Dell Ireland today unveiled its vision for the future of computing in the connected era – which will see 1 billion new people connect to the internet over the next three years.  500,000 people are coming online everyday and by 2011 there will be 1 billion mobile workers.

Dermot O’Connell, General Manager, Dell Ireland outlined the key areas in which Dell will be operating and expanding in 2009.  “The sheer rate of IT adoption creates problems of its own.  To cope with this avalanche of information, companies will find themselves adding more machines, employing more staff and hiring more consultants to manage it all. 
 

“The CIO today spends about 70% of the budget just managing IT infrastructure.   That model is no longer sustainable, not for businesses, nor for governments that are overwhelmed by the demand on their systems. We have to simplify IT and Dell is driving that movement by helping organisations redeploy IT resources so they can focus on innovating with technology to drive the business.”
 

Dermot O’Connell identified three key areas where Dell is investing to capitalise on the opportunities provided by the new connected era – services; mobility and environment.

Services:

Through a combination of organic innovation and acquisitions, Dell is pioneering an entirely new vision of IT services - the movement of IT services into the cloud - an evolution in how services are provisioned and delivered. Cloud computing is the transition of business applications online which require very little software to be downloaded by the client.  
 

Says Dermot O’Connell, “With this new services evolution, IT services will become easy to purchase, with no complicated contracts or long implementation phases.  A company can choose the services it requires and turn those services on or off on a subscription basis with just a click.   The technology that enables these subscription services is embedded into Dell hardware from the factory, allowing customers to connect immediately to our managed services platform. By optimising the platform for the cloud it delivers economic benefits and frees up company resources.”

 
The increased activity is driving uptake of storage in particular, with companies like Microsoft adding 10,000 new servers a month.  Within the Data Centre many organisations are reaching capacity in terms of space and power.  
 

“Our virtualisation technology removes the need for single use hardware, making more efficient use of resources like server space and reduces the need for power and cooling,” says Dermot O’Connell.  “In the spirit of simplifying IT, the new series of Dell Blade Servers promise to be the most manageable, flexible and energy efficient systems available in the market today.”
 

Mobility

With 1 billion mobile workers expected over the next three years, mobility and the concept of unified communications is a focus of investment for Dell.  Much of what Dell is doing to meet those end-user needs has been brought to life with its latest E-family laptops, which feature light weight, slim profiles, long battery life, anywhere connectivity and a strong emphasis on personalisation and design.

 

“Our Flexible Computing initiative provides a number of technologies that deliver greater security and control over your user data without impacting the computing experience. This is the ability to view all your communications in a single place – voice mail, email, fax, instant messages.   We believe the promise of technology is Unified Communications which will make it easier to work collaboratively and effectively, whether colleagues are in the next office or on the next country.” he said.

 
Green IT

If trends continue, from 2005 to 2010, energy consumption worldwide for servers, cooling equipment and related infrastructure will grow about 76%.  At 2%, the impact of IT on the environment is the equivalent to the aviation industry. 

 

Dermot O’Connell noted, “When you look at the drivers for Green IT adoption, it makes economic sense as well as well as environmental sense.    Our own commitments to become the greenest IT company in the world are well known but we are also delivering solutions to help customers meet their environmental goals.  In the next 12 months we will transition all laptop displays to LED, which is mercury-free and highly recyclable.  We have recently introduced the Optiplex range of desktops which cut power consumption by up to 43 percent.

 

“The Government decision in the budget to include server systems as part of the overall measure to extend the range of energy efficient equipment purchased by companies that can qualify for accelerated capital allowances,  is very welcome as it will incentivise companies to move to green solutions.  Technologies like virtualisation are helping businesses reduce their footprint in the data centre.   This reduces capital infrastructure costs as well as lowering emissions, delivering savings in the face of rising energy costs.”

 

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