Tag: Dell

Dell boosts security portfolio

Dell is working with CrowdStrike and SecureWorks to offer enterprises access to endpoint security for digital transformation.

Dell’s new AI-driven and cloud-native  SafeGuard and Response platform contain tools that help businesses analyse threats and respond to security incidents on a single managed platform.

It is all powered by CrowdStrike, SecureWorks’ threat intelligence and response management and Dell’s wants to flog an all-in-one threat protection product for all businesses.

Dell calls for more digital transformation

Grey box shifter Dell has revealed the findings of global research into the adoption of digital transformation and found that the UK has yet to work the concept out.

According to Dell’s bi-annual Digital Transformation Index, the UK is better prepared in many other countries, but even so 71 percent of digital leaders think that digital transformation should be more widespread across their organisations.

Dell rulez servers

Tin box shifter Michael Dell took the number one position in the worldwide vendor server market for the third quarter of 2018, according to beancounters at IDC.

It had 17.5 percent of market share, followed by HPE at 16.3 percent. HPE had held top position for the same period in 2017.

Overall revenue in the global server market increased 37.7 percent year-on-year to $23.4 billion in the third quarter, marking its highest total revenue in a single quarter.

Dell back on the stock market on 28 December

Grey tin box shifter Michael Dell is about to list his company back on the New York Stock Exchange on 28 December, bringing to a close a restructuring process that started at the beginning of the year.

The deal will see Dell float by buying back shares of DVMT, which is a tracking stock linked to its VMware subsidiary. Buying the stocks will make Dell a public company.

Dell and Intel have a peek at digital transformation

Dell and Intel have got together to have a look at what is happening with the mid-market and enterprise space and appear to have opened a Pandora’s box of doom and gloom.

The pair’s Digital Transformation Index shows that that UK firms are aware that things are changing and meeting customer demands is going to become more challenging.  Nearly a fifth of them were scared that their organisations will be left behind.

Dell doubles hyperconverged sales

michael-dell-2The pressure of Dell’s boot on the throat of the hyperconverged space has increased as the outfit has doubled its revenue in the sector in the second quarter.

According to figures from IDC, the worldwide converged systems market grew 10 percent year on year in the second quarter of 2018, generating revenues of $3.5 billion and Dell was the winner with  seeing its sales jump 95.2 percent to $418.7 million.

Sebastian Lagana, infrastructure platforms and technologies research manager at IDC, said: “Datacentre infrastructure convergence remains an important investment driver for companies around the world.

“HCI solutions helped to drive second-quarter market expansion thanks, in part, to their ability to reduce infrastructure complexity, promote consolidation, and allow IT teams to support an organisation’s business objectives.”

he certified reference and integrated infrastructure market saw a year-on-year decline of 14 percent, generating $1.3 billion in the second quarter. This represents 38 percent of total converged systems revenue.

Dell also led the charge in this market segment, with $640 million in sales, representing a 47.5 percent share of the space. This was followed by Cisco/NetApp holding the second-largest share of this segment space and HPE trailing in third.

Integrated platform sales declined 12.5 percent year on year, with revenues of $729.4m. Oracle was the top-ranking supplier in this segment, capturing 60 per cent of this market space and seeing profits of $441 million.

Nutanix saw a year-on-year decrease of its HCI market share, but still ranked second in the segment, holding 19 percent of the HCI space, with Cisco and HPE coming joint third.

It is spend,spend, spend on the cloud

banner_220x220Cloud channel members should be rubbing their paws with glee at the news that cloud spending is on the increase

IDC has increased its forecasts for the amount of cloud infrastructure sales that will be sold globally this year on the back of a solid showing in the second quarter.

The analyst house has charted a 48.4 percent increase in the sale of infrastructure products, including servers, storage and Ethernet switches, sold by vendors and fulfilled by the channel in Q2. As a result, the forecasts for the full year are now coming in a $62.2 billion, an increase of 31.1 percent on last year.

Spending is increasing in public and private cloud areas, up by 58.9 percent and 28.2 percent in Q2 respectively, with the combined investments in cloud infrastructure now accounting for almost half of all the infrastructure spending globally.

IDC is forecasting that spending in cloud environments is going to grow by double digits this year.

Non-cloud IT is dying, and it still accounted for  just over half of the total infrastructure market in Q2 and came in with 21.1 percent growth, but it is markedly lower than cloud-related spending.

Natalya Yezhkova, research director, IT Infrastructure and Platforms at IDC said that as the share of cloud environments in the overall spending on IT infrastructure continues to climb and approaches 50 percent, it is evident that cloud, which once used to be an emerging sector of the IT infrastructure industry, is now the norm.

“One of the tasks for enterprises now is not only to decide on what cloud resources to use but how to manage multiple cloud resources. End users’ ability to use multi-cloud resources is an essential driver of further proliferation for both public and private cloud environments”, she added.

The top three regarding market share were Dell, HPE and Cisco. But the shining star regarding revenue growth year on year in Q2 was Lenovo, which delivered a 223.5 percent increase putting it in fourth place.

Hills Components shuts down

banner_220x220After 45 years in business Hills Components has ceased trading.

