>>from around the globe. It's the Cube with digital coverage of Dell Technologies. World Digital Experience Brought to You by Dell Technologies. >>Welcome to the Cubes coverage of Dell Technologies World. The Digital Experience in 2020 I'm Lisa Martin, and I'm pleased to welcome back one of our alumni on the Cube. Joining me is Gil Shorts in the SPP and the Edge Portfolio Strategy at Execution for Dell Technologies. Gil, it's great to see you, even virtually. >>It's great to see you again, Lisa. >>It wouldn't be a Dell Technologies world if I didn't get a chance to talk to you. We didn't have you on the Cube, so we appreciate it. And you are very socially distant from me. I am in California. You're in Israel, so we're following guidelines. But one of the one of the other things that's changed since I've lasting you is you're now in this new role with respect to edge. Tell me a little bit about that. >>Well, a few months ago, the Dell Technologies Management asked me to look after our, um, its strategy and execution. Um, they put me in this role to execute on a strategy that has been developed for a while. Look at the market looking, looking at the opportunity. Onda also, you know, based on where I came from with VX rail looking at similar concept, that would be implemented across the board. And so here I am today in the process of setting up 18 that would help the company to capture that future opportunity. >>Well, congratulations on that. So we've been talking about the edge for a while. It isn't anything new, but talk to us about what's going on from Dell Technologies Perspective. What are some of the things that you're seeing with respect to the value that the Edge will provide two businesses in any industry? >>Um, you're right and he's not new. We have bean at the edge, all of us, the industry, definitely Dell Technologies forever. What's different is that for the last few years, a lot of the applications that are there to capture information and make real time decisions have bean in data centers or in the cloud, and we used to connect all sorts of sensors directly to those of data centers or clouds. Well, now we have too much information. That information is very costly. to move. It takes time to move it. I'm sometimes you don't want to move into a cloud or even your own data center. And so the industry is starting to move more and more. Compute storage, networking towards the edge. Eso It's nothing new, but you know there's use cases. Some of them are all use cases that need to migrate towards where the data is created to be a manufacturing plant or a retail store or or a minor or utility company. And there are a new use cases that are just being enabled by technology by, uh, better connectivity. Um, computer vision. You know, it used to be there in a store. There was a point of sale. Well, now there's a self check out, sometimes with the front detection capability. So all of those presents a fairly drastic change, where some expectation as 75% of the world's data, is created outside of the traditional data center cloud by 2025. And that's why we need to be working towards being the best choice for our customers for the edge applications. >>So, yeah, you quoted Gartner saying that 75% of that cloud enterprised it or the enterprise data is going to be processed outside formal data center or the cloud by 2025 is, you said That's in five short years, hopefully short years when we return to normal, so tremendous amount of change going on. But you also talk about some new use cases. I'm just curious, since the world has so dramatically changed our since we last saw you in person, are any of those use cases driven by the pandemic and how many businesses have had to Tibbett so quickly and change their way of operating? >>Well, that that's a very good example of how edge applications are being being leveraged. Obviously, computer vision, thermal imaging. Um, in some places, though, that's, you know, a very loaded term. You know, some social distancing applications are being created around the world. The the the world is a new way to respond to this, uh, this pandemic. But this pandemic, you know, will come will hopefully go soon. Go away soon when we get the vaccine. Um, but even day to day has changed the we doom or in a digital manner, we leverage more sensors and all sorts of electronic feelers out there. Um, you know, I talked to in agriculture Company recently that they have a robot that looks at their plans every day and decides which one are healthy and which one are sick and what to do about it. Um, they have a robot that follows that one and take section, and I suggested that they should have another robot to just eat the fruits. And, you know, none of us will be required anymore. But the point is, on a mission e no applications are being created because we can, and that that requires real time decision making. And that's why compute and storage and networking are moving towards where the data is created, and hence the growth in edge applications as we see them, >>that really time implication is absolutely critical. And that's something that businesses, whether it's agricultural or construction or retail, for example, or manufacturing that needs that real time insight. We talk about that all the time. We also talk about the term, you know, businesses need to get actionable insights from data, and that's one of those terms, like data driven. That could mean multiple different things. What from Dell technologies perspective, enabling a business to get actionable insights from data. What does that mean from Dell? Text perspective. And how is the edge of facilitator of that? >>Well, I think we need to look at, you know, our value, it our focus, which is in the infrastructure. I'm there. And so if somebody has information created at the edge, they would have their own way to analyze that data. Sometimes it's gonna be people data scientists with another latest application. Many times more and more, it's gonna be machines through machine learning that will analyze the situation and make recommendations. Either way, this