Dell Technologies World: Unleashing Innovation for Partners

Partner Feedback the Catalyst for AI, Dell APEX, Storage and client updates.

Dell Technologies World 2024 is in full swing, and the energy is electric. We’re thrilled to see our incredible global partner community come together to share ideas, brainstorm new opportunities and co-create the future.

Partners are critical to our success and together, we’re powering business growth with groundbreaking solutions across storage, AI, multicloud and client. In Q4 FY24, our partners contributed approximately 50% of our net revenue. There is immense power in collaboration, and capturing opportunities with our partner ecosystem is at the heart of several exciting announcements we unveiled this week. 

PowerStore Prime: Accelerating Storage Opportunities and Strengthening Customer Experiences

Today, we unveiled PowerStore Prime, an integrated offering that combines the most comprehensive PowerStore release to date with new programs and incentives designed to increase Dell partner profitability and offer customers greater storage investment protection. PowerStore Prime builds on our Partner First Strategy for Storage, which designates more than 99% of Dell’s customers and potential customers as partner-led for PowerStore and storage sales, resulting in greater opportunity, predictability and collaboration.

PowerStore software and hardware advancements deliver improved performance, efficiency, resiliency and multicloud data mobility. PowerStore Prime programs and incentives for partners include:

    • Tailor-made, Smart Select bundles. Partners can increase PowerStore sales with competitively priced PowerStore and PowerProtect bundles that streamline quoting.
    • Greater collaboration. Partners have more opportunity to earn Storage Partner of Record status, which allows for closer engagement with Dell on storage opportunities.
    • More incentives. Competitive swap, cross-selling and up-selling are rewarded through storage acquisition incentives.

Dell’s new partner incentives and guarantees bring it all together, putting us and our customers in a position to succeed with the latest advances in all-flash storage.” – John Lochausen, technical solutions architect, World Wide Technology

Dell APEX Portfolio Advancements: Simplifying IT Management

We are continuing to expand the Dell APEX portfolio to meet customer needs across key focus areas including AI and multicloud.

    • Built on Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure, Dell Solution for Microsoft Azure AI accelerates deployment of AI services, such as speech transcription and translation capabilities. We also recently announced enhancements to the Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift to address AI use cases. We are committed to offering jointly engineered solutions and supporting emerging use cases like AI to provide partners with flexible options for their customers.
    • Dell APEX AIOps software-as-a-Service (SaaS) significantly expands our AIOps tools with AI-driven full stack observability and incident management. It simplifies operations, improving IT agility and delivers greater control over applications and infrastructure for customers with three integrated capabilities: Infrastructure Observability, Application Observability and Incident Management.
    • Dell APEX Navigator SaaS expands to include Kubernetes storage management with Dell APEX Navigator for Kubernetes and support for Dell APEX File Storage for AWS with Dell APEX Navigator of Multicloud Storage, with support coming for Dell APEX File Storage for Microsoft Azure later this year.

With these updates, we are furthering our strategy of offering more flexibility in the multicloud, choice and tighter integration, helping to extend the services and capabilities partners have built around it. These enhancements allow partners to simplify their multicloud environment for their customers and address on-premises modernization. 

Dell AI Factory and AI Focus Partner Network: Powering AI-Driven Innovation

AI technologies are empowering organizations to transform ideas into innovation faster than ever before and our robust partner ecosystem is the catalyst to enable this change. We announced the Dell AI Factory and expanded our capabilities as we deliver the industry’s broadest AI portfolio that spans from client devices to data center to cloud, all in one place¹ and an open ecosystem of technology partners to create AI applications. Available through a traditional purchase or as a Dell APEX subscription, the Dell AI Factory helps customers accelerate AI adoption, offering greater control over AI deployments on-premises, at the edge and across cloud environments.

There’s no better route to market to deliver in these areas than with our partners. We are expanding our portfolio with new offers designed to meet increasing AI demands, including AI PCs, advancements to manage and protect data fueling AI innovation and an expanded networking portfolio to accelerate AI performance. We’re advancing our AI Professional Services portfolio to drive improved business outcomes.

The Dell AI Factory helps partners capture AI opportunities through deep collaboration between Dell and leading ecosystem partners including Hugging Face, Meta and Microsoft, making it easier for customers to get started with AI. We also expanded the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA with new server, edge, workstation, solutions and services advancements.

To expedite development of Dell AI Factories and equip partners with the tools to advance their AI practices, we are announcing the Dell AI Focus Partner Network. This initiative recognizes partners that demonstrate advanced AI capabilities with increased visibility, opportunities to grow their AI business, third-party training and resources to develop AI use cases and proofs of concept in collaboration with Dell.

By integrating our AI solutions portfolio and professional services, and establishing the Dell AI Focus Partner Network, we’re helping partners capture AI opportunities. Together with our partners, we’ll transform AI innovation into action.

Introducing Client Partner of Record: Strengthening Predictability of Engagement

An omni-channel business model with a strong partner ecosystem is at the core of our growth strategy. To increase predictability and protect partners’ investments in acquisition, we are expanding our server and storage Partner of Record programs to include client.

The launch of Client Partner of Record recognizes our partners’ investment in winning new business with Dell across all lines of business, with the status now available for storage, server and client. If our sales team uncovers a client deal in an account that has a Partner of Record, they will work with that partner on the deal. This approach embraces the power of collaboration to drive better business outcomes and deliver strong collective results.

Let’s Build Something Extraordinary

The future belongs to those who boldly collaborate and push boundaries. We’re invested in equipping our partners with the most powerful tools, resources and support to fuel success. Together, we’re shaping the future with groundbreaking solutions.

Thank you, our valued partners, for being on this amazing journey with us. When we continue innovating, collaborating and building the future together, the possibilities are endless.

1 Based on Dell analysis, March 2024. Dell Technologies offers hardware solutions engineered to support AI workloads from Workstation PCs (mobile and fixed) to Servers for High-performance Computing, Data Storage, Cloud Native Software-Defined Infrastructure, Networking Switches, Data Protection, HCI, and Services.

Denise Millard

About the Author: Denise Millard

Denise Millard serves as Chief Partner Officer at Dell Technologies. She is responsible for delivering the promise of Dell Technologies to customers, together with some of Dell’s most strategic partners and industry experts while leading Dell’s partner strategy and vision, enablement, program design and experience. Dell Technologies’ partner ecosystem extends the reach of Dell’s capabilities by combining Dell’s essential technology with its partner’s unique technology and expertise to provide essential and innovative solutions to customers. Millard’s passion for connecting with customers and enabling sales and partner organizations has been a constant throughout her 25+ year career. She previously held senior executive roles leading Sales Operations, Channel Sales, Learning and Enablement, Field Marketing, Sales Strategy and Professional Services. Effective collaboration is a hallmark of Millard’s leadership. During her decade in partner-centric roles, she launched partner and partner services programs, managed top partner relationships, and drove program enablement to support direct and partner selling motions. She played a vital role in the integration of Dell and EMC as a member of the Value Creation Integration Office focused on Go-To-Market integration and field readiness for the newly combined organization. Intensely committed to developing the next generation of talent, Millard is a strong believer in mentorship and development. She is a long-standing sponsor and contributor to Dell’s Women In Action (WIA) Resource Group. Millard lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two children. An avid fitness enthusiast, she can often be found at her local CrossFit gym. She holds an MBA from Clark University and a BS in Business from Bryant University.