The Watford-based firm described itself as a trade and educational supplier, primarily offering IT hardware and accessories to its clients. It flogged Acer, Dell and Epson gear and hired 20.

It  went into liquidation on 13 September, appointing Mercer & Hole accountants on the same day. Apparently the outfit had acquired too much debt and had an inventory of outdated stock.

The e-tailer reported assets of £2 million in its financial 2017, a lot of that stock was outdated and was removed from the company’s catalogue, causing it to sit unsold.

This sort of problem is typical issue for many channel players who become significantly overstocked and the price comes down. The only way to turn the product into cash is to  lose money on it.

 

Dell quarterly revenue hits $23 billion

Tin box shifter Dell saw its sales rise across the board as quarterly revenue hits $23 billion.

The vendor is now forecasting non-GAAP revenues of between $90.5 billion and $92 billion for its full fiscal year and non-GAAP operating income of between $8.4 billion and $8.8 billion.

Revenues increased by 18 percent in non-GAAP terms to $22.9  billion for the quarter, while non-GAAP operating income hit 13 per cent growth to $2.1 billion. The firm reported a GAAP operating loss of $13 million.

Its Infrastructure Solutions Group increased by 24 percent and Client Solutions Group 13 percent.

Servers and networking swelled 34 percent year on year and storage hit 13 percent sales growth.

VMware meanwhile grew revenues by 11 percent to $2.2  billion and logged $736 million  in operating income.

Dell claims to have pushed a record number of client units in Q2 and saw triple-digit growth for its VxRail and VxRack lines.

Michael Dell in a statement: “We are in the early stages of a global, technology-led investment cycle in which every company is becoming a technology company. As our results indicate, Dell Technologies is perfectly positioned to grow, gain share, drive innovation and be our customers’ best, most trusted partner on the journey to their digital future.”

Dell is currently gearing up to return to the stock exchange, which the firm claims will allow it to simplify its capital structure.

 

Dell sets up an IoT partner programme

banner_220x220Tin box shifter Dell has launched an IoT partner programme alongside its very close chum VMworld.

A spokesDell said the programme will provide pre-tested and pre-validated hardware and software packages from Dell and technology partners.

Ken Mills, general manager of IoT surveillance and security at Dell, said during an online press conference before VMworld opened that IoT is rapidly expanding and the amount of infrastructure needed to support it is growing.

“There is a definite shift in the amount of storage and compute power needed to support this transition.”

The number of connected devices worldwide is expected by some industry observers to be as high as 30 billion by 2020 and to continue to grow from there.

The wide array of devices, systems and sensors and the rapid growth of IoT are challenges for businesses looking to embrace IoT, according to Chris Wolff, who took over as head of global OEM and IoT partnerships at Dell in October 2017.

Wolff said companies often understand there are a lot of things they can do with automation and IoT technologies to help them gain insights into their data and make better business decisions, but they can struggle to take the first step.

She said that getting started wasso daunting because there are so many things IoT theoretically can do at at work.  It is difficult for people to know what to do and have a conversation with the techies to find out what’s possible or feasible for my organisation.

Wolff said there was a fear that a company could “choose the Betamax instead of the VHS”

Dell claimed that it can give customers a complete package by bringing together technologies from its partners and the vendors under its umbrella.

The bundles will be sold entirely through the channel, giving partners not only another solution to offer their customers, but also a new revenue stream to take advantage of as IoT continues to grow in the enterprise.

Wolff said the programme will focus on “enabling reseller partners, who are very good at deploying IT infrastructure and managing that infrastructure to provide that same level of management and security across non-traditional devices such as refrigerator coolers”.

Former Dell EMC UK CEO joins DCC

6v6rdBfd_400x400Former Dell EMC UK chief exec Tim Griffin has joined Exertis parent DCC to head up the firm’s tech division.

Griffin will be responsible for the “strategic direction” of DCC Technology, which trades as Exertis and report to DCC CEO Donal Murphy.

Griffin  left his role as Dell EMC’s UK CEO in November 2016.

In a statement he said: “We have all the foundations in place and the support of DCC to take this amazingly vibrant and successful company to the next level. People make the difference in business and we have very talented and driven teams across our diverse range of technologies. I am looking forward to leading and inspiring these teams to even greater success in the future by broadening our reach and ensuring that our customers and people are our key priorities.”

DCC CEO Murphy added: “This is a key appointment and I am delighted that Tim has accepted the challenge and opportunity to grow our technology distribution business and expand our presence in new and existing territories. He brings extensive international experience and expertise with an emphasis on customer relationships, and a history of creating highly engaged teams aligned to strong company values. I am confident that with the great management we have in place and Tim’s leadership qualities, we have an exciting future ahead.”

Dell says his outfit has become too complicated

Michael DellMichael Dell has told those who are interested in such things that his moves to return Dell to the stock exchange were part of a cunning plan to simplify the business.

In an interview with CNBC, inside the New York Stock Exchange, Michael Dell (pictured) said the current structure is “too complicated” and the move will allow the firm to simplify the structure that currently sees its trade as a tracking stock related to VMware’s performance.

