New Dell IoT Division to Push Distributed Core Technology Strategy

Executives with Dell Technologies are looking to leverage the full scope of the company’s wide-ranging product portfolio to push an aggressive strategy for the internet of things.

In a media event here Oct. 10, CEO Michael Dell and other officials unveiled a program that includes the creation of a new internet of things (IoT) division within the company as well as a plan to invest $1 billion over the next three years in developing new IoT products and services, investing in IoT technology companies, expanding its development labs and technology partner program with a complementary technology  ecosystem.

The initiative involves not only taking advantage of the deep infrastructure capabilities developed over the past several decades by Dell and EMC, but also initiating new software development projects that touch on everything from data analytics and security to management.

Dell IoT

It also is aimed at moving the IoT beyond its initial phase, which focused more on network connectivity, into the next era which will leverage emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and data analytics. The goal will be to rapidly move these technologies into hardware and software to efficiently derive useful information and enable IoT systems to more quickly act on that information.

The data generated by all these connected systems—and the ability to quickly analyze, parse, apply intelligence to and react the data—is what will be key to the IoT going forward, Dell told the industry analysts and journalists at the event.

“The potential of the internet of things and artificial intelligence is when they come together as one interdependent ecosystem from the edge to the core to the cloud,” he said

The IoT is expected to grow rapidly, with Dell officials noting a report from McKinsey and Co. that says that by 2020 there will be 30 billion connected devices worldwide—from wearables to self-driving cars to manufacturing systems, smart cities, industrial robots and hospital equipment. And that number is only projected to grow into the future.

The amount of data also will continue to skyrocket and Dell executives said businesses are looking for vendors that have the capabilities to help them find their way in an immature IoT environment that is complex and fragmented.

Company executives argued that Dell is the only vendor that has the broad product portfolio from its many companies—including VMware, RSA, Pivotal and Virtustream—as well as the development capabilities and extensive partnerships to create a comprehensive platform.

Dell already offerings a range of products and services for the IoT, including Edge Gateways to bring compute and analytics to the network edge and closer to the connected devices, which are secured and managed by VMware’s Pulse IoT Control Center.

Originally published on eWeek

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