Dell Technologies, Microsoft Collaborate on IoT Solutions Delivery

Emma Okonji

Dell Technologies and Microsoft have announced their collaboration to deliver a joint Internet of Things (IoT) solution designed to help vertical customers simplify deploying their end-to-end IoT solutions from the edge to the cloud.

The combination of Microsoft Azure IoT applications and services, VMware Pulse IoT Centre and Dell Edge Gateways will offer customers streamlined management, centralised monitoring and security from devices to the cloud.

Businesses that are implementing IoT initiatives today have invested significant resources and manpower to research and integrate a multitude of hardware, software and cloud services across the fragmented IoT landscape to stand up a solution that meets their business needs and adheres to IT departments’ stringent standards.

Those businesses want to harness advanced services such as artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time decision making, while also making sure all deployment, asset management, security and compliance requirements are met.
Dell Technologies and Microsoft said the collaboration would make IoT easier for customers by delivering a secure solution that provides consistent infrastructure management from the edge to the cloud.

According to a joint statement released recently by the global technology solution providers, the joint solution offers an underlying IoT infrastructure, management capabilities and security for customers looking to deploy IoT for scenarios like predictive maintenance, supply chain visibility and other use cases.

The solution is expected to deliver intelligence at the edge with Microsoft Azure IoT Edge. It is as application extends cloud intelligence to edge devices so that devices can act locally and leverage the cloud for global coordination and machine learning at scale.
It will also deliver management and monitoring of edge devices with VMware Pulse IoT Center: This provides more secure, enterprise-grade management and monitoring of diverse, certified edge devices including gateways and connected IoT devices, bios and operating systems.

This ecosystem will be built over time involving deeper integration and certification to support customer requirements.
The combined solution will deliver high-performance, rugged Dell Edge Gateways: IoT devices with powerful dual-core Intel® AtomTM processors connect a variety of wired and wireless devices and systems to aggregate and analyse inputs and send relevant data to the cloud.

Head, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and IOT GTM at Dell EMC, Chris Wolff, said: “When we unveiled the Dell Technologies IoT division last fall, we committed to leaning on the Dell Technologies family of businesses to engineer the right solutions to meet customer needs in conjunction with our partner ecosystem. This collaboration will enable customers to implement IoT more seamlessly, for better and faster ROI.”

Vice President IoT Solutions, Microsoft, Ruston Panabaker, said: “When businesses deploy secure intelligent edge to cloud solutions, they can take full advantage of the digital transformation opportunities IoT represents. By delivering this integrated edge to cloud solution, Microsoft and Dell technologies are making it easier for customers to empower their employees, optimise operations and reimagine their products, services or even business models.”