Dell AI PCs Powering Productivity
recently crn surveyed more than 100 it leaders and found that 28% of organizations are actively implementing or considering these devices as part of their refresh plans we'll explore how Dell AI powered PCS and innovative solutions are helping Partners Drive productivity enhance security and support the evolving needs of businesses Joining me today to discuss this further are Eric Arcese and John Siegal from Dell Technologies glad to have you both with me great to be here thank you Kena AI adoption obviously is a Hot Topic right now can you share how customers are engaging with AI and what key trends or challenges are emerging in those conversations in these past couple years since AI came um came on onto the scene you know it's unlike anything we've seen before um I know Eric and I have been around technology for a little bit here and it's touching literally every single industry it's touching every single you know function which in through every company as well and you know you asked for Trends I mean one of the trends and things we hear from customers is they want to be able to deploy AI where it makes the most sense um that could be in the data center that could be in the cloud that could be at the edge that could be on their on their PC they just want that flexibility and it that really aligns to our point of view uh from a Dell perspective which is we've been trying to help customers bring AI to their data wherever it is and and the reason for that is first of all if you have the data closer to where you actually want to process it latencies lower costs are lower and you tend to have better security as well as part of that so you know this this all ties into our Dell AI Factory which we announced early this year uh which is really around taking advantage of the full portfolio that we have and helping customers run AI you know where they want to and I'll just say you know as AI moves from training which is where it's primarily been in terms of in the in the cloud or even in the data center we're seeing more more um AI move towards inferencing and at the edge U and that's really where the AI PC comes in John you brought up the AI Factory and I remember seeing the AI Factory for the first time really featured at Dell Tech World earlier in the year in May and and there's this beautiful rendering of the factory which almost think think of it as a reference architecture if you will and it had uh these blocks these Big Blocks like data services open infrastructure um an ecosystem and and outcomes right and I think about the role of our partner Community the role of our partner Community is in the gaps between those blocks stitching it all together bringing it um together really filling in the seams and in and and making sure that it's incredibly cohesive we can't do it alone right we need that partner ecosystem to be able to help navigate a pretty complex topology of it providers in in Market that are changing so much right and it's such a dynamic market right John I know you're seeing it as well in uh in the client space no single vendor uh can do this all alone I think whether it's you know Dell along with our system integrators and channel Partners um and isvs I mean it is it's really a large ecosystem and as you know we've been working really hard to help lead that ecosystem and ultimately help our customers deploy AI as easily as as possible and that's what the AI Factory is also about as you know is trying to really simplify what is very complex behind the scenes um and helping them make those critical decisions on how what what is their strategy what are their use cases and that they want to actually come out of the AI Factory right what do they want to produce and and those use cases could be everything from content generation it could be code generation there's a variety of use cases right now that are coming out of the AI Factory um and uh what's really exciting now is is the AI PCs are more prominent role you know as we're starting to see inferencing a particular takeoff when you think about this AI um Trend and this New World Order of AI from a partner perspective Partners need to make decisions each and every day who they want to bet on right from a partner perspective and the great thing about Dell Techologies is we have the AI PC we have the data center we have servers we have networking we have the full gamut to be able to bring that AI Factory to life and it it makes it very simple in terms of you know one hand to shake when it comes to infrastructure to support that AI vision and to realize the promise of what AI can be for our Collective customers around the world yeah from what both of you are saying it sounds like there's a case for adopting AI PCS right now can you expand on why you think now is the time this is the moment uh as I've been you know saying and I I feel like AI PCS more than ever now are needed um and and just to take a step back too I think aipc is are much better than just your any PC these these are like Sleek beautiful blazing fast and they literally have all day battery life so right off the bat these are really really good PCS and then by the way they can handle AI workloads that we're seeing coming in a big big way and it's important for our customers to not only be able to run the AI workloads of today but just as if not more importantly the AI workloads that are coming in a big way and you know I like to use this analogy that you could try to run a marathon could be the Boston Marathon uh in flipflops but you know why would you bother doing that I mean it's going to be really painful it's going to be slow you're going to get blistered everywhere why wouldn't you instead use some new you know running shoes like hocus um and that's really a difference between nonc's and AI PCs that it's that it's that big of a difference and and so you know as customers are coming up for refresh now and they're trying to make that critical decision it's important that they consider not just the PC they need tomorrow but the one they're going to need in a year two years three years down the lot and we think that that's going to involve having to be able to run AI on device as we say AI on PCS um and one of the really strong uh use cases for this or really arguments is that there are lots of applications now being built to run on AI PC specifically an AI PCS have npus or neural processing units and there we are tracking right now over 400 applications that are under development to run on an mpu there are some today like Microsoft co-pilot for 365 um that can run either on PC or actually in a hybrid fashion you've got Adobe uh there