by that designated user and it is ready for operation on day one. Most organizations implement a 4-5 year product cycle when it comes to PCs. That’s understandable as it requires a substantial outlay for each refresh. Dell’s PCaaS best device policy follows a three-year refresh cycle, which means that employees get faster access to technology as well as the responsiveness that new machines have out of the box.

Continued Support Throughout Post-Deployment

Once deployed, it is time for support where AI is utilized as well. Dell’s AI-driven telemetry and predictive analytics help detect and resolve technical issues before they can become disruptive problems. When additional support is needed, subscribers get 24×7 priority access to Dell’s ProSupport team that includes onsite visits the next business day. You can take it a level further by having Dell ProManage services become an extension of your own IT department. Let Dell-trained technicians handle day-to-day end user support and device management, which frees up your own personnel to focus on value added projects for the organization. Users can choose their preferred mode of assistance using the online service portal.

Because hardware issues are now handled by technicians that are specialized in the user’s device, problems are solved faster, allowing work to presume more quickly. Even further, the advantages of a PCaaS program are evident at the end of the refresh cycle as the responsibility of disposal are saddled on Dell. No more paperwork or finding someone to cart off old hardware that no one seems to want anymore.

Once again, all these benefits culminate into real savings. According to a Forrester Total Economic Impact study commissioned by Dell, PCaaS customers experienced the following results:

• A savings of 5.2 hours of support labor per device over its lifecycle.
• A 20% reduction in device lifecycle costs.
• Employees had use of devices 2 years newer than average.
• Users received their devices faster by an average of five days.

Empower Your Enterprise With PCaaS. WEI can help.

PC as a Service is a whole new way of approaching the challenge of dealing with the product life cycles of your enterprise PCs. It might not seem conventional at first, but there’s nothing conventional about the AI-driven Dell Precision Optimizer, either. If the combination of reduced costs, compressed product life cycles, and the latest empowering technology sounds good then find out more about Dell PCaaS by contacting WEI.

Next Steps: Discover the five critical ways modern technology enables remote work productivity by

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The COVID-19 pandemic has forever reshaped the way we work. At the onset of the pandemic, companies were forced to rapidly transition to working from home. A year and a half later, it appears remote working won’t be fading away anytime soon. One found that 87% of professionals hope to continue working from home, even after the pandemic is over.

As a result, the pandemic has also impacted talent recruitment and retention. Employers are having a difficult time attracting and retaining high-quality employees and a are coming to the conclusion that a of work is the most effective solution. With this model, employees can decide whether they want to work from home or work in the office.

However, once enterprises decide to utilize a hybrid work model, the next problem is ensuring users have the technology they need to be successful.

Keep reading to learn three reasons why investing in cutting-edge, modern technology will successfully guide your business forward in the new era of remote working.

1. Improves Employee Experience

Having up-to-date technology, like modern desktops and laptops, empowers the remote workforce to be productive day in and day out by making work easier and more enjoyable. Giving your team the right tools will allow them to reach their full potential by accessing resources and staying connected to their team members, whether they are working remotely or working in an office.

Additionally, having the right tools boosts employee retention. When you make a great first impression on new hires by offering the latest and greatest technology, their productivity is strong right away. This also strengthens the company culture and improves employee morale. When it comes down to it, offering a positive employee experience starts with providing team members the tools they need to do their work technology is a huge part of that.

2. Modern Technology Ensures Business Continuity

When you invest in , you get the peace of mind that comes with knowing your employees in the office and remote aren’t being bogged down by slow and bothersome systems. Additionally, you don’t have to worry about little things like hardware or software incompatibility and inconsistent internet connectivity.

Having modern technologies allows every employee to access internal resources and applications. If you’re worried about unauthorized logins or if an employee accidentally downloads a virus, invest in modern PC lifecycle management platforms (MPCLM) that enable IT to manage machines remotely. You’ll be able to ensure your remote workforce and in-office employees are always working productively when you invest in new desktops and laptops alongside modern IT tools to keep your business connected.

3. It Allows Your Remote Workforce To Innovate

Modern technologies offer a variety of benefits, but the most important by far is innovation.

By ensuring your remote workforce has the tools they need to succeed, you empower your team to reach their full potential at work every day. Through these modern technologies, you enable your team to have real-time connectivity and collaboration, which allows your team to brainstorm, test and implement new ideas faster than ever before.

This, in turn, speeds product development and reduces time to market, which offers your enterprise a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Additionally, it helps your team find and focus on high-value activities, further boosting engagement and output. Empowering remote employees is the key to success when growing your company and allowing them to have the technology to guide them is absolutely essential.

Dell’s Technology Solutions Can Help You Find Success

It boils down to this: Choosing which desktop and laptop devices will power your operations is the most important decision you can make for your remote workforce. With Dell’s wide range of models and excellent specifications you can’t pick incorrectly. Partnering with an organization like WEI can also help with this decision and build a program that helps empower your remote employees.

Are You Ready To Transform Your Remote Workforce?

is committed to helping enterprises transform the way they do business. To support this, innovation is at the forefront of all their solutions, enabling you to transform your infrastructure and accelerate the innovation you need to stay competitive. If you’re ready to make the change now, contact WEI to begin building a custom solution for your business. We have expertise across all Dell systems and can help architect a custom solution to achieve your desired business outcomes.

NEXT STEPS: this executive brief to learn the TOP FIVE factors for driving digital innovation in your enterprise.

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Hybrid work has now replaced remote work as the new buzz word. Let’s be clear, however. Hybrid in this context represents mobility. Employees are going to be mobile, and the definition of the employee workspace is now changed forever.

The corporate office will become the hub of innovation, collaboration, and social interaction while the remote workspace will be where employees knock out work assignments and partake in their strings of video conferences. As the indicated, the five-day office week is probably over.

New Modern-Day PC is Needed

In 2020, companies rushed their employees out the door to the safety of their homes in response to the COVID outbreak. Back then, the aim was simply to get some sort of mobile device into the hands of those employees as quickly as possible. There was no time to think things through in that mad rush. But things have now calmed down and its evident that a new type of PC is required to enable the new mobile modern-day workforce. There was a time in which employees had a robust workstation at the office along with a mobile device that was sufficient to get them through while at home or on the road. That is no longer the case. Users need the same robust experience regardless of which workspace they happen to be operating from. A remote human experience depends on 4K ultra-HD videos, superior audio quality and screen sharing capabilities. These machines must have the resources to power these experiences along with multitasking and file transfers on top of it all. And then there is the issue of security as many of these machines will often operate in consumer grade networking environments. Sounds like we are going to need a whole lot more computers in the coming year.

The Great Refresh is Coming

Companies are recognizing that a supplementary computing device will not serve the needs of the modern-day workforce. Now consider the fact that Windows 11 has now been made available. It could be that of the great PC refresh. Both are projecting that PC shipments will be greater than 340 million units next year with continued demand through 2025. There are more things to consider for this looming refresh than computer specs and features. The way in which enterprises provision, manage, and support these machines must adapt to hybrid work models as well.

