Dell opens Customer Solutions Center in Austin

July 14, 2011

Back in April, Dell announced that it was making a billion dollar investment to further drive its evolution from a systems to a services company.  Specifically we talked about delivering a raft of new solutions, launching 10 cloud data centers around the world and building out a global network of solutions centers.

The solution centers are customer facing facilities that will act as a “living lab” providing an environment and the support for customers to architect, build and test proof of concepts involving Dell products, services and solutions.  The centers will also support solution integration, technical briefings and validation and ISV certification to meet regional requirements.  Last month the first of these centers were opened in Limerick, Ireland and Shanghai.

This morning the first US solutions center opened at Dell HQ here in Austin.  Here is a short montage of the opening ceremonies.

Contents

  • The crowd
  • (0:16) Opening Remarks: Jan Uhrich VP of Dell Services
  • (1:12) Steve Schuckenbrock, President, Dell Services — How the center fits in Dell’s strategy and transformation
  • (3:51) Paul Bell, President Dell Public and Large Enterprise — A couple of customer examples of large organizations who had early access to the facility and what they accomplished.
  • (6:26) William Collins, Head of the Austin Solution Center — The next two centers to open in the U.S.
  • (7:3o) Ribbon cutting

After the ribbon cutting I took the tour to see some of the solutions on display.  I’ll be posting those in the days to come.  Stay tuned!

Extra-credit reading

Pau for now…


Talking with the President of Dell Americas about Cloud Computing and the Economy

December 1, 2008

When I attended the RackSpace Customer event back at the end of September I was impressed with the talk that Paul Bell of Dell gave (Paul reports to CEO Michael Dell and is responsible for all business operations for Dell in North and South America).

dell_cloudsedited1

Dell and the Cloud(s) (sources: my hand + the football Dell gave out at the conference + Friday’s sunset)

In his keynote Paul talked about Cloud Computing and the challenges the economy was presenting Dell and its customers.  I caught Paul after his talk (BTW Lombardi is a Dell customer and Dell is a Lombardi Teamworks customer) and asked if I could tape a podcast with him.  He graciously agreed and here’s the result that I recorded at the beginning of last week.

Take a listen:

>> My talk with Paul (11:59): Listen (mp3) Listen (ogg)

Some of the Topics we tackle:

  • The key Cloud characteristics: Speed to deployment and ease of turning on/off
  • The need to separate the “real” from the fictitious when it comes to the Cloud
  • The interest Paul is seeing in the Cloud from smaller companies
  • Two of the biggest ways Dells plays in the cloud 1) supplier of infrastructure 2) deliverer of IT as a service
  • How on one hand the tough economy is driving interest in utilizing the cloud while at the same time it is causing a slow down in the sales of cloud infrastructure
  • The economy (starts ~7:30): Looking back at what happened in 2001 and trying to gain insight
  • How the economic malaise that hit North America has finally caught up with South America
  • How Dell is planning to help customers during these tough times.

Pau for now…


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