Dell Technologies Delivers the Path to Autonomous Operations with CloudIQ

Data has become one of my favourite things to talk about.

Why? Because the digital and do-from-anywhere economy is increasing the already massive amounts of data being generated. This creates opportunity for those that can manage that data and use it to generate meaningful insights—quickly and at scale.

But organisations are still struggling with how to gain insights from all this data, not to mention how to manage, store and protect it. This puts unprecedented strain on IT departments as they try to keep up. It’s not simply a matter of having enough infrastructure. In many cases, there simply isn’t enough technical talent available to ensure that IT is supporting the needs of the business and enabling it to remain competitive and grow.

In the face of these challenges, how do we transform IT operations to leverage the power of data at speed and at scale, so the business itself can transform into a modern, digital business? Automation is the key, particularly in a world where data is no longer just in the data centre, but also at the edge, in public and private clouds, and in colocation data centres.

With AIOps-driven autonomous operations as part of your IT strategy, you get deeper access to operational data and the ability to act on it through automation at the infrastructure level. This enables existing technical staff to focus on higher-value activities, whether that’s completing security audits, developing new business apps or being able to respond and support new business opportunities.

A model to support your autonomous operations journey 

We’ve developed a clear and achievable framework for autonomous operations that takes into account differing requirements and stages in the journey. And while the journey isn’t necessarily linear, each progression can deliver substantial productivity gains.

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Organisations that prioritise higher levels of automation are best equipped to address the needs of a modern digital business.

One of our building blocks for helping customer prioritise autonomous operations is Dell EMC CloudIQ—a cloud-based AIOps application that utilises machine learning (ML) and predictive analytics to root out issues long before they can seriously impact your business. This intelligent software brings greater insight into your Dell EMC infrastructure, to accelerate daily IT administration workflows and mean time to resolution. With new support for PowerEdge servers and PowerSwitch networking announced today, CloudIQ now spans the entire Dell EMC portfolio—hyperconverged/converged infrastructure, compute, storage, networking and data protection. The addition of support for PowerEdge and PowerSwitch lowers risk and improves IT productivity by monitoring multiple OpenManage Enterprise consoles for PowerEdge servers and proactively monitoring all PowerSwitch networking in a single view.

This means that IT ops teams now have one UI and a single source of health notifications and recommended actions, real-time reports, and AL/ML driven analytics for their entire fleet of Dell systems across all locations. CloudIQ also monitors data protection in public clouds and storage-as-a-Service as a key component of the Dell Technologies APEX Console and with APEX Data Storage Services.

The combined intelligence of CloudIQ and the Dell EMC infrastructure portfolio supports up to Level 3 of the autonomous operations model for a sizeable and growing number of IT administration use cases.

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More automation, more productivity, more efficiency

According to a recent user survey, CloudIQ accelerates time-to-resolution of infrastructure issues anywhere from 2x to10x1. A great example of that in action is at Plex Systems, the prominent provider of cloud-delivered smart manufacturing solutions, where CloudIQ enables 3x faster time to resolution and productivity gains of 16 hours saved per week.

CloudIQ can deliver even greater efficiencies by integrating AIOps intelligent insights with third-party IT applications using industry-standard application interfaces (API) such as Webhook and REST API. This drives greater levels of automation by integrating CloudIQ data and recommended resolution with tools like ServiceNow, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Ansible and vRealize.

Decades of software innovation driving intelligent infrastructure

Dell Technologies has been on a decades-long journey to deliver software that radically simplifies IT. Our commitment to automation through unparalleled software innovation has allowed us to achieve service levels few can rival, such as 99.9999% uptime that our Dell EMC VxRail hyperconverged infrastructure delivers2, 85% time-savings for typical administrative tasks with PowerEdge servers3, up to 98% time-savings to maintain a high availability storage environment with PowerStore4, and the ability to automate up to 99% of network configuration tasks with PowerSwitch5.

This commitment to your autonomous operations journey translates to better outcomes—in your data centre or through our APEX portfolio of as-a-Service offerings, and we’re here to support you every step of the way.

I encourage you to watch the replay of our Autonomous Operations event, hosted by Mark Hamill (yes, that Mark Hamill) and featuring a panel of IT experts. In addition to seeing CloudIQ in action, you’ll learn more about how data is driving autonomous operation as a business imperative, the impact of autonomous operations across industries, the benefits to you and your customers, and how Dell can help you on the journey.

Autonomous Operations

1Based on a Dell Technologies survey of CloudIQ users conducted May through June 2021. Actual

results may vary. Ad# CLM-000884

2Based on Dell Technologies field performance. July 2020. Actual results may vary. AD# G20000255

Based on a Principled Technologies Report commissioned by Dell Technologies, “Performing Common Systems Management Tasks with Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise 3.5 vs Manual approaches”, March 2021. Actual results may vary. Ad # G21000081

4Based on Dell analysis of staff time required to deploy and maintain high availability array with Dell’s Dynamic Resiliency Engine (DRE) vs. traditional RAID. Actual results may vary. AD#: G21000090

5Based on Dell analysis of SmartFabric versus manual network configuration. October 2019 Actual results may vary. AD# G19000416

About the Author: Jeff Boudreau

Jeff Boudreau is President of the Infrastructure Solutions Group at Dell Technologies. In this role, Jeff is responsible for a global team of innovators that imagine, design and deliver the ISG portfolio of modern infrastructure—industry-leading solutions that accelerate and enhance data computation, storage, networking and data protection, and are integrated into our converged and hyperconverged offerings. Jeff joined Dell Technologies in 1998 (previously EMC) and has over 25 years of engineering, business management and executive leadership experience in the IT industry. Jeff has held a number of management, operations, and services leadership positions. Most recently, he was President of Dell EMC Storage, responsible for the development and management of a market-leading storage portfolio that helps organizations modernize their data centers, leverage the economics of the cloud and accelerate IT transformation. Prior to that, Jeff was Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Midrange Solutions business, leading the innovative engineering teams that delivered next-generation midrange solutions for managing customer data with less cost, complexity and risk. Jeff completed his undergraduate studies at Wentworth Institute of Technology and received an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Jeff is based in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.