Traditional Provisioning Practices are Outdated

The old-style tradition of handing over a new corporate laptop to a user is a thing of the past. New hires need to have a corporate computing device in their hands on day one, regardless of where that first day on the job is spent. Existing employees need their essential devices refreshed without any disruption or making a special trip into the office. Dell deployment takes the mundane burdens of imaging and setting configurations out of the hands of internal IT and deliver devices right to the door of whatever workspace your users might be residing at the time with all the applications and settings preconfigured at the Dell factory. According to an IDC whitepaper, a zero-touch deployment helped reduced PC deployment times as much as 50 percent.

Are you Still Relying on Traditional Helpdesk Ticketing for Support?

It’s not just network latency you have to worry about. Work efficiency today is reliant on a proficient workstation experience. Small computer problems create latency throughout the workday. That’s why end user support is so critical today. But how does internal IT support remote machines? How do they get access to the BIOS and initiate a system reboot from afar? How much time is wasted having end users submit a ticket that must be read before being addressed?

The modern-day workforce requires a modern-day support system, and that is what Dell ProSupport Suite provides. The number of tickets drop when you have AI-driven telemetry and predictive analytics working to detect and proactively prevent issues involving operating systems, software upgrades, driver updates, patches, malware, and applicable hardware failures. Dell ProSupport Suite for PCs gives your IT teams complete visibility into their PC fleet as well as performance recommendations. According to a report conducted last year, customers using Dell ProSupport Plus resolved hard drive issues up to 84 percent faster. Should additional support ever be needed, your IT teams have access to advanced technology experts at any time who are specifically trained on every aspect of these devices.

Modern-Day PC Management

You can’t rely on Group Policy or on-premise systems to manage your remote PCs. With VMware Workspace ONE, your devices can be securely accessed from anywhere and your users can retain the same unified workspace across all their devices. According to a Forrester Study, Workspace One integration can help reduce resolution time for support calls by up to 50 percent. If you already have your own systems management platform such as Microsoft Endpoint Manager, that’s fine too as Dell can add your new machines into your existing environment.

Protecting the Modern-Day Workforce

A remote workspace must be considered a zero-trust environment. That means remote data is constantly under threat, which is why you need Dell Trusted devices. It’s not enough to safeguard PCs at or above the OS level. Dell gives you full visibility underneath the covers, giving you access to BIOS events and indicators of attack deep below the OS surface. Dell SafeGuard and Response uses AI and machine learning to identify and respond to hidden attacks. You also have the peace of mind that all sensitive data is automatically encrypted using Dell SafeData.

It’s not just your legacy machines you need to refresh. It’s your legacy approaches to provisioning, managing, supporting and securing those machines that need updating as well. Dell can upgrade it all, ensuring that you are prepared for the new modern-day workforce that needs to get to work.

Are Your Looking For A Partner To Support Your Remote Workforce?

is committed to helping enterprises transform the way they do business. To support this, innovation is at the forefront of all their solutions, enabling you to transform your infrastructure and accelerate the innovation you need to stay competitive. We have expertise across all Dell systems and can help architect a custom solution to achieve your desired business outcomes.

NEXT STEPS: Your business needs technology that is flexible enough to support a hybrid workforce. Download our tech brief for the TOP FIVE ways modern technology is empowering the remote workforce in our paper below.

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Regardless of the industry, all enterprises are looking for strategies to improve their organizations and stay competitive in the market. However, when it comes to technological innovation, there’s one piece in particular that often blocks the way forward: the human element. While computers may still lack the creativity that sets the human mind apart, artificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly important part of modern computing, especially when it comes to processing and managing data.

This has never been more apparent than over the last year and half. In the midst of a global pandemic, enterprises utilizing AI in ways that reduced in-person hours reported that repetitive, day-to-day tasks, especially within the data center architecture, faired the storm far better than other organizations. AI was also a critical component when it came to implementing and managing remote workforces.

A conducted by IBM shows that as a result of the global pandemic, many enterprises accelerated the adoption of AI in the workplace However, some have yet to implement AI in a significant way, citing barriers to adoption such as a lack of proper knowledge amongst the IT team and difficulties identifying where AI solutions will make the most impact within the digital environment.

If these challenges sound familiar, ‘s AI solutions can help. Keep reading to find out how!

Determine Your AI Strategy in 5 Steps

The first step to implementing any new technology is building your strategy. According to Dell, there are five steps that are essential to every artificial intelligence project.

1. Define your use case. How are you going to utilize AI? What are your goals? How will you measure success? Are your goals and implementation strategy feasible?
2. Assess data. What data will be involved in your AI initiatives? Where does that data live? How will it be accessed and how does it need to be prepared for your project?
3. Identify model. Determine which AI model will work best for your use case. Which tools are needed to create, train, and prove this model?
4. Optimize software ecosystem. How will you move your model into production? What is your development process going to look like?
5. Determine IT environment. Your desired outcomes will determine the type of deployment that will work best, whether that’s private, public, edge, or hybrid cloud. You should also determine your latency and throughput requirements, as well as any other specifications.

By following these five steps, you can be sure that you will be properly prepared when it comes time to actually implement your AI strategy.

Dell’s AI Solutions Can Help You Find Success

Once your plan is in place, it’s time to begin your implementation journey. Finding the right vendor to partner with is just as important as planning your strategy, so it’s something that should be carefully considered.

that support digital transformation and innovation efforts, Dell can assist you in all your AI initiatives, from the implementation phase to ongoing maintenance and security efforts.

As a Dell customer, you’ll also have access to the , Dell’s dedicated group of computer scientists, data scientists, engineers, and subject matter experts, all of whom are constantly pushing the boundaries and exploring new ways of utilizing these technologies.

Dell’s portfolio of AI and data solutions is also available in either direct or as-a-service management models, letting you choose the option that best suits your needs and budget.

If you’re looking for a partner to join you on your journey to AI implementation, look no further than Dell Technologies.

Are You Interested In Dell’s AI Solutions?

is committed to helping enterprises transform the way they do business. To support this, innovation is at the forefront of all their solutions, enabling you to transform your infrastructure and accelerate the innovation you need to stay competitive. If you’re ready to make AI work for your business, contact WEI to learn more about how we can help architect the right solution to power your AI initiatives. We have expertise across all Dell systems and can help build the right solution to achieve your desired business outcomes.

NEXT STEPS: Many of our customers choose to run their business on Dell VxRail. Find out the TOP TEN reasons why in our tech brief about the benefits of VxRail below. 

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Even as we conquer one technology and discover all the different ways we can bend it to our will, another comes along and the cycle begins anew. For today’s enterprises edge computing represents a great leap forward in data processing.

In this article, we’ll offer a high-level overview of the edge, explain why your enterprise should take advantage of the benefits of edge computing, and three tips to help you get your edge strategy started.

What Is Edge Computing?

Understanding exactly what the edge encompasses is the first step to devising your own edge strategy. That said, the definition of edge computing is a bit nebulous, with organizations often defining exactly what constitutes as “the edge” based on their own computing environments and their specific organizations.

That said, the fundamental principle of edge computing remains the same: Bringing computation and data storage closer to the sources of data, which is turns speeds up processing time and improves data-related productivity.

