Following up on last fall’s edge releases, which were more about manufacturing, Dell Technologies is launching a series of new edge solutions, most of which have a strong retail focus.
Gil Shneorson, senior vice president of edge solutions, Dell Technologies
Today, Dell Technologies is launching a series of new edge solutions for the retail market. They include a new Dell Validated Design for Retail Edge, a new edge-focused Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies 4.0, new Dell Technologies Customer Solution Centers Innovation Labs worldwide to help customers collaborate on custom proof-of-concept solutions, and an updated Dell Validated Design for Manufacturing with a new software package from PTC.
“Dell’s strategy is a tale of two major investments,” said Gil Shneorson, senior vice president of edge solutions, Dell Technologies. “One is modernizing the core business, while the other is building new growth businesses, of which the edge is one.”
Shneorson noted the rapid growth of spending on edge computing, with over 274 billion projected by 2025, and that most of this goes to hardware and services, especially services
In October 2021, we announced new additions to the Edge portfolio,” he said. “What we are doing this time Is expanding our solutions into retail.”
“Most people when they think of retail solutions think of automatic checkout and loss prevention, but our retailers are competing with an online presence, and they are faced with very savvy shoppers,” Shneorson said. We are looking at the experience of the shopper from self check-out, to microfulfilment sessions, to virtual fitting rooms,”
Shneorson said that the new Dell solutions are designed to increase simplicity, and combat the complexity faced by retail customers.
“They have been buying a stack at a time, buying separate solutions for each, all with a separate stack, so they wind up with a lot of compute in a poorly optimized environment,” he stated. “They need a better approach to retail from a workflow consolidation perspective.”
The new offerings begin with the Dell Validated Design for Retail Edge, which expands the Dell Validated Design into retail edge. It simplifies and consolidates edge retail infrastructure and applications onto a single infrastructure stack for efficient deployment, management and support.
“The validated design means that we have put the stack together, documented it, and put together a step by step guide,” Shneorson said. “We have taken the VMware Edge Compute Stack integration to provide in-store analytics and insights. We have also added machine vision analytics in store by partnering with Deep North and its intelligent video analytics platform.” The result is support for AI-based applications that help retailers use data insights to improve in-store shopping experiences such as optimizing product placement, preventing product loss, tracking inventory, helping shoppers avoid long checkout lines and diverting employees to where they can be of most assistance in a store.
Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies 4.0, an open sourced-based network operating system, which now extends across data centers and to the edge.
“This is open source taken mainstream,” Shneorson said “We are distributing SONiC with our network switches, simplifying the deployment for customers in a new edge-optimized solution” The new solution provides streamlined operations, greater flexibility, and expanded business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities.
Dell is also announcing new Customer Solution Centers Innovation Labs, where customers can collaborate on custom proof-of-concept solutions for fast and simple edge deployments. Customer Solution Centers Innovation Labs are available today in Limerick, Ireland and Singapore, and later this year, in Round Rock, Texas.
“These Innovation Labs are where customers come in as the first step in their journey, and see edge solutions brought to life,” Shneorson stated.
Dell also announced the upcoming enhancement of the Dell Validated Design for Manufacturing Edge, which will soon support Digital Performance Management, PTC’s latest ThingWorx based solution.
Shneorson said that while this will not be the case at launch, ultimately all of these solutions will be offered as a service.
“That’s our strategy,” he said. “We are working towards making everything consumable as a strategy if customers choose to pursue it that way.”
Dell Validated Design for Retail Edge will be globally available in June 2022.
Proof-of-concept edge solutions validation and testing in Dell Technologies Customer Solution Centers Innovation Labs are available today in Limerick, Ireland and Singapore and later this year in Round Rock, Texas.
Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies 4.0 will be globally available on April 28, 2022.
Dell Validated Design for Manufacturing Edge with PTC, with support for Digital Peformance Management, will be globally available later this year.