environment needs to be up and running. It needs to be resilient. It needs to be outside of the data center, which presents a lot of challenges. Um, it's, you know, fragmented technology that is moving from different places to the edge in multiple multiple physical and environmental constraints. Um, those environments are remote and distributed. It's not in your data center, which means that you need to make sure that you have reliable service and support. You also need to secure it better. Suddenly, there is more entry points of things that people could touch and on great problems for the organization. So our job, in my opinion, is to solve those problems is to say, Look, you know, you need to move towards the edge to analyze your data, to make decisions. We're here to solve that problem and and allow you to do this without making a significant significant trade off, you know, versus doing it in your own data center or in the cloud. >>Yeah, I was talking to one of Dell Technologies customers the other day who has tens of thousands of sensors and cameras all over the world, or maybe great work there. And I'm thinking all of the challenges with respect to the environmental implications or right physical implications. And I was thinking, you know, the business is doing edge in California. The last month would have been very challenged with things like the smoke. How do you help organizations to enable that infrastructure to be reliable under different physical and environmental conditions? >>That's a great question, and I will just say before before I have said specifically that while the physical constraints are something that we usually talk about when we talk about EJ, I actually think that the bigger problem is management. Um, but we're not unaware for the physical requirements. So we are busy delivering recognized short depth. You know, servers we just launched recently. The extra to a platform, Highly ragged eyes, short depth will speak server that can go from minus, you know, sells you some to 55 cents you saw in temperature. Um, or you know, the ability to connect those through, you know, software defined networking. Or if I talk about a little bit of my heritage taking the same extra, too, with the VM or Visa V X range stack and said, you know, putting it out there as a ruggedized but also remotely managed in full stack solution. Um, So you will see us putting out and have bean different form factors front and serviceability, different temperature ranges, a different kind of CPS, all of those. But I will also tell you that we're gonna focus heavily on the way to manage those and secure them and update them because I think that's where the simplification comes, not just from the form factor of themselves. >>Yeah, that has been the heterogeneous and and very widely distributed nature of the H has been a barrier for businesses for quite a while. Can you unpack that a little bit? Mawr In terms of the simplification of the management, How is Dele? Technology is going to enable a business to achieve that. >>Well, let's start with what? What? What we have out there in the market today. Somebody could have a cloud native application developed, you know, maybe even all containerized. And they could run it on tansy t k g on the VX rail, and they could run it in thousands of locations around the world. I'm centrally managing all of those Andre the phone factors being, you know, regular server or ragged, A server. Um, the ability to run your edge application as an extension off your cloud model is also very important getting to consistent operation. So, for example, somebody is using VM, or Cloud Foundation in their data center. Could leverage that recently large capability off multiple multi classroom manager. So now you have a central VM or club foundation managing multiple classes out there on DSO, we bring together the physical attributes and the management attributes on at the same time. Um, if you expand on it I also think the Dell will have to meet customers where they are with, you know, the the ability to get simplifying and automate solutions for their choice off applications where they are today. And so that's what we're going to be working towards. >>So when you're talking with customers who are either looking to expand their edge operations, simplify them like you were just talking about, or even those businesses that are looking to explore and exploit the edge for operational improvement and maybe being able to deliver a better customer experience. I'd love to know how you approach those different customers. For example, I know that Dell says Don't consider the edge of separate problem. >>That's true the and I don't think customers look at the edges a separate problem either. In other words, the most conversations today would would look at in architecture that has some cloud and some edge. That cloud could be in their own hybrid cloud solution in the data center or a hyper scaler solution that they're running on. Um, if you think about the most generic problem at the edge, it's an analytics problem, right? So we know. So we know the data is created at the edge, it's going to be analyzed by definition. If you talk about machine learning, for example, parts would happen at the edge. What would happen in the data center or in the cloud? Um, if you look at any other type of analytics, you'll make some real time decisions. But save some of the information back in the cloud. So it's not a separate decision anymore. It's got to be somehow connected to your infrastructure. And I think that also learns toe. More and more organizations are putting together the O. T. What we call it operational technology in the i t. Um, when they're trying to leverage I t best practices in the OT space, and I think that's how they're coming together, right, you have to transform. You need to do something with the data. You look at a new architectures. I t brings that cloud or hybrid cloud or distributed computer architectures er into those more traditional environments. >>A little bit about that we've tried and we've talked about the I