In a recent report commissioned by Dell, the technology was described as:

“Edge computing” is a term that encompasses a broad array of execution venues, including devices and equipment with embedded compute, adjacent computing devices that augment compute-constrained endpoints, gateways to legacy equipment, and proximate compute resources in closets, cages and within the network operator infrastructure. Edge computing also includes hyperconverged infrastructure that integrates and virtualizes key components of IT infrastructure including storage, networking and compute.”

The bottom line is that while the exact definition and application of the edge can differ, enterprises are all searching for the same things when they utilize it: increased agility, productivity, and a reduction in the time spent processing data before it can be properly utilized.

Why Your Enterprise Needs To Embrace Edge Computing

Now that we’ve explained what the edge is, let’s delve into why enterprises are so keen on employing their own edge strategies.

Some of the motivation can be attributed to seeking a competitive advantage, the same reason any new technology is adopted once it’s been proven to be effective.

Other reasons enterprises are seeking out edge computing are the specific benefits offered by the edge.

As shared by Dell, these benefits include:

• Reduced latency – Through edge computing, the latency inherent to physical distance can be overcome.
• Bandwidth conservation – The locations that need the edge the most often have limited WAN bandwidth. By processing data locally, enterprises can extract the maximum business value from it.
• Operational technology (OT) connectivity – Enterprises in some industries require specific compute devices in order to acquire data and pass control information. Edge computing can help support the needs of these businesses.
• Business process availability – Critical tasks undertaken at the edge need to be able to continue even during network outages or other crisis situations. Edge computing can ensure that these locations, whether a factory, retail location, or hospital, can continue to operate even during outages.
• Data sovereignty – Depending on the industry and location, the movement of some types of data may be restricted. Edge computing can help enterprises overcome these restrictions and still leverage the data produced.

3 Tips for Building Your Edge Computing Strategy

Once it’s decided that an enterprise should move forward in adopting an edge strategy, the next step to plot the path forward. Like any other technology, adopting it without a proper plan in place can reduce the technology’s effectiveness in the long-term. So, what do enterprises need to keep in mind for their edge strategy?

1. Plan your strategy around your specific business goals. Every enterprise is different and edge strategies are not one size fits all. Keep your specific targeted business outcomes in mind when designing your strategy and you can ensure that your edge strategy will drive your business forward.
2. Be efficient when designing your infrastructure. The edge is all about consolidating and looking for opportunities to save on resources to improve agility and productivity. By integrating your data streams, your edge infrastructure can also take advantage of the existing edge data.
3. Keep the future in mind. Your edge strategy shouldn’t just be planned for the here and now, it should also take the future into consideration. Consider what the growth of your enterprise will mean for your edge strategy and plan accordingly. Planning now will pay dividends down the line.

Do You Need Help on Your Journey to the Edge?

is committed to helping enterprises transform the way they do business. To support this, Dell offers a broad range of applicable for a variety of industries and that can meet the unique requirements of your enterprise. The best part? You can leverage WEI’s expertise across Dell’s portfolio of infrastructure solutions to help determine the best solution for your business. WEI is here to help set you up for success with your edge computing strategy.

NEXT STEPS: Adoption of hyperconverged infrastructure solutions are on the rise as more and more enterprise businesses see the benefits first hand. Check out our tech brief below that features several of the reasons our customers choose VxRail for HCI. (No forms required!)

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Someday, the daily struggle and uncertainty of the pandemic will only be a memory. However, the way we do business has been forever altered and remote workforces are likely here to stay.

In early 2020, companies were forced to rapidly transition to working from home. More than a year later, as vaccines roll out and the virus subsides, it appears as though the remote work trend won’t be going away any time soon. In fact, one found that 87% of professionals hope they can continue working from home.

Although the want teams to return to the office, employers are increasingly coming to the realization that they might have a hard time attracting and retaining top talent if they don’t allow their teams to work remotely. For this reason, the majority of employers are moving forward with plans to continue with a remote workforce or implement a , where some folks work from the office and others work from home.

To support hybrid or remote workforces, companies need to invest in powerful laptops that enable employees to do their best work, regardless of their location. Utilizing laptops is one way to be sure your users have the tools they need to be successful.

Here are five reasons the right technology will help your organization get to the next level and thrive in the new era of distributed work.

1. Boosting the employee experience

With the right tools in place, you’re equipping your team with what they need to reach their full potential. Instead of struggling to access resources or stay connected to the team, employees that are given Dell laptops are empowered to work productively day in and day out, using up-to-date technology that makes work easier and more enjoyable.

Utilizing new technology can also help your enterprise make a great first impression with new hires, which increases productivity and engagement while strengthening company culture. This, in turn, boosts retention.

2. Facilitating meaningful connections

A found that 45% of workers missed the social interactions they had with their coworkers after being forced to transition to remote work.

Although technology can’t completely replace face-to-face interactions, it can help remote workforces stay connected to their teams. New cloud-based project management tools and real-time chat platforms are allowing users to work collaboratively from home. And when coworkers need to talk through something in more depth, they can hop on a video call in a few clicks and “see” each other for a little face time.

That said, these new communication tools and platforms need hardware they can run efficiently on. There are few things more frustrating for employees than having to fight against their technology during video calls or missing important messages due to computer malfunctions.

With the right tools, your remote workforce can collaborate together on an increasing number of projects and form meaningful connections with each other, which makes work more social once again, just in a different way.

3. Keeping operations humming along

When you invest in modern technology, you enable your remote workforce to work with purpose and accomplish more. On top of that, you won’t have to worry as much about things such as incompatibility, slow-loading machines and a wonky internet connection that moves at a snail’s pace.

Worried that your employees will invariably download viruses and malware, misconfigure their devices and otherwise misuse their machines? Don’t be. You can also invest in modern PC lifecycle management platforms (MPCLM) that enable IT to manage machines remotely.

4. Future-proofing your tech infrastructure

By embracing the power of modern devices and tools that enable IT to easily manage them over the internet, organizations are able to future-proof their technology stance. When new solutions emerge, IT administrators can roll them out to the machines of all users automatically, empowering companies to always ensure they’re providing their employees with the best tools for the job.

Thanks to MPCLM technology, IT can deliver bespoke digital solutions to employees rapidly, without having to endure lengthy procurement and provisioning processes on a continuous basis. At the same time, IT can also test laptops and desktops remotely to ensure they are operating at optimal capacity. They can also train employees to make sure they can use every tool productively.

5. Accelerating innovation

Each of these benefits adds up to the biggest one: innovation.

By ensuring that your employees have the tools they need to succeed, and that those tools evolve with the times, you empower your team to reach their full potential at work every day. Through real-time connectivity and collaboration, the hardware you rely on can enable your team to brainstorm, test and implement new ideas faster than ever before.

This, in turn, helps you bring new products to market faster, accelerating innovation and driving competitive advantage while working more diligently to delight your customers.

Utilize Dell Laptops For Your Hybrid Workforce

What it boils down to is this: Choosing which laptops and desktop devices will power your operations is one of the biggest decisions you can make.

With so much on the line, you really can’t afford to pick the wrong models. And this is precisely why it makes sense to join forces with a partner organization that can help you build the perfect solution for your business instead of doing it on your own.

come at variety of price points and offer different options for storage, operating systems, and features. Dell laptops can also be tailored to suit the needs of each user to match the work they will be doing.