On Monday Dell Technologies announced that it would be relisted as a public company, with VMware remaining independent.

“We have an extraordinary business that’s doing incredibly well”, Dell’s Dell said.

“We brought together the best assets of the industry, we have invested heavily, we changed the trajectory considerably, and if you look at the original businesses that we started with, we’ve had 21 quarters in a row of growth and share in those businesses.

“In the last five years, a lot has changed. We have completely transformed the business, become the essential infrastructure company [and] really changed the profile nature of the company in terms of our capabilities.

“This is about simplifying our capital structure and exposing the value that we’ve created to shareholders.”

 

Dell to go public again

Michael DellDell is set to go public by the end of the year after rejecting a plan to merge with subsidiary VMware.

The vendor has announced plans to buy out holders of publicly listed DVMT stock – tracking stock that reflects the performance of VMware – using a mix of Dell stocks and cash. Dell has stressed that VMware itself is expected to be unaffected.

“VMware maintains its independence as a separate publicly traded company while Dell Technologies will continue to own 81 percent of VMware common stock”, said Dell in a statement.

This contradicts statements from Dell’s CEO and founder, who has often spoken publicly about the benefits the vendor reaped from going private in 2013. At the time, the deal cost Michael Dell and private equity house Silver Lake Partners $24.9 billion.

Since going private, Dell has invested heavily in expanding its business selling hardware, software, and services for data centres. In 2016, it paid a record-breaking $67 billion for the storage hardware giant EMC, including EMC’s stakes in business software companies VMware and Pivotal, which will remain independent. In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Dell now describes itself as “a strategically aligned family of businesses”. One thing hasn’t changed: Founder and CEO Michael Dell owns a controlling stake in the company.

During a conference call, Dell CFO Tom Sweet said the deal will simplify the company’s ownership structure and “enable Dell Technologies to grow into an even stronger company”.

Dell is going public in a relatively strong position, says Craig Lowery, a research director at the industry analysis firm Gartner and former Dell executive. But there’s a good chance it won’t be in such a strong position in the future as cloud computing eats into its data centre business.

 

Sarah Shields promoted to Europe

sarah-shields-new-620x350Sarah Shields is to become Dell EMC’s new VP of enterprise channel, Europe, and the outfit now needs someone to fill her current UK role.

Shields will now work with partners targeting large enterprise accounts across Europe. Large deals are very much outcome orientated and she thinks they are a great opportunity for partners that want to hit that large base of enterprise customers.

Shields said she is currently in the process of putting together a team to work with her in her new role, but said she will not transition until a replacement for her current role (VP and GM of Dell EMC UKI channels) has been found. The move will see Dell EMC without a heavy weight leader in the UK.

A shortlist of potential candidates has been drawn up, but Shields encouraged people to apply for the role. She stressed that the UK will remain important to her in her new position.

In the new role Shields will report into Dell EMC’s senior VP for EMEA Michael Collins, as she does  now.

Server sales are up due to supply shortages

HP-MicroServerWorldwide server revenues grow by a third but while that is a good thing for vendors it is more due to supply shortages, according to analyst outfit Gartner group.

Apparently a shortage in components for server hardware, alongside currency fluctuations, has driven up the cost of servers in EMEA.

Worldwide server revenue increased 33.4 percent in the first quarter of the year and shipments grew 17.3 percent  year over year.

Adrian O’Connell, research director at Gartner, said the EMEA server market’s strong start to 2018 is largely driven by scarcity of materials increasing the cost of gear.

“The cost of certain components is increasing due to supply shortages, and this is compounded by recent currency volatility increasing the figures for revenue when measured in US dollars. The very modest rate of shipment growth demonstrates the effects of system pricing”, he said.

In EMEA, this caused revenue to grow by almost a third year-on-year to $3.7 billion for the quarter, while server shipments totalled just 517,000 units, an increase of only 2.7 percent  year-on-year.

Analysts said that ongoing supply constraints in memory would continue into the second half of 2018, and that this is affecting the market and driving most revenue growth.

Dell EMC experienced a huge 51.4 percent revenue growth in the first quarter of 2018, widening the gap between it and second-placed HPE. Dell EMC recorded a 21.5 percent market share, followed closely by HPE with 19.9 percent  of the market.

In EMEA, HPE maintained its primary spot, but it was third-placed Lenovo that had the strongest growth of 70 percent, Gartner said. This strong growth is partly due to comparison with a weak first quarter in 2017, as Lenovo’s business has been declining since the System X acquisition.

Dell EMC saw the second strongest growth rate of the top five vendors. “Dell EMC continues to perform well in EMEA”, said O’Connell. “The first quarter is usually a good quarter for Dell EMC, but it’s attained a record revenue share level in in the first quarter of 2018 and reduced the gap between itself and HPE to under 10 percent now.”

Gartner said the modest shipment growth rates suggest that market demand hasn’t increased much, and that ongoing memory supply constraints would continue into the second half of 2018.
“The very positive revenue performance, however, along with strong adoption at the start of this upgrade cycle, means it is at least a much more positive start to 2018 than we saw at the start of 2017”, said the report.