Author: Charles King

Annual technology customer and user conferences take on any number of shapes, but their underlying structure typically indicates the subjects and themes that are closest to the host vendor’s heart. In most cases, new commercial products and services take pride of place. In fact, it is common for companies to save-up special announcements for conferences. In others, major customer and partner wins enjoy the brightest spotlights. Virtually all are used to clarify and amplify vendors’ strategic goals, a sensible exercise when you have an interested, attentive audience at your disposal. Last week’s IBM Think 2022 conference contained many of these…

The past two decades have been a time of revolutionary technological change in virtually every region and sector, but it is hard to think of any area where things have shifted more radically than in enterprise data centers. Consider that in 2002, large businesses could choose between over half a dozen discrete server architectures and CPUs. While x86-based systems were on the rise, most were aimed at lower-end applications and workloads. Today, only three of those platforms are still being actively developed: IBM zSystems mainframes, IBM Power Systems and x86. The massive popularity of x86 servers inspires regular questions about…

It is safe to say that mobile devices, including laptops, convertible 2-in-1s, tablets and smartphones have revolutionized and fundamentally changed the ways that businesses utilize computing. However, while many mobile solutions are more or less interchangeable in terms of form factors, features and functions, some are designed to address singular applications and use cases. Ruggedized laptops, like Dell Technologies’ new Latitude 5430 Rugged, are excellent examples of this. Though the Latitude 5430 Rugged is obviously not the product for every business situation, it is also one of the few solutions that organizations can use to address some specific situational and…

Many consider regulations a bane to business. After all, can’t companies be trusted to do the right thing? Why behave foolishly or unlawfully if such actions endangered customers or investments? These points might seem reasonable to anyone not well acquainted with human foibles, but they can be harmful or dangerous when it comes to organizations that are vital to the wellbeing of individuals and communities, like banks and financial services. In those cases, the value of industry and government regulations is clear. However, it’s worth asking a larger question: How can organizations following complex regulations also stay competitive and transform…

Predictability is a business value largely ignored until unpredictability rears its head. That was a central lesson at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic as thousands of companies and millions of their employees struggled to find, learn and manage predictable solutions for working from home (WFH) and other remote locations. As the pandemic continues, many of those temporary options are becoming permanent parts of workers’ lives. How are vendors responding? In the case of Dell, the company recently launched five new monitors designed to simplify WFM and other mobile processes and applications. Following are my thoughts on the new Dell…

At this year’s virtual CES 2021, Dell caused quite a stir with the announcement of a slew of new hardware and software solutions it said were designed to “reimagine work.” Among these was the new Dell UltraSharp 40 Curved WUHD Monitor (U4021QW) which the company described as “the world’s first 40-inch ultrawide WUHD 5K2K monitor.” Dell recently offered to let me put an evaluation unit through its paces, and the experience made me consider and reconsider how a well-designed monitor can impact working and productivity. Following are a few thoughts on my experience. Form/Features/Functions The first thing that strikes you…

Successful commercial products don’t exist in a vacuum. The best ones incorporate the latest technologies and materials offerings, and either mirror or push the boundaries of contemporary design aesthetics. However, successfully evolving those products is more hit and miss. Product development teams break apart and re-form. What makes eminent sense to one generation of consumers is wasted on the next. Making long term bets on any technology is inherently risky. In other words, maintaining a clear vision and purpose developing a product that spans multiple generations is harder than it looks but it’s not impossible. In fact, Dell’s newest generation…

I recently attended the Dell Technologies Summit, a media and analyst event highlighting plans and strategies for what the company calls The Next Data Decade. In primary focus there was its new PowerONE platform and the attendant Technologies on Demand (ToD) services. Both were impressive and together they substantially raise Dell’s game in enterprise computing, multi-cloud and consumption-based IT services. Let’s take a closer look. On demand redux Stick around the tech industry long enough and nearly any announcement brings to mind things you heard and saw months, years or decades before. In this case, I was struck by how…

Enterprises are deeply experienced with and fully understand the challenges of managing and maintaining remote IT facilities and assets. That said, the growing momentum of Internet of Things initiatives and solutions at the edge of corporate networks is likely to stretch organizations’ assumptions about remote IT to the limits. Why so? Because IoT assets, like edge gateway systems are designed to be deployed and function in isolation. Sophisticated tools and autonomous features can help ease IT’s management burden but they do little, if anything, to secure devices against tampering or theft. Additionally, the pre-configured features and settings that enable IoT…

Many consider internet of things (IoT) edge computing to be a single entity but it is far more diverse and complex. A large portion of edge computing offerings leverage gateway systems that collect, coalesce and analyze IoT sensor data before sending it on to central data centers for further analysis and decision making. But increasingly sophisticated processors and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and software are transforming edge computing for both businesses and consumers. A good example is the recently announced partnership between AI accelerator chip and technology provider Gyrfalcon Technology Inc. (GTI) and AI solution provider Sensory to deliver low…