IT Services

As part of today's "Powering the Efficient Enterprise" launch events taking place globally, Dell introduced a slew of new services to power the efficient enterprise. Dell believes that technology and associated services should enable customers to innovate and be more competitive. Our SaaS- and consultant-based services have been created to do just that.

Our services business takes a three-tiered approach:

ProSupport: a suite of configurable support services that enable customers to choose the right level of support for their IT environment. Configurable options include support planning, escalation management, issue trending and ticket resolution, which all enable customers to be more proactive and to safeguard their IT environments;

ProManage: a portfolio of services that automate, centrally configure, deploy and manage hardware and software in customer data center and end-user environments;

ProConsult: our approach to consulting services differs from our competitors' people-intensive way of doing things. Instead of throwing more suits at customers' problems, we employ a tools-based approach that our field consultants use to assist with the evaluation of a customer's environment.

Let's look specifically at the new services we're announcing today:

• Dell ProConsult and ProSupport services for EqualLogic storage customers that help them plan, deploy and protect storage investments;
• Dell ProManage ImageDirect for Servers simplifies image management and helps customers create and install images on the servers as their being built;
• Dell ProConsult Data Center services help customers consolidate and optimize their data center through virtualization and other technologies.

To see more images of all the products we unveiled today, click on this link to see them on Dell's Official Flickr page.

I sat down recently with Don Mann, Dell's vice president and general manager of Global Services, to get more specifics on the new services.

The post below comes to us from Kirstan Ryan, Enterprise Communications Specialist.

There is a lot of hype surrounding “cloud computing.” Unfortunately, most vendors are using this hype to sell existing products under a fancy new cloud moniker.

Take the announcement by IBM yesterday. When I read it, I thought wow this is just another way to spin the need for expensive professional services. It appears I am not the only one to draw that conclusion, according to James Urquhart’s blog post on Cnet yesterday:

"Rather than working to increase usability and self-manageability of the tools in the new world of self-service clouds, IBM seems to be digging in and reinforcing IBM-as-a-Service and the service-oriented (as in "requires professional services") nature of their software products. I'm not sure IBM is capable of surprising us with beautiful, simple data center system software anymore."

I agree with James, one of the most compelling reasons to move to a cloud-based architecture, and leverage software-as-a-service applications, is to help ease application management and automate labor intensive tasks. It seems to me that if you are pulling in a ton of consultants to manage your cloud-based initiatives for 3, 5 or 10 years – aren’t you just paying a lot of money to postpone your problem?

My view on the cloud-based initiatives is that they should help you immediately simplify your IT management. Consultants should come in for shorter engagements measured in weeks, not years. And they should be measured in time-to-value. It is like when you first have a baby, and your in-laws come to visit, they are incredibly helpful and you can’t imagine life without them – but you don’t want them or need them to move in forever.

Today’s CIOs and IT managers increasingly deal with the complexity associated with managing satellite or branch offices and supporting mobile workers in dispersed locations across the globe. Let’s take franchises as an example of how remote offices and workers can complicate the IT environment.  Every new location adds new untrained employees and new equipment to manage.  Often, when something goes awry, even a minor problem can become difficult and expensive to solve. 

A large auto company or worldwide coffee chain might have tens of thousands of locations around the world.  At each location, the company must support hardware, software, and critical business applications that allow their franchisees to run.  In some cases, the franchisee may bring their own IT staff, and in other cases the franchise has no IT staff beyond the owner of the business.  In all cases, the franchise has some level of IT dependence on the franchiser for support or equipment.  Companies have lots of options for how to support their franchises and remote offices – but the methods they choose can have huge cost implications. Companies have three basic options for dealing with remote IT management: DIY, complete outsourcing or software-as-a-service:

1. DIY means that the IT department (often just one person) purchases and runs their own client PCs, servers, databases and network, and sets up systems management software to support their business needs.  Over time, they add IT staff and grow organically with their business.  For a franchise, DIY can be expensive – tracking assets as they move between locations, keeping devices patched and software deployed, and backing up critical business data can involve sending an IT employee to the remote location which is often costly. Plus, sending IT personnel into the field rarely offers a quick resolution in the case of an emergency. 