Dell also offers a number of 2-in-1 models that function as both a laptop and tablet, offering increased flexibility for your users for meetings, presentations, note taking, and more.

Are Your Looking For A Partner To Support Your Remote Workforce?

is committed to helping enterprises transform the way they do business. To support this, innovation is at the forefront of all their solutions, enabling you to transform your infrastructure and accelerate the innovation you need to stay competitive. We have expertise across all Dell systems and can help architect a custom solution to achieve your desired business outcomes.

NEXT STEPS: Your business needs infrastructure that is flexible enough to support a hybrid workforce. Take a look at the TOP TEN reasons why enterprise IT leaders run their business on Dell VxRail in our paper below.

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Today, there is an impetus among IT leaders to build stronger digital foundations, enabling their companies to head off future disruptions and secure long-term business success.

New, cloud-based operating models featuring greater speed, agility, and scalability can support the digital transformation enterprises across industries require. By leveraging cutting edge technologies to improve their use of data-driven insights, high-performing organizations can utilize these findings to drive business forward.

Redefining Digital Transformation

Although the benefits of digital transformation are well understood, its success takes on new meaning as we look to improve operations, customer experiences, and security in 2021. Technology leaders must identify the pressing challenges and opportunities of the day and work with business leaders to identify domains that are top priorities for change.

As describes, “the authentic, nimble, connected and collaborative companies will win in 2021 and beyond.” Here we examine some of the key lessons learned from 2020, followed by five considerations you should take into account as you accelerate digital innovation in your own company.

Speeding Up Innovation

Change in markets, supply chains, and expectations of customers and employees alike in 2020 taught us that many of the systems and processes that have supported us for years will not provide the lasting agility we need. It was companies that had already established the right partnerships and cloud-based technologies who responded to the COVID-19 crisis with success.

As shared by Dell in their report, prior to the disruptions of 2020, many companies found that their digital transformation efforts were lagging behind. As a result of the rapid change of the past year, enterprises are “bracing themselves for a challenging chapter ahead,” and prioritizing digital innovation throughout the business. In fact, according to Dell, 41% of companies surveyed for their report accelerated all or most of their digital transformation programs in 2020.

This is especially true for companies forced into a remote-work model who now perceive it as an important practice they will continue in some capacity for years to come. Struggling with new cybersecurity challenges forced companies to reimagine their technologies and best practices. Of the companies that fast-tracked their digital transformation efforts, Dell reported that the number one program prioritized was strengthening cybersecurity defenses.

Now, technology leaders must not only revisit these changes to assess them for long-term viability, but they must also find opportunities to introduce the agility they witnessed in 2020 into their business models. Automating key processes, adopting advanced analytics, and improving channels for customer engagement and response are all viable options.

Five Considerations To Start Accelerating Innovation Today

Today, we face an urgency for creativity in digital transformation and for greater receptivity to those changes among business leaders. Technology leaders can take the best lessons learned from 2020 and use them to improve digital strategies moving forward.

1. Speed and agility are determining factors for success.

Whether reviewing and implementing a new strategy or reallocating resources in the event of a crisis, enterprises with greater speed and agility, enhanced through digital transformation, are simply more successful. Cloud technologies helped leading companies minimize friction in business processes and arrive at value more quickly when their customers needed it most.

Of the companies surveyed by Dell, 74% reported they were currently investing in multi-cloud technology and 35% reported they would be investing within the next three years.

2. Renew focus on customers, build more holistic relationships.

Both consumer and business priorities have changed. There is a new impetus to reexamine what customer centricity means for B2B and B2C customers and how companies can deliver on enduring needs and expectations through new digital capabilities and experiences.

According to Dell, 74% of digital leaders set up new digital channels to support customers during the pandemic.

3. Cybersecurity requirements are evolving as our companies and employees evolve.

New cybersecurity threats emerged in 2020, and existing vulnerabilities also worsened as we changed the way we work. Transitioning employees to remote-work environments exposed vulnerabilities, for example. Now, data privacy and security concerns are more likely to create barriers to the digital transformation companies require.

Cybersecurity solutions must become core investments over the next three years to make the transformation in other areas of the business possible. Companies will need the right technologies and teams in place as they embrace other innovations, such as 5G infrastructure or democratized analytics.

As previously mentioned, Dell found that IT leaders are prioritizing cybersecurity efforts above all else, with 82% percent reporting a current investment in cybersecurity and privacy technology.

4. Workforces also need to transform.

Tech leaders cannot expect new technology adoption alone to solve their problems. They need employees who understand transformation, who can use those technologies to realize their goals.

Tech leaders should identify existing and new talent gaps alongside their digital transformation efforts. They should also identify digital solutions that present realistic opportunities in terms of closing up talent gaps to realize the capabilities they need. They can then “triage” their approach to closing that gap with three strategies: hiring new talent, reskilling existing employees, and automating processes for which manual work is no longer needed.

5. We need to keep learning, even as we scale.

Among other things, the events of 2020 presented business leaders with learning opportunities. They forced most companies to pivot dramatically, with varying degrees of success. But our learning hasn’t ended, in fact, companies must have an ingrained responsiveness as part of their operations so that they can succeed if either global or local crises strike again.

Helping You Prepare For What’s Next

is committed to helping enterprises transform the way they do business. To support this, innovation is at the forefront of all their solutions, enabling you to transform your infrastructure and accelerate the innovation you need to stay competitive. For more information about Dell’s capabilities and how their solutions can future-proof your digital transformation, contact WEI. We have expertise across all Dell systems and can help architect a custom solution to achieve your desired business outcomes.

NEXT STEPS: You might also be interested in this video we created in partnership with Dell to help you prepare for the Edge. Find out if your enterprise is really ready to mange data at the Edge in this short video below.

The post Five Key Factors for Driving Digital Innovation appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

The threat landscape is ever evolving, and today’s enterprises face more cybersecurity challenges than ever. Between the rise of cloud computing, increased utilization of internet of things (IoT) devices, and the distributed nature of today’s workforces, the attack surface has never been larger.

To keep ahead of cybercriminals and ensure data is secured, enterprises need security that’s built-in at the foundational level of the digital environment, not tacked-on later.

Common challenges for server security

While virtualization has become increasingly important for enterprise success, it has also created additional avenues for attack. In terms of server security, the fewer physical servers an organization has, the more important it is that each of those servers is secure. If an attack is successful, the fallout is much more severe in these scenarios than times past.

The bottom line is that as enterprises prioritize digital transformation efforts and more and more data is kept in fewer physical locations, protecting that data becomes mission critical.

For this reason, has prioritized cyber resiliency when designing its servers. Dell EMC has identified the following as key to providing data center security.

1. Built-in vs. bolted-on security

As previously stated, security must be included in the overall design of the server to offer comprehensive protection. To this end, Dell EMC builds protection into the server architecture, ensuring security from server deployment to retirement.

2. Security by design

Comprehensive server security shouldn’t just stop attacks, it should also include the functionality to determine when an attack has succeeded and provide data recovery. Dell EMC’s PowerEdge servers feature its powerful hardware root of trust, which provides security by authenticating BIOS and firmware during the server boot process.

