It's a multi-cloud world today, says Dell Technologies. The world has accelerated, and digital transformation must accelerate with it. According to Dell research:

• 34% of all organisations call digital transformation a top multi-cloud driver
• 84% of customers will have adopted multi-cloud by 2023
• 360% increase in cloud deployment over the past five years
• 57% say a skills shortage is a top cloud adoption challenge

Taking this challenge on, Dell’s announcement brings new offerings to deliver the ease and agility of the cloud experience everywhere your business is - whether public cloud, on-premises, a co-location partner, or at the edge. These new features are a better way to deploy multi-cloud, Dell says.

APEX multi-cloud data services

The first announcement is a fully managed service with high-speed, low latency cloud connectivity. It offers a direct connection to clouds - no matter which cloud or clouds you use, along with data storage and access managed by Dell. The APEX multi-cloud data services handle and protect your data, giving you simultaneous public cloud access without moving your data, and allowing you to avoid vendor lock-in and high egress fees.

The services are certified to meet regulatory and compliance requirements and Dell provides a simple data movement path from on-premises to its multi-cloud services.

Along with data storage, Dell is also providing APEX backup services as an all-in-one secure protection with backup, disaster recovery and long-term retention. It is completely SaaS-based with no infrastructure to manage. You can deploy it in minutes and scale on-demand, backing up your SaaS apps, endpoints, and hybrid workloads.

Dell also states its APEX backup services will protect against ransomware attacks with intelligent alerts and curated backups.

APEX data storage is an easily deployed as-a-service resource and gives you relief from the burden of data centre management, new opportunities for growth and expansion, a single invoice from a single vendor, secure facilities, streamlined data recovery, and multi-cloud storage from the start.

Australian and New Zealand organisations can easily procure and scale data storage services through the APEX Console. Dell-managed co-location for APEX Data Storage Services deployment will be located in Sydney, in collaboration with Equinix. This means Australian customers can deploy storage services where they deliver the most value.

Referral and hosting opportunities are also available for Dell Technologies channel partners in Australia and New Zealand, offering simplified IT to customers.

Project Alpine

Dell's second announcement is Project Alpine, which seeks to elevate the public cloud storage experience and provide operational consistency across cloud environments.

Building on Dell’s data protection cloud offerings which already protects nearly nine exabytes of customer data in the public cloud, the company will extend its storage portfolio with Project Alpine.

What this means is Dell will take its software IP of its flagship block and file storage platforms to leading public clouds and customers will be able to purchase storage software as a managed service using cloud credits.

Customers will have a consistent storage experience across a hybrid multi-cloud, including on-premises, and can easily share data throughout.

DevOps and developers

Building on partnerships with key cloud vendors including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM/Red Hat and VMware to offer a broad range of DevOps-ready platforms, Dell is adding increased support for Kubernetes including:

• Amazon EKS Anywhere on PowerFlex and PowerStore, allowing organisations to run their Kubernetes orchestration across public or on-premises clouds.
• SUSE Rancher on VxRail, providing multi-cluster, multi-cloud Kubernetes management and giving customers the flexibility to choose their cloud orchestration platform.

Dell is also expanding its Dell Technologies Developer portal to serve as a one-stop-shop for application developers and DevOps teams looking to provide infrastructure as code. The portal will provide continual access to the latest Dell APIs, SDKs, modules and plug-ins.

Statements

“Today’s multi-cloud reality is complex as data becomes more distributed across on-premises and colocation data centres, multiple public clouds and edge environments," said Jeff Boudreau, president, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies. “We have the industry’s broadest technology portfolio, consistent tools, experience building open ecosystems and leading data storage capabilities, services and supply chain. All this uniquely positions Dell to help customers take control of their multi-cloud strategy.”

“Our customers want simplicity, agility, and a consistent experience to manage their data across multiple cloud environments. With our sustained investments in an expanded multi-cloud portfolio and a vibrant cloud ecosystem, we will enable organisations to improve spend predictability, transparency, and scalability. Through our strategic ecosystem approach, customers can securely store, access, and consume data wherever it is created and consume cloud services anywhere their business needs it,” explained Amit Midha, president, Asia Pacific & Japan, and Global Digital Cities, Dell Technologies.

“Secure, well-integrated cloud and network solutions are essential for application performance. Telstra Private Cloud, combined with Telstra's Adaptive Networks, is a unique offering for local businesses, providing the confidence and control they need to innovate. At the core of Telstra’s Hybrid Cloud Ecosystem, Telstra Private Cloud provides security, sovereignty and connectivity underpinned by Dell Technologies APEX Data Centre Utility and a single pane of hybrid experience through Telstra Cloud Sight. Customers can access this as a scalable self-service capability or a fully automated Managed Service, supported by our 200+ hybrid cloud experts from Telstra Purple,” said Sarah Anderson, Edge and Cloud Executive, Telstra.