The Data Driver

Dell, India, launched its new TVC conceptualized to encourage PC usage in learning, for students in their academic years. The TVC will be airing across leading kid’s entertainment and movie channels, as well as Hindi and regional news and general entertainment channels.

Dell Cloud Client-computing unveiled its portfolio of new and updated virtual workspace solutions including new thin client and software solutions to meet the demands of the modern workplace.  Newly launched workspace solutions include the Wyse 3030 LT, a highly secure and affordable solution based on ultra-secure Dell Wyse ThinOS.  Dell is also announcing the latest version of its virus-resistant, thin client operating system, ThinOS 8.3, and the latest version of its management software - Wyse Device Manager 5.7.

Dell and Red Hat announced an enhanced edition of the Dell Red Hat Cloud Solution, a co-engineered, enterprise-grade private-cloud solution based on OpenStack. The upgraded solution addresses enterprise customer demand for more flexible, elastic and agile IT services.

Dell announced a networking portfolio designed specifically to meet the needs of small to medium-sized businesses, including the new X-series family of smart managed switches and an expanded N-series family with the addition of the Dell N1500 for smaller fully managed environments.

Dell and CIO Association of India (CAI) launched e-Mavericks, an initiative to nurture the e-commerce ecosystem by providing agile technology and access to angel investors. The platform is the first-of-its-kind providing an opportunity for e-commerce companies to meet and discuss business and technology related challenges and opportunity. 
E-commerce in India has been growing rapidly with the establishment of hundreds of new e-commerce companies. According to a research done by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) along with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the e-commerce industry is likely to see a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35 per cent and cross the $100-billion mark in value over the next five years. With the growing competitiveness in the sector, it has become imperative for e-commerce companies to give due consideration to the implementation of robust IT infrastructure in their respective organisations.

Dell introduced a series of solutions that help enterprises take advantage of analytics to enable improved customer relationships and transform data into actionable business insights. Dell Services introduced comprehensive, digital business services that help customers redesign business processes to improve operational efficiency and engagement at every point in the customer experience through digital technologies. In addition, Dell Software announced the start of a collaborative effort with Microsoft aimed at delivering predictive analytics in a hybrid cloud setting. Dell Software is also upgrading its Statistica (formerly StatSoft) advanced analytics platform with enhanced big data capabilities through integration with Kitenga.
Dell Services is focused on helping its customers in three primary areas: modernization, transformation and digital services. Today, the business unit has unveiled a new, dedicated service line called Dell Digital Business Services (DBS), which includes Digi…

Dell launched its “Dell STORM” outreach to increase the scope of its coverage and influence to 117 tier 2 and tier 3 cities across the country. The program was launched as part of the activities surrounding Dell’s renewed distribution focus that was announced earlier this year. Dell has partnered with Distribution partner Ingram Micro for the outreach.
Dell currently has over 2,000 channel partners and is looking to increase this number to strengthen and broaden its coverage reach. With the new strategy Dell aims to reach out to 300 additional channel partners & System Integrators across the country. Dell and Ingram will be reaching out to channel partners in 36 locations of the North and South of India each, 26 locations of the West and 19 of the east. The objective of the outreach is to help attain maximum coverage and scale up business in future by reaching out to more partners.

Dell India announced its “Celebrate Dell Se” festive offers for consumers. This festive season, Dell plans to add excitement to consumers’ shopping experience by offering compelling gifts on its Inspiron notebooks, Inspiron Desktops, XPS laptops, Alienware as well as Dell Venue tablets. These offers are valid on purchases made between September 20th and October 26th, 2014.
Ritu Gupta, Director, Marketing, Dell India said, “This is an initiative to add value and further empower our customers while celebrating the spirit and sentiment of festivity that so enraptures Indians, nationwide. Through the gift of technology, we want our consumers to stay connected with their loved ones during the festivals, regardless of whether they are close or far.”

Aeroflex Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aeroflex Holding Corp., announced that Dell has chosen TeraVM™, a virtualized IP test solution, to demonstrate the readiness of the Dell ecosystem for Virtual Network Functions (VNF). The demonstration will take place at the Red Hat Summit in San Francisco on April 14 - 17, 2014.

“TeraVM is an excellent solution available today which enables us prove that virtual network functions on cloud platforms are of an acceptable quality and highly performing”, commented Franklin Flint, Global Telecommunications Strategist and Marketing Director, Dell OEM Solutions, “TeraVM has enabled us to show without doubt, that the software-based VNFs on the COTS* cloud platform are not only operational but in most cases exceed the performance of an equivalent network product on proprietary hardware”.

Dell announced that it will bet big on the distribution business to provide customers the latest and most relevant technology solutions. The distribution led business will be a significant growth driver for Dell in its commercial business. Dell partners will now be able to meet customer demands for the best-of-breed enterprise products and solutions without any wait period.  This will result in extending coverage across Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities.
Reiterating the message, Ravi Bharadwaj, Executive Director- Marketing, Dell India, said, “Dell is excited with this new foray of working together with the commercial distribution fraternity, as we see ourselves winning and growing with channel partners. Our comprehensive array of solutions and robust infrastructure will pave the path to success for us and our customers”

Dell and CIO Association of India announced the results of ‘India’s Best CIO Mega Trends 2014’, survey of over 50 leading CIOs across the country. Dell and CAI conducted the survey at the recently concluded ‘India’s Best CIO’ event to assess the top IT trends that will dominate 2014, and challenges influencing their adoption, as seen by India’s leading CIOs.