3. Server integrity from silicon to system

Whenever issues threaten your environment, whether they be a cybersecurity attack or software bugs, they must be identified and dealt with quickly to minimize their impact. Dell EMC’s , integrated into the PowerEdge servers, continuously monitors the system and sends alerts regarding changes to configuration parameters across the environment.

4. Rapid recovery

As previously mentioned, comprehensive server security includes the tools for rapid recovery. Dell’s PowerEdge servers include built-in automatic recovery, which will restore the server to a trusted state in the event of a cyberattack, even if the attack is made directly against the BIOS, firmware, signed drivers, or any signed components.

[Featured Video]

Explore these Dos and Don’ts of Enterprise Storage

Three requirements for your path to security

The requirements for comprehensive server security can be broken down into three categories: protect, detect, and recover. Dell’s PowerEdge server offers a number of features and key components that deliver security in these key areas.

1. Protect

When it comes to protection, Dell EMC utilizes the aforementioned hardware root of trust, as well as cryptographically signed firmware which enforces a secure platform environment. Self-encrypted disks (SEDs) are utilized to protect data at rest and the iDRAC offers agent-free management that ensures server security throughout the environment.

2. Detect

In terms of detection, Dell EMC employs physical intrusion detection to identify any physical tampering of servers, as well as drift detection, which offers continuous detection of configuration and firmware changes. Dell’s PowerEdge servers also log every event and provide alerts, including recommended actions in the event of an issue, further ensuring end-to-end server security.

3. Recover

Ensuring that data can be recovered in the event of an incident is just as important as preventing it in the first place. To this end, Dell EMC PowerEdge servers offer seamless recovery to a protected BIOS image after a security breach or other event. Automatic restoration of server configuration after hardware updates or replacement is also offered, reducing time and resources spent on administration during upgrades.

Through Dell EMC’s security-centric infrastructure, enterprise can improve the cyber resiliency of their infrastructure, make data more available, and improve productivity throughout the enterprise.

Are you looking to improve your server security?

Whatever your enterprise’s specific situation, Dell EMC can deliver the protection you need to keep your data safe. Through the Dell EMC PowerEdge server portfolio, enterprises can simplify management and reduce costs, while ensuring end-to-end data protection, attack detection, and data recovery.

Next Steps: Dell EMC VxRail also comes out of the box with built-in security thanks to their PowerEdge server. VxRail has also been a leading hyperconverged system for enterprises across all industries, and for several good reasons, 10 of them in fact! Find out why IT leaders turn to VxRail to achieve their data center modernization goals in our tech brief below, “Top 10 Reasons Why Customers Choose VxRail.”

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For IT, 2021 will be all about polishing and refining the strategies rapidly put in place to facilitate the employee exodus from the campus to the home. , once the exception, have become the new status quo. As the dust settles, many enterprises may find this temporary solution is now a permanent expectation.

Enterprise leaders would be wise to accept this change and pivot accordingly. For CIOs and their IT teams, this means taking a rocky remote infrastructure and turning it into a polished system that can provide the performance and availability employees expect, without compromising cybersecurity and data protection.

Why are remote workforces hard to secure?

As a direct result of the unique challenges of 2020, enterprises have an unprecedented lack of control over data. There have never been more remote workers, more employees utilizing personal devices, or more distributed data than what enterprises are seeing today.

Between ensuring compliance, combating the rise of “shadow IT,” and keeping up with the strain created by quickly implemented, hurriedly constructed, and often expensive remote solutions, it’s no wonder many IT teams are feeling overwhelmed.

This is the situation IT sees on a good day. What about when disaster strikes and whether due to a cyberattack or technology failure, data needs to be recovered and restored?

To keep business moving forward and set remote workers up for success, IT needs an integrated solution that, with a single management platform, offers backup and disaster recovery, intelligent storage, data protection for every device, and direct communication with solution experts when needed.

Ensure data protection with Dell EMC VxRail

To combat the challenges of securing data for remote workforces and offer all the functionality IT needs under one banner, and have collaborated to present VxRail, the easiest and fastest way to implement a high-performance virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution.

Built with hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) at its core, VxRail was created to hold steady under VDI’s I/O-intensive workloads and handle extreme burst conditions created when users log on and off. With market-leading second-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, virtualization, VMware vSAN software-defined storage, servers, and more, VxRail is a steady and comprehensive foundation for VDI.

On the data protection side of things, VxRail features highly redundant architecture, integrated Dell EMC data protection software, and nondisruptive updates, keeping data safe without interrupting productivity. In the event of a data emergency, VxRail integrates with , offering quick operational recovery from disaster.

Best of all, it automates lifecycle management and boosts infrastructure security through VxRail’s HCI System Software and offers a simplified remote management experience for IT.

Yes, you too can secure your remote workforce with Dell EMC VxRail

Whatever your enterprise’s specific situation, Dell EMC VxRail can deliver the protection you need to keep your data safe, regardless of where your employees are physically located. Through the Dell Technologies extended client, server, storage, and data protection portfolio, enterprises can simplify management and reduce costs. Ask the experts at WEI for a demo and get the conversation started. We can help you understand how VxRail fits in your environment and develop a phased approach that ensures you see value and improvements every step of the way. Contact us to start a conversation!

Next Steps: Find out why enterprise IT Leaders run their business on Dell EMC VxRail in our tech brief, “Top Ten reasons Why Customers Choose VxRail” Click Below to start reading!

The post How To Overcome Data Protection Challenges For Remote Workforces appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Picture the following. You are lying in the intensive care unit of an area hospital having just gone through the ordeal of major open-heart surgery. The IC medical staff is depending on medical IoT devices to monitor you. Question, do you feel better having your collected data make the journey across the Internet for analysis at a distant cloud location, or analyzed in near instant fashion at the hospital itself where the medical staff is?

Chances are you would pick the latter. This is what edge computing is all about. It is about retaining data, analyzing and processing it where it resides, at the edge. It is an analytical approach yet does not involve sending data to a centralized cloud by default as we have recently grown accustomed to. While the cloud sufficiently serves as the collector and processor for consumer IoT, it has its limitations when it comes to enterprise IT. This is especially the case for industries such as smart manufacturing and healthcare. The fact is that most traditional networks were not designed for an IoT dominated world. If your data lives on the edge, shouldn’t your processing reside there as well?

Explore the TOP 5 Reasons why you need Edge Computing

1. Location matters
2. Getting it right ASAP
3. Edge computing reduces costs
4. Edge computing is more secure
5. Be closer to your customers

Let’s dig into each reason a little more

1. Location Matters

Most people want to live as close as possible to their work to shorten their commute. Amazon manages regional warehouses designed to get products quickly to their customers. Location matters. That is why 33 percent of IT decision makers plan to invest in new edge computing technology over the next two years. (Source: IDG Research commissioned by WEI, 2019.) Just as IT moved from a centralized mainframe model to a decentralized client/server model, companies are realizing the power of distributing their intelligence-driven IoT functions at the edges, rather than depend on a centralized cloud collector. The laws of distance apply the same whether you are commuting to work or transmitting data to a centralized cloud. Distance increases latency. Connected data drives intelligence-based insights today, which drive decisions and create greater value. For many enterprises, these generated insights need to be derived as close to real time as possible to attain optimum analytical decision-making. This means data needs to be analyzed and processed as close to its data source as possible.