T. O T. Convergence and relationships in the past many times on the queue. But that's an essential component here, so that not only can a business really face those barriers, confront them and eliminate them, but it's also sometimes a bit culturally challenging. What do you see when you talk with customers and you recognize that's one of the things that they need to do with the line? I t n ot what? Your recommendations there, >>Um, first of all is I always wonder if ot people now we're calling them ot people. I certainly know that I t people are identified as I d. I think multi people are head of engineering head of production. You know, they run their businesses and and they've been doing things they you know, it's not like they haven't been doing even the analysis. Even nothing really is New Year. But they would use the, you know, the machine manufacturer on prem solution or a cloud solution to many specific so solutions worm or bespoke or specific specific machine specific problems. Oh, the advent off edge computing and those environments moving closer to the edge and the architecture unable to consolidate, by the way one of the strength until technology has. And so instead of just solving a you know, a A I don't know. Machine maintenance schedule or improvement in a plan. We can have an environment that's all that and possibly the video surveillance and maybe the plan. TRP. There is no need anymore to solve any problems specifically with a specific solution. That's where I t comes in, because that's what I T has been doing for a long time. So that conversation that bridge between solving specific problem and putting together an architectural ER that could consolidate multiple use cases and be part of an overall cloud our data center to its strategy. It's very, very helpful for both sides because because it's it's very effective. Um, I think more and more customers are realizing that that was conversations are happening and I t is being put into recommend a solution. So Andi, I think in fact, there's some research that shows that that is happening, Andi, that sets us up to have the right conversation with right, um, owners in those accounts. >>That's excellent. That brings up another question. I had you mentioned the word bespoke a minute or so ago, and I thought, you know so many of the of the edge deployments. There's complexity there. There might be unique requirements depending on business, depending on vertical. What's Dell Technologies approach to tackling the edge? Consistently like like the top three things that you go to with every opportunity every day appointment that you know, these three things fundamentally must be and part of the foundation. >>I think we touched on those. I think the recognition that it's part of a larger strategy is one. And so it's gonna be playing along in that you know that strategy, that data center to edge or cloud strategy. Um, the other one is the management that you put in place. And so, by the way, even even a few things that we we are gap today, which is why we are investing in the edge. Um, like the ability to provision with zero touch simplifying that experience, though we are very good at life cycle management, for example, which is the next thing. So it's that consistent operation between core and edge, which is very important. It's the physical constraints that have to be addressed in, I think, more important than anything is the ability to get support because you can't be everywhere that is considered for us and that you need somebody to be there in Tel. Um, you know, his people almost everywhere around the world that can be there on on a short notice to take care of problems. Moreover, many of our technologies dial home, and so we know when things happen even before they do. Um so I think sometimes people mention enterprise. Great. You know, it's It's a very important consideration to look at those edge. Sometimes people think that edge is small and possibly not as, um um, requiring as a Davis and replication. In my opinion, the workloads that are now going to the head require enterprise grade treatment and to end. And so you know, it's it's the management. It's the physical environment in the support that you may require that are very common. >>Excellent. Thank you. So last question for you. Since we don't get to do a physical Dell Technologies world this year, hopefully we will again one day soon. I want to know in this new role what are you you're excited about with respect to edge when you're engaging with customers, presumably over video conferencing. What are some of the things that you see that you're really excited about safe for the next sector. 12 months? >>Well, look, from a business perspective. Clearly, um, the the pendulum is swinging our way in a sense of customer need. What we have, which is very nice, because you can solve customer problems with a lot of experience and a amazing portfolio, though it has some gaps that we're gonna work on, Which is why you know what we're investing from a personal standpoint, it's It's kind of a rare opportunity to touch real life things. If that makes any sense, Every conversation is about tangible things that people do. They manufacturer, they save lives. They are growing plants. Um, it is. It has a very physical element that makes makes it so much more interesting. It also the edges. You know, it's the one area that we deal with. It has a paan almost in every sentence, so you can go for a conversation without anybody or anybody can >>Ugo. Now let's let's end it with a great panel for the edge. >>I know So what? No, I'm just saying, maybe I'm living on the edge. Who knows? >>Oh, nice living on the edge. I think that's what we're all doing during this coven. 19. Well, Gil, it's been so great to have you back on the Cube. Thank you for your time. I look forward to seeing you. Hopefully the next event in person. >>I hope so too. Lisa. Good to see you. >>Likewise. Bar Guillotine Arnson. I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching the cubes. Coverage of Dell Technologies, World 2020. A digital experience.