are crowd strike applications that run really strong threat uh detection capabilities that really take threat detection to the next level from a security perspective and there just just countless applications like that and and the last thing I'll say about this is that not only are there all these new applications coming out but a lot of Enterprises are coming to us together with our partners and so they're looking for help and and often times times that's a really good use case for running it on a PC I love that analogy John of the marathon it really is the right tool at the right time for the right workload and oftentimes our partners sit where that workload is in terms of identifying the workload coming up with a solution set for it and working with Dell Technologies our partners know they have the right tools to get that workload done what's really fascinating is to see all the places where these workloads are evolving in every vertical and every um horizontal just across the board making Transformations a reality for for customers irrespective of what Market they're in what vertical uh they partake in or how they get the job done but it it's really cool all these all these companies wherever they are they they end up becoming tech companies and we with our partners are enabling that that Tech Evolution and that transformation both in the data center as well as at the edge with our amazing PC portfolio and John how exciting is it um what we've just announced it's pretty cool from a simplification perspective around our portfolio I mean in the last 40 years at D I can't recall a moment where we've had such a big announcement in terms of just simplifying the portfolio across the board very exciting for our partner community no doubt yeah we really have and so you know we've we've really unified and simplified our naming and our branding um across the portfolio and we listen to our partners around the world and customers as well and and actually surveyed um over 13,000 and what what came out loud and clear is that the brand that really they they cared that mattered the most to them and that they recognized was Dell uh and they also wanted a simpler way to to navigate and to find the perfect PC device you know for their a for their AI use cases and what better way to do that to actually just simplify the man of the portfolio and unify it all around the Dell brand and that's exactly what we've done so we we've we've simplified it with using Dell is you know we have three product categories now Dell for everyday use if you will for school play and work we have Dell Pro which is professional grade productivity so that think of that for professionals and then we have Del Pro Max which is really taking you know performance to the Max uh with with our workstation so we've kept it really simple and and we think that this is going to help a lot and I know that our partners are really excited about all the new offers we have as well which include not just um you know uh Intel and qualcom but we greatly expanded our AMD um offers as well to give customers the ultimate and choice and flexibility when it comes to picking the best PC for their for their use cases Eric what are the benefits for the partner Community that's a great question Kenna so the benefit for the partner Community is our partners want to work with vendors that are simple predictable and profitable and John just walked us through why simplifying the portfolio is going to yield a ton of benefits in terms of navigating the richest offering in the in the PC industry right so that's going to be more simple we want to make sure our engagement is more predictable right you know how to engage with us if you're partner and then ultimately we want to make sure partners are making money and building profitable practices around this aipc offering and this incredible Tech refresh cycle that we've just started embarking on the opportunity is tremendous in the PC space right we have the largest install base in the history of tech it's the oldest a lot of it's four to six plus years old we have this compelling event with Windows 10 moving to Windows 11 and then we have the aipc we're bringing AI magic to the edge to the end user and our partners can deliver that deploy that with Dell Technologies I mean it is a winning environment for our partners we're thrilled for them and for our customers our joint customers that we all wake up thinking about each and every day in terms of driving Transformations for them in their respective businesses and organizations what is Dell doing to accelerate the adoption of on device Ai and drive Innovation with npus a lot of larger companies in particular started to come to us they want to build their own AI applications you know that are leveraging their data leveraging you know picking models if you will that are available typically the open source but how do you pull that all together that and and do that at scale it's it's pretty complex and so you know when we've talked to them they say well look you know the whole process itself can take up to six months you got to research the right model pick the right model what silicon do you want it to run on do you want it to run in a CPU or a GPU or an npu um and again this this takes you know upwards of six months on average and so what we've done is we've just introduced um a new toolkit called the Dell pro AI studio and and really what this is about is it's giving our Enterprise customers if you will uh a guide book or a map uh to help them simplify the whole process it's by far the most comprehensive toolkit out there uh to date and again more than anything else is designed to help our our our customers and our partners develop applications once and deploy it across a a full Fleet if you will of PCS regardless of the Silicon that they're running on John that's a great Point silicon diversity right ensuring that our partners have choice to navigate all of this promise that we're going to see with these aips I think about the opportunity um in the in the client space specifically it's just enormous right and we have this this clock right going towards October of 2025 we are keenly focused with our partners to get ahead of that date to make sure that um we have a great and a robust deployment strategy for our partners to get them ready so whether uh it's an AI PC or it's just a total refresh of their whole client install base we are working with them to make sure they have what they need to win yeah we're just again at the end of the day we're just doing everything we can as we said earlier it takes a village uh to deploy AI and to do it simply and easily we are at the