2. Getting it Right ASAP

Here is another universal truth. The sooner you can correct a problem, the better. It takes less time and expense to correct a problem early on. Think of a manufacturing operation that utilizes sensors to detect issues in quality control. The ability to implement a near instant remedial response to a serious fault detection provides great value. When you think about it, does it really make sense to send all of your sensory data to a cloud collector far away when the remedial processes that are driven by those analytics take place back where the data originated? While it was necessary at one time to send all sensory data on a needless round trip due to the lack of storage and processing power to act on that data, that is no longer the case today. In an environment of razor thin margins and extreme competitiveness, companies cannot always wait for data to loop to and from the cloud. Edge computing can act on process anomalies and initiate line shutdowns immediately upon discovery. Edge computing can also potentially save the life of a patient when the seconds count most.

3. Edge Computing Reduces Costs

The pipe is not free. It costs money to send data from endpoint to edge to cloud and back. Think about the amount of data that a single IoT device such as a camera can produce in a 24-hour period. Now multiple that by hundreds, even thousands of devices. All of that data then aggregates to your data center to complete its journey to the cloud. Consider the bandwidth it takes to support all of that. Now consider the added stress on your network. Only a small percentage of that traffic can be acted on, yet it consumes bandwidth that other higher value traffic might need. Then of course, there is the cost of storing all of that data, much of which will never be used. At the very least, edge computing can help by identifying what information is useful for additional processing in the cloud. The efficiencies that edge computing introduces to your network helps reduce costs on a daily basis.

4. Edge Computing is More Secure

Yes, we are all aware of the security challenges of legacy IoT devices, but edge computing is different. Edge devices are now built with embedded functionality, not only when it comes to machine learning and analytics, but security as well. One of the things that the ubiquitous prevalence of data breaches has taught us is that any centralized congregation of data is a tempting target for hackers today. The localization of data processing not only quickens response times and optimizes the efficiencies of data transmission, it increases security as well.

5. Be Closer to Your Customers

While an exclusive reliance on cloud-based analytics by internet-based retailers may make sense, it isn’t so much the case for traditional or multichannel retailers. That is because a large block of their customers are on-premises, shopping in their stores. Edge computing allows retailers to provide better responsiveness to their customers, whether it be helping them find a product or issuing them a timely coupon based on where they reside in the store.

Edge Computing Makes Sense

When it comes to today’s enterprises, the phrase “living on the edge” does not equate to perilous behavior. The edge is where so much happens today. An edge computing architecture and strategy can reduce latency and costs, while increasing dependability and responsiveness to your operations and customer service. When you add it all up, edge computing just makes sense today.

Next Steps: Find out if your enterprise is ready for the edge in this video we created in partnership with Dell Technologies.

The post 5 Reasons Why Your Enterprise Network Needs Edge Computing appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

We all make mistakes. Some of them have consequences that are more lasting than others are. When it comes to choosing a data storage solution, you can make many common scale-out mistakes. These mistakes can turn your new data storage infrastructure into the gift that keeps on giving. One of the biggest challenges when purchasing data storage is predicting how much storage capacity you really need. It is the most fundamental of considerations. Failing to account for future data growth will leave you scrambling to purchase additional storage sooner than you want to. However, it is just as detrimental to pay for more storage than you need in the near term, especially if that extra space is never used. Overpaying for storage today ties up capital that can be better utilized investing in current opportunities that can return value to your organization.

Scale-up vs Scale-out storage

One of the reasons that people make the mistake of paying for far more storage than they need is that they do not understand the difference between scale-up and scale-out storage. Most IT admins are familiar with the concept of scale-up storage even if they do not recognize the term. Also referred to as vertical scaling, it has served as the traditional architecture for block and file storage platforms. The typical system consists of a pair of redundant controllers that manage multiple shelves of disks. As your storage needs grow, you simply purchase more shelves. The concept sounds simple. While purchasing additional shelves does provide access to new disk technology and price efficiencies, your I/O performance remains throttled by the technology and resources of the stagnant controllers. And there is the fact there is a hard limit to how many shelves the controllers can manage. Once that shelf threshold is reached, you must purchase a new complete controller/shelf package. Then, there comes the day when you must upgrade the system. That is when you bring in the forklift and migrate all of your data to the newer system.

Scale-out storage is known as horizontal scaling and utilizes network-attached storage architecture. Rather than utilizing a series of controller-based shelves, scale-out storage consists of a series of interdependent appliances with each one serving as a complete system by itself. At the same time, you can configure these modules to act as a single cluster. Much like , you can add additional storage appliances like Lego blocks. Capacity of the cluster is automatically then expanded and new data is distributed. There is no need for separate controllers however as all of the required resources reside in the module itself. This means you get more than just added capacity. Additional RAM, CPU and networking resources can be leveraged to improve overall performance of the cluster.

Dell EMC Isilon

If the concept of scale-out storage sounds interesting, then you should become familiar with Dell EMC Storage. That is because according to IDC, Dell EMC Isilon is the industry’s #1 family of network-attached storage systems according to IDC in 2019. Some of the available choice in the Isilon family include the following:

• For those who want the high performance of an all flash array (AFA) there are the Isilon F800 and F810 models that feature up to 250K IOPS and up to 924 TB capacity per chassis
• Those who want the agility of a hybrid architecture will want to learn more about the Isilon H series that offers both SSD and SATA drives within a dense chassis design that can save you 75 percent in rack space
• For those seeking an archiving solution there is the Isilon A200 and A2000 units that are designed to safeguard data with encryption, data protection and efficiency at a lower cost

The right storage solution

Dell EMC has other storage architectures as well. If the need for speed is imperative, then Dell’s SCM persistent storage class memory line of primary storage solutions may be perfect. The PowerMax 8000 holds the title of the fastest storage array and delivers end-to-end NVMe storage class memory. It features 4 PB of effective storage capacity and a blazing 350GB per second bandwidth. For those seeking a simple next generation midrange storage solution there is the Dell EMC Unity XT family, built from the ground up to deliver unified storage speed and efficiency. Next generation means that it is built for a multi-cloud world and comes in both AFA and . In fact, Dell has a solution for just about every storage need, of any organization. What’s more, has solutions specifically designed for industries such as healthcare and media as well as defined workloads such as SAP and AI.

Connections Matter

Your data storage arrays do not work in isolation however. Your arrays can have the fastest I/O speeds available but without the equitable network infrastructure connecting them, your system cannot achieve optimum performance. It is a common mistake. Cheap connections can breed performance problems. If you currently depend on SANs for your storage needs, then consider the line of Directors and Switches. Connectrix directors and switches are designed to bring the best performance and scalability to your storage networks. Ensure high availability and support for Fibre Channel, FICON, FCiP and NVMe over Fabrics.

How WEI can help

Dell EMC has the storage solution to accommodate nearly any data strategy. Chances are that data strategy has changed quite a bit over the years and it may be time to revisit that strategy. Talk to the WEI data storage experts to ensure your data strategy and its supporting architecture will help drive your desired business outcomes. Storage can be complicated, confusing, and costly without the right strategy in place.