Both Big Data and BYOD emerged as the most prominent trends with close to 60% of respondents acknowledging the role these technologies will play in 2014. The survey covered respondents from a range of industries including retail, insurance infrastructure and pharma amongst others. Other significant trends that the survey spotted include Datacenter Transformation (19 %) and Desktop Virtualisation (19%) - also seen by CIOs as IT trends that will dominate this year.

Dell announced successful implementation of a virtual environment for eClerx. Dell helped eClerx deliver desktop and application virtualization across the organization through Dell Wyse thin clients and Citrix XenDesktop /XenApp hosted on Dell PowerEdge servers. This has enabled eClerx to ensure compliance with client security requirements and improve the capabilities of the company’s global talent pool.

“If we compare our previous desktop environment to our new virtual desktop infrastructure powered by Dell, we estimate that we have achieved overall cost-savings and efficiency improvements of 40 percent.” Sanjay Kukreja, principal, technology services, eClerx.

The overall India PC shipments for CY 2013 stood at 11.5 million units i.e. a year-on-year growth of 4.8% over CY 2013. The overall market improved marginally on account of buying across different state governments as part of their distribution of free laptops to students. 

The commercial PC segment hit a high of 6.7 million units in CY 2013, with a year-on-year growth of 15.8% over CY 2012. However, outside special projects, the demand conditions have worsened in the course of the year and sentiments remain largely subdued owing to multiple factors including the sharp devaluation of rupee, weak economic growth, slowdown in new hiring mixed with layoff fears in large enterprises. “There was a lot of uncertainty amongst investors and businesses. Buying decisions were noted to be typically stretched over 2-3 quarters.” Comments Manish Yadav, Market Analyst with IDC.

Dell is delighted to announce the launch of Dell’s instant payment platform for all its customers who want to upgrade warranty on their Dell PC’s at retail point of sale. With the new additional warranty, all services that would be covered under the standard warranty period will be covered during the extended warranty period. Partners & Customers can now visit www.dellwarrantyextension.co.in for warranty extension offers, registration and online payment in three easy steps. The same will be applicable for 45 days from the retail invoice date and can be availed by simply logging onto the www.dellwarrantyextension.co.inwebsite. Customers & Partners can then select the Dell PC model and the upgrade option and lastly, instantly pay using a credit card, debit card or net banking to avail the warranty upgrade on their new PC.

Persistent Systems announced a partnership agreement with Dell, provider of AppAssure data protection software.  The agreement brings to market a complete, scalable disaster recovery solution that provides both on-site and cloud-based instant disaster recovery service without needing to rip and replace existing environments.

The integrated offer enables Dell AppAssure users to now leverage rCloud's cloud-based disaster recovery platform for round-the-clock availability of their services, even in the case of entire site shutdowns. The combined solution complements both companies' individual offerings, delivering a complete solution to rCloud and AppAssure customers.

Global Infonet Distribution, one of the IT distributors, focusing on distribution of PC systems, peripherals and IT Components today announced the appointment of Mr. Prashant Prakash as new CEO of the company.

Prashant will work closely with the Global Infonet management team to deploy the best global practices and other existing assets and steer their efficient development. Prashant brings in more than 20 years of rich & diverse experience in reputed organisations like HCL Infosystems, Bharti Group, Zenith Computers. In his last assignment, he was the AVP & Country Head at HCL Infosystems.

Dell announced that Persistent Systems is using a Dell infrastructure solution to accelerate the performance of its groundbreaking research project called SanGeniX. The Dell solution, which includes the SAP HANA platform running on Dell’s PowerEdge R910 server, has dramatically reduced research time making data analysis 20 times faster. The project was initiated by Persistent Systems to build a comprehensive solution for Next Generation Sequence data analysis in collaboration with IISER, Pune, NBAGR, Karnal and IIT-Bombay and has been co-funded under the Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme (BIPP), by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Not-for-Profit Public Sector Undertaking set up by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.

Dell Software announced technology innovations that address a host of pressing IT challenges. New solutions and technology integrations within Dell’s mobility/BYOD offerings provide customers the tools to increase workforce productivity, while also ensuring secure control over corporate assets. Continued integration of Dell’s network security and identity and access management technologies further enhances security for users, regardless of location or access need, while Dell’s modern business intelligence and analytics solutions are helping universities simplify their complex data environments. Two key enhancements to its data protection portfolio round out Dell’s newest innovations aimed at keeping corporate assets safe, and the business agile and profitable.

IIHT Cloud Solutions has partnered with Dell to design and deliver a unique and pioneering approach to their Learning-as-a-Service solutions. Dell’s software-defined networking approach was built on Dell Networking core switches, Dell PowerEdge servers and Dell PowerVault storage. The solution enabled IIHT to simplify network complexity by 90 per cent while it expanded its curricular, scaled up delivery to match global demand and improved its pricing model.  
The Challenge: IIHT delivers a range of courses within their 200 India-based training centers and provides outsourced e-learning programs to enterprise customers located across 19 countries. A critical challenge was to keep pace with the latest software versions and required infrastructure in line with growing market demands. IIHT required a highly scalable and effective cloud solution to help it meet this challenge.

Dell has opened its Dell Storage Design Center in India. This is the sixth of its kind across the globe. The Bangalore Center will strengthen the coordinated development of Dell's servers, storage and networking in alignment with the company's focus on IT convergence solutions and its broader enterprise business portfolio.