This past week brought the opportunity to participate in virtual events from industry leaders, Intel and Dell Technologies. There was a strong theme of resilience and an overwhelming drive to enrich lives and further human progress in everything from education to healthcare. It was inspiring to hear how, as an innovative industry, we are meeting this challenging time head-on with a sense of urgency, empathy, and growth. There was a continued focus on the edge and unleashing the power of data to improve efficiency, experiences, and decision-making across the events.
Intel Partner Connect, connected for growth
Following the initial 2020 Partner Connect from this past May, the second part of this year’s event kicked off virtually on October 20 with the Americas’ specific content. Intel’s message was clear: technology is enabling progress, and partnership is critical as we are all connected for growth. They reported that the first half of 2020 showed strong growth with new demands due to COVID-19 and a healthy supply of products available for the second half. They provided an update on the generous channel relief programs to help partners manage the changing business environment with best-known method sharing, in-depth product training, customer support extensions, and financing flexibility. The new unified Intel Partner Alliance (IPA) program was announced to support their partners in the channel, acknowledging the importance of partners in their business to accelerate the delivery of solutions to market.
Leaders from each Intel business segment shared their thoughts on perseverance, growth, 5G network transformation, AI, cloudification, the edge, and emerging use cases of technology and innovation. They spoke of a broad portfolio of products enabling us to work from home, play from home, and learn from home. There was a renewed commitment to an annual cadence of products that customers can count on with mentions of newly released technology like Tiger Lake, Optane, and 10nm SuperFin transistor technology, as well as the upcoming Ice Lake 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable. The team detailed how compute is being deployed ubiquitously across the spectrum with the distributed connected compute network. This also included the Six Pillars of Intel Innovation detailing process and packaging, XPU architecture, memory, interconnect, security, and software, all of which solidifies Intel’s leadership and dominance in the market.
Dell Technologies World 2020
Michael Dell introduced the virtual version of their annual Dell Technologies World event, including two days of keynotes, breakout sessions, an opportunity to connect with partners, and even entertainment. Michael Dell spoke candidly and passionately about what we all have achieved amidst this pandemic and how Dell Technologies will continue to approach the future with resiliency, courage, and kindness. As Michael so eloquently framed it, “It is not how the world changed but how we worked together to change the world. Together we are unstoppable.” That sums up the perseverance and innovation shown by Dell Technologies, their customers, and partners. There was a very human element to this event as they wove a message of technology driving social progress, solving age-old problems, addressing disparities, and broadening access.
The power of change, partnership, and possibility
This year, change was thrust upon our industry with force. At the center of this change is technology. It accelerates transformation that enables great change. It keeps us connected, educated, entertained, and safe. Often, addressing change is best done by leveraging partners to build solutions powered by Dell Technologies for agility and faster time to market. Together we are better than the sum of our parts, and that is the power of possibility. Think of the things we never thought we could do, but yet here we are doing the unthinkable. Possibility and potential are all around us, it is pervasive, and even small innovations can make a huge impact.
The Edge as the center of gravity
Kirsten Billhardt, Global Marketing Director, Dell Technologies Design Solutions, shared perspectives around outcomes at the edge. By the year 2025, the world’s data will rise to 175 Zettabytes, with thirty percent being processed at the edge. Improved data results in quicker innovation, and Dell is investing in technology to enable businesses to reach this data. Collecting data at the edge, where the physical and digital worlds intersect, offer lower latency, cost savings, increased security, and compliance. The challenge will be to have the right technology to address this data while the data is still valuable. Dell Technologies is meeting this data challenge across the continuum of edge, core, and cloud with the ability to make solutions happen at scale.
The future of AI
Genevieve Bell, Director of the 3A Institute and Senior Fellow at Intel, articulated how we will take AI safely, responsibly, and sustainably to scale. She described a process of looking to our history to build a framework to make this a reality. The framework consists of six questions to ensure AI solutions are autonomous, have controls and limits (agency), will assure that it is safe and functioning, have interfaces to ensure systems talk to people and other AI, indicators to show systems are working, and intent that it is working as defined. Building a system ensures there are boundaries and includes considerations for culture, technology, and the environment. An awe-inspiring group of people with a shared sense of purpose makes this a reality.
The power of Grit
As we talk about facing the many challenges we’ve all been confronted with in the last eight months, you have to wonder what makes certain people thrive and excel. Angela Duckworth, the author of Grit, presents what makes world-class achievers different beyond the expected luck and talent. She challenged the audience to consider what is giving them hope and what keeps them inspired. Duckworth talks about focusing on what we can control and not on the things that we cannot. She then reveals that what sets people apart is stamina, passion, and perseverance over long periods. As we all deal with the pandemic in our own way, many have reconsidered what they truly value and what’s important to them now with a renewed sense of urgency about the future. She challenged us not to slow down now. Continue to do the hard things you never thought you could, and look at what we have all achieved as proof. Duckworth ended with a comment about framing your mind around the term better, not perfection, as a more human way to approach growth.
Turn to UNICOM Engineering as your trusted partner in growth
UNICOM Engineering is fortunate to be surrounded by, and in partnership with, such great technology leaders. We embrace the change and opportunity presented by recent events and are here to support your efforts to drive growth and innovation into the marketplace. Together we can achieve great things while UNICOM Engineering helps you speed time to market with flexibility and expertise to fill gaps. Visit us to learn more about how we can accelerate transformation with Intel and Dell Technologies, or schedule a consultation today to get started.