NEXT STEPS: Learn about these six scale-out storage mistakes to avoid in our video below.

The post An Enterprise Storage Solution for Everyone (Thanks DellEMC!) appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Some purchases require more planning than others do. This is certainly true when it comes to investing in a data storage solution. While applications may come and go, your company’s data lives on. Your data drives the majority of your business operations. One can argue that outside of your Internet gateway, no other facet of the data center has a greater impact on business operations and workloads.

As a result, your storage infrastructure serves as a functional foundation for your business and choosing a data infrastructure solution requires greater diligence than other enterprise components. Just as there are best practices to implementing a data storage solution, there are best practices when it comes to purchasing one as well. We’ve compiled a few dos and don’ts concerning the enterprise storage purchasing process.

Do buy for tomorrow and not today

There are some things you buy to fill an immediate need. Data storage is not one of them. Just as smart homebuyers purchase a first home that will accommodate the needs of a growing family, data storage is a long-term acquisition. You are buying into the future. A by IDC shows that the amount of data residing in the world today doubles every two years. Though that dramatic growth rate may not be indicative of your own environment, it is a universal truth that your organization will create and ingest more data a year from now. Failure to overlook future data growth has definite repercussions. The purchasing process is too elongated and migrations can be too involved and costly to repeat it all again in a couple of years.

Don’t underestimate data growth

If you are going to buy for tomorrow, you need to know what tomorrow looks like. Most of your company’s data is created outside of the IT department. Make it a point to meet with department heads throughout your company to learn about their needs. Their anticipated application deployments will increase data expansion. Meet with senior executives to discuss possible acquisitions or mergers as events such as these can exponentially escalate storage needs overnight.

Do think about your storage environment as a whole

Your data center is a collective assembly of infrastructure nodes and technologies. You cannot optimize server workloads by only considering RAM and CPU allotment. The same applies to storage. Your storage arrays are not islands. Your storage array may have the fastest IOPs but its surrounding infrastructure environment can undermine its performance potential. Make sure you have the right networking strategy to take advantage of high performance storage across your entire enterprise.

Don’t just compare storage size

While careful consideration of future data growth is an essential step, storage availability goes beyond the mere presence of physical storage space. Modern day storage solutions incorporate a number of data reduction technologies to maximize available space such as thin provisioning, compression and deduplication. Make sure you understand these supplemental technologies and understand that different vendors use different equation sets to arrive at their incremental savings targets. Data reduction methodologies can also reduce your overall storage footprint. equates to lower costs concerning space, power and cooling.

Do compare apples to apples

Data storage is a lot more complicated than it was a decade ago. Make sure you understand the difference between HDD and SSD technology. HDD is cheaper but requires more power to spin the disks. Solid-state drives are much faster and have less moving parts; however, not all of your data will justify the initial cost. There is also hybrid storage that incorporates both types. Make sure you understand the ratio of HHD and SSD and the role that SSD will play.

Don’t let initial pricing restrict your options

We all know that price should never be the sole driving factor for something as important as your storage infrastructure, yet it is an easy trap due to the high cost of storage. CAPEX however, is not the only involved cost for today’s modern data storage solutions. You consider long term operational and support costs as well. Savings initiated from data reduction technologies, drive consolidation and management efficiencies all help to reduce the TCO of modern . Some vendors also offer leasing options as well as flex capacity options in which you only pay for the storage you currently use.

Do plan for long purchasing and education cycles

If you have not kept track of data storage innovation since your last purchase, there is going to be a learning curve to catch up. Common best practices within the data storage industry have changed a lot in the past five years. Chances are that any assumptions made during your last product cycle are outdated today. It is about more than just file or block storage today. Begin the preliminary stages of your next product cycle early enough to educate yourself. Taking the time to speak with your peers about their own experiences will pay off. You can also speak with the storage experts at WEI who will take the time to understand the future needs of your environment to help construct a strategy for you.

Do consider Dell Storage Solutions and WEI

There are many options available today when it comes to storage, and you need a vendor that provides many types of solutions. The portfolio of storage solutions available from Dell Technologies can help you unlock the value of your data. for nearly every conceivable environment:

• Primary storage solutions designed to accelerate your critical workloads from core to edge to cloud
• Managed control of your unstructured data by efficiently consolidating wide ranges of file and object storage at any scale
• Automated management and AI help attain greater efficiencies, performance and reliability
• Data solutions specifically designed for specific environments such as SAP or cloud services
• Data solutions that meet the unique needs of given industries such as healthcare or multimedia

Dell manufactures the solutions, and WEI customizes them to the varying needs of our customers. WEI is a premier technology partner that is also passionate about storage and solving technology problems for our customers. Let WEI educate you about your storage options in order to liberate the value and innovation that lies within your residing data.

NEXT STEPS: Explore more Dos and Don’ts of Enterprise Storage decisions.
Over the years WEI’s storage experts have seen it ALL! Find out what we’ve learned about storage strategies across a variety of industries and check out these helpful tips for planning your enterprise storage needs. Contact us any time for a storage strategy review.

The post Exploring the Dos and Don’ts of Enterprise Storage appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

of 4,000 global CIOs by KPMG found that more than 60 percent of respondents are feeling the effects of business and economic uncertainty. These executives made it clear that they’re setting a course for the future dependent on consistent and reliable systems platforms that can support new applications and a flexible IT infrastructure. More than 50 percent want to leverage IT to become more innovative, and nearly half want to find ways to achieve these goals within their current budgetary limits.

Ideal infrastructure must become more flexible to deploy, more scalable to need new demands, and more efficient to serve ever-growing groups of users and customers.

According to a paper from Dell, customers need a unified, manageable IT infrastructure that allows them to:

1. Break down silos to speed up the pace of change

The IT silos found in many data centers must be replaced by a more flexible infrastructure that has the capacity to supply compute and storage resources as needed. Combining them within a single system chassis brings IT resources closer to the applications you need to run your business and provides a unified infrastructure inclusive of compute, , and .

2. Pool resources for compute, storage, and networking that can be provisioned, as needed, to fulfill business demands

Older approaches to capacity planning and 1:1 replacements of siloed systems take more time to plan and accomplish. Customers who want to transform their business can achieve more efficient, pressing IT objectives by tapping flexible systems on demand. They want faster compute, storage, and networking resources for their systems, resulting in greater efficiency and scalability for growing workloads.

3. Make management of the infrastructure simpler and easier

Many customers use dozens of software tools to monitor and manage data center infrastructure. They should be able to view all systems through a single window and leverage automation to control systems resources. This would allow administrators to manage compute, storage, and networking more easily than they do today, and to make changes quickly.

Meet kinetic infrastructure from Dell EMC

Dell EMC is introducing a flexible and scalable solution called kinetic infrastructure. The building blocks of their approach – cores, DRAM, storage class memory, accelerators, storage, and networking – can be disaggregated and re-aggregated as workload demands change, making better use of trapped computer and storage capacity. This approach to scaling infrastructure meets growing business needs by supplying resources on demand and avoiding downtime caused by aging hardware.