we're in the early Innings of its deployment out there and look we're doing everything we can and uh I just will say that um this is this the Dell Pro AI Studio has been welcomed by the industry and we're looking forward to the fruits of its labor in the coming months when you build out an AI practice as a partner you would be remiss not to be focused also on the on the PC space right the data center yes but that AI at the edge is going to be critical to make sure any AI Factory works so when when our partners are are sitting down and architecting what their future AI practice looks like often times we start with the p PC and the AI IPC which is really cool to to think about really going back to the basics for Dell Technologies right where it all started is this really a crucial part an integral part of the Del Factory bringing it back to where we started and that you know some of these applications that um that are being developed may make sense to run on the server um or in the cloud or in a hybrid model where you know some some data is is accessed in the cloud or in Data Center and others is is actually accessed U because of private information on uh on PCS so think of this as broader than just AI PC accelerant it's something that really is looking to drive an uh AI applications you know for Enterprises period with AI C security concerns how can Partners use Dell's built-in security to address growing security concerns yeah I will say security is by far you know the biggest challenge um that we hear from time and time again from our from our customers and from our partners and we take a lot of Pride and in have having what we what are the world's most secure um aipis from a commercial perspective in particular there have been surveys out there there have been studies done I mean principal Technologies recently found that no other PC manufacturer out there can offer the the visibility that Dell does when it comes to bios because supply chain is also um really one of the the strengths of of what we do overall uh we've got a lot of security build into our supply chain to make sure uh that that is also robust and then finally we also do a lot of things around uh monitoring we we for example monitor behaviors uh behavior-based uh monitoring to um identify potential threats before they do any damage you need multiple layers of Defense um and you need those those layers of security working together and and so one of the things we've done is we've partnered really closely with Intel and Crowdstrike together to provide um really another level of security um across the stack uh and so so what we've done is we we able to take the the BIOS visibility that we have we've integrated that in with crowd strike and what they can do is they can provide really good visibility from the security perspective and action ability and they can do that across the stack for our customers and giving them really you know the best threat detection if you will out there um across the stat across the board we take a lot of pride in security and we're doing it and and you know together with our Channel Partners at the get-go we are helping Ensure that AI can be done securely and simply um it is not easy it's not as simple as just a device it takes a full strategy from a from a security perspective that's a great Point John we we can't capture this Market alone we have to do it with our partners and we're giving our partners tools to win and and ensuring that they have the foundation from which to build a very thriving client business uh with this AI opportunity Eric how does Dell's Apex PC as a service Help Partners invest the latest technology and improve operational efficiency for customers I love that question right because as a service is so important for our partners and customers Al like this utility model of computing if you will what's started in the data center has expanded with Apex across the whole portfolio so it's really cool to see that the aipc is benefiting from this utility model so John I don't know if you wanted to add to it but I'm pretty charged up about the fact that whatever product or whatever ever part of our portfolio you want to light up if you want it as a service you can do that with Apex today yeah I mean one of the great things about Apex and an as a service subscription kind of model is that you can you can have access to the latest and greatest technology out there and with AI PCs you know evolving so quickly um it gives customers that peace of mind uh that they can have access to the to the latest and greatest technology to do it at us you know from a subscription perspective and and I should be clear it's not just the PCS themselves it's also all the peripherals around the PC as well uh that they can actually include um in a Apex subscription um and then they can also ask for you know request Services uh whether it's from the partner or from Dell and then yeah just that more than anything else I think the the budget flexibility that you mentioned I think it's it gives customers uh that flexibility and control um where they have a monthly subscription um it can easily dial up or dial down the number of PCS the number of peripherals ET that they need that's right John Apex gives you investment protection right at scale with the service model to ensure that you have what you need when you need it finally where can we learn more information thanks Kenna that's a great question where to find more well you can find more at the Dell Technologies partner portal and if you're not already following it um please follow our our Dell tech partner hashtag on LinkedIn so um great information there and it's always up to date thank you John and Eric for join your to we've definitely learned a lot Kenna we're just thrilled to be here with you it's hard for John and I not to get excited about the PC opportunity before us especially when it comes to AI PCs this is a phenomenal landscape that's new it's emerging and it's ginormous our partners can win today by leveraging the power of the full portfolio number one in everything all in one place with Del Technologies we are making it happen with aipc so uh thrilled to spend some time with you today chatting about it with the one and only John seagull so thank you so much Kenna for that thank you Eric and and thank you Kenna and Eric I just had to add to what you just said we're also number one in AI PCs as well oh did I did I forget AI PCs I mean let's talk more about AI PC Kena do you have any questions on the AI PC market that is so burgeoning and for everyone watching thank you for tuning in for the channel company I'm Kena Johnson [Music]
2025-02-19 13:09