2. At the other end of the spectrum, some large companies elect to outsource their entire IT operation to a company such as IBM or HP EDS.  In full outsourcing deals, the outsourcer often takes over the entire IT infrastructure and staff from the customer.  However, full outsourcing deals can be very expensive and have the potential for poor CE due to price and long contract terms.

3. Increasingly, companies with multiple offices are evaluating software-as-a-service (SaaS) for remote IT management. The SaaS model allows customers to choose subscription-based services for remote management. With SaaS, management tools can be delivered over the Internet and housed in the cloud. Companies who use SaaS remote management can centrally track dispersed client assets, distribute software, manage patches and enforce IT policies. By automating remote management companies can avoid the administration burdens of manual management – without having to maintain the hardware and software used for the management.

To help CIOs and IT Managers, Dell recently introduced several innovative new services that can help companies leverage SaaS. 

Cloud computing provides a cost-effective architecture that has enabled new business models including Platform-as-a-Service (Paas) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The financial crisis might spell good news for cloud providers up and down the stack. According recent articles, IDC predicts that the current economic crisis in the U.S. will contribute to cloud computing growth over the next five years and spending on IT cloud services will reach $42 billion by 2012. Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC believes, "The disruptive vectors of the market will be among the highest growth sectors in 2009 as their advantages are magnified in a down economy, and suppliers who slow down their transformation will limit long-term viability and miss near-term growth."

John Horrigan at Pew Research offered this look at cloud adoption in the consumer space, which has been driving the growth of the big public platforms long before the economic downturn. As IT organizations are pressured to find yet more efficiency it will be interesting to see how quickly they find the confidence in providers to follow consumers to the cloud. At a snap poll of attendees conducted this week at Gartner’s Data Center Conference the results appear promising.

A lot of people don’t realize this, but as of Q2, about 83% of Dell’s revenue came from business products, and that's been pretty consistent for a while now.

That being the case, we receive a lot of feedback from customers looking for new features and functionality in their corporate systems. It’s pretty clear that commercial customers want desktops that are easier to manage, have improved security features and are more energy efficient. They also ask for the services and support options that help IT managers strip cost and complexity out of deploying hundreds or even thousands of desktops.

All that is part of the reason we’re introducing a new line of OptiPlex desktops, Flexible Computing products and desktop managed services designed to help IT departments reduce costs while simplifying their IT.

The new OptiPlex line is the most powerful, secure and energy efficient business desktops Dell has ever developed. Headlined by the OptiPlex 960, the new desktops are up to 43 percent more energy-efficient, include at least 10 percent post-consumer recycled plastic and shipped in 89 percent recyclable packaging. They surpass Energy Star 4.0 and EPEAT Gold certification requirements and are the greenest corporate desktop Dell builds.

Update: If you want to learn more... starting at 10am Central Time, you can view the webcast followed by a Q&A with Dell execs at http://www.dell.com/seriousbusiness.

The OptiPlex 960, 760 and 360 systems include more improvements like:

• Simplified management including remote system maintenance and ProSupport options
• Robust security features like full disk encryption, SSDs, Dell Control Point software and a stronger chassis to prevent intrusions
• More stability to support up to 36-month product lifecycles

For a bit more context behind these new OptiPlex desktop systems, here’s a vlog overview from Darrel Ward, a director in Dell’s Product Group.

Another thing we’re launching today is the FX 160, which is our first true thin client for Flexible Computing. The FX160 supports both embedded and streamed operating systems for virtual desktop deployments. New assessment, design and deployment services are now available to help customers get their Flexible Computing operation up and running. I’ve blogged about on-demand about a year ago when we first introduced it to customers in the United States. Now with today’s announcement, we’re making on-demand desktop streaming available to our global customers.

You can learn more about the concept of Flexible Computing from Jeremy Ford in this vlog.

To go along with these business systems, we’re also rolling out a new suite of managed services for IT departments to more efficiently manage desktop deployments by resolving more than 90 percent of desktop management issues. Delivered through a new cloud-optimized platform, these services give customers the flexibility to select the services that make the most sense for their business, including:

• Remote desktop management
• Software inventory and usage
• Back-up and restore
• E-mail Management Services
• Crisis Management and Alerting
• ImageDirect