Here’s how Dell EMC breaks down the three key parts of kinetic infrastructure:

1. Flexible architecture:

Computer systems need to scale out as they grow, adding resources when the peaks of the business cycle hit the enterprise data center. The ability to add resources as needed when business demands grow avoids the need to continually reconfigure or replace them. The scalable fabric adds compute, , or networking resources as needed. The ability to add storage in this way means the data center is right-sized, rather than overbuilt.

2. Agile management:

Increases team effectiveness by accelerating data center operations. It does this by providing unified control, simplified administration, and intelligent automation. This approach to managing large numbers of systems, storage devices, and networking switches improves productivity and eases training requirements for IT personnel.

3. Responsive design:

This approach to system design lengthens the useful product lifecycle following installation of a new server. By adding resources the system becomes, over time, multi-generational – spanning the useful lifetimes of two or more servers that would otherwise have been required to meet the same business needs. This design results in greater ROI for the organization that relies on its systems to power the enterprise.

Grow your business with Dell EMC PowerEdge MX

Dell EMC PowerEdge MX is the first implementation of Dell EMC kinetic infrastructure. The new systems are the realization of kinetic infrastructure, providing a platform for flexible IT. It is housed in a 7U chassis that provides headroom for the addition of faster processors and dense storage capacity to meet your IT demands as they grow. It has compute sleds and storage sleds that slide into the system’s integrated chassis, making upgrades quick and efficient while avoiding the time and costs associated with the frequent replacement of older systems.

The design of PowerEdge MX allows organizations to extend the useful lifespan of their server systems, updating their systems via the sleds that slide into the system’s integrated chassis. Likewise, customers can add flash storage as demand for more capacity is required. Applications will be able to consume more resources inside the chassis without facing a complete replacement of systems each time there is a significant jump in processing capability – allowing PowerEdge MX to be expanded over multiple years.

Let WEI help you deploy infrastructure that meets business demands

Your enterprise needs to have systems that are as dynamic and innovative as its business and that can grow with you. By adopting a flexible infrastructure, your organization can also reduce operating expenses by increasing system availability and improving the productivity of the IT team.

to learn more about kinetic infrastructure from Dell EMC and how it enables a more unified alignment of IT and business while also protecting your infrastructure investments through a multi-generational, expandable system platform.

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A global study commissioned by Dell EMC finds that if your enterprise isn’t actively using or pursuing ways to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) for success and risk mitigation you’re being left behind. And considering how fast today’s tech landscape moves, that gap is getting wider, faster.

Specifically, Dell’s study found 51 percent of firms have already implemented or are expanding their implementation of . An additional 20 percent plan to implement AI in the next 12 months. However, to ensure its success and mitigate the risks that come with it, CIOs must take the lead and ultimately drive the enterprise AI agenda themselves.

CIOs are optimally positioned for this task as the data, applications, server, accelerator, fabric, and storage infrastructures that they manage are critical for driving business value with AI. They can’t do it alone however, their IT teams will also need to transform and become familiar with the new software applications, infrastructure, and platforms necessary for AI, and modernize existing systems to better support the increasing number of AI initiatives. Simultaneously, CIOs must also track the business outcomes AI is driving to sustain and grow further investments in AI.

So where does a CIO start? After a survey of over 350 global enterprises, put together a CIO’s checklist to guide your transformation efforts, and we agree with the approach. Dig into the checklist below.

1. Engage with the lines of business on their AI needs

Fifteen to twenty percent of the time, lines of business (LOB) completely bypass IT departments when it comes to their AI initiatives. Start rolling ongoing AI projects into IT processes, assess the capabilities that have been developed, and engage business units on their AI goals, challenges, and unmet needs.

Embrace the LOB’s momentum and learn from their progress. Share that information within the organization and challenge yourself to learn the newest applications of AI and how they can impact your enterprise.

Use that knowledge to be the go-between for stakeholders and coordinate the investment, energy, and development of AI. Use that authority to proactively drive AI conversations and become the trusted partner on AI initiatives.

2. Start measuring AI’s impact and its progress

Identify, study, and track the key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter most to your enterprise. Use these metrics to assess and justify AI initiatives.

3. Modernize your infrastructure for existing workloads

According to Dell’s report, 64 percent of enterprises reported that outdated and antiquated software was a significant challenge in driving their AI initiatives. Avoid this by moving away from costly legacy technologies that can’t be upgraded and replacing them with software capable of growing and scaling with your enterprise.

Another half to three-quarters of enterprises reported their AI initiatives were hampered by a lack of automation. With an estimated 73 percent of IT spending going towards day to day operations, investing in automation and self-service now will free up resources for new AI initiatives later.

CIOs also need to ensure that their enterprise data integration, database, and data warehouses are ready and capable of handling and powering your AI initiatives.

4. Deploy platforms for building AI solutions

CIOs need to deploy platforms that can enable multiple lines of business to build AI solutions and leverage components from each other’s solutions. For example:

• Deploy predictive analytics and machine learning platforms that enable data engineers and scientists to collaborate on models and data pipelines across teams.
• Deploy text analytics, natural language processing, and speech analytics platforms that can be applied to use cases ranging from customer service, marketing, and sales, and can also support the creation of chatbots for both internal and external use.

5. Invest in infrastructure for AI at scale

Invest in the infrastructure hardware required for successful AI transformation. Machine learning, and especially deep learning, requires a new level of computational horsepower, as well as high-bandwidth, low-latency networking and storage.

Sixty-one percent of firms surveyed reported being challenged by a lack of servers with purpose-built processors like GPUs and FGPAs. Over eighty percent pointed to a need for new servers that can handle high-performance computing, as well as accelerators to cut down model training times from days and weeks to minutes and hours. That demand will only continue to grow, so CIOs should invest now in highly scalable, with accelerators to support the AI demands of the business.

6. Take charge of the company’s AI strategy

As you become an invaluable partner on AI initiatives, take responsibility for driving the master AI strategy for the enterprise. Ultimately the successes or failures of the enterprises AI ventures will fall on the CIO’s shoulders, whether or not the project was started by them.

7. Build AI capabilities for the company and IT department simultaneously

Assess AI projects that you can support effectively. Begin with technologies that have well-defined use cases, a proven ROI, and relatively mature commercial solutions. Use the KPIs you identified at the onset to track and broadcast AI efforts across the company to keep senior leadership and other stakeholders appraised. Build capability in IT with data science, data engineering, DevOps, and developer skills necessary to build these solutions.

8. Continuously build the business case for further AI investments

Identify, study, and track the business performance metrics that matter most to your company on an ongoing basis. Proving the positive impact of AI to the business will drive increased investment. With meticulous tracking and reporting, the business case for AI investments will be impossible to ignore.

CIOs should also regularly scan for new business opportunities and find new investments, before the lines of business even know about them. Dell’s study found that mature organizations who invest more in AI get more in return. For instance, approximately half of enterprises with an annual spend of $36M in AI expect an ROI between two and five times their initial investment.

Be ready to invest significant portions of the IT budget into new endeavors; it won’t be cheap, but the CIO must drive these new investments and put the priorities of the business as a whole above those of the IT department.

NEXT STEPS: Learn more about how AI in the data center can transform the way you manage IT operations. Click below to read our Tech Brief today.

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