Dell Sees Itself As Cloud Computing Visionary

The IT industry was puzzled last August when Dell filed a trademark application for the term 'cloud computing.' But Dell has been working to raise its profile in the cloud computing space and sees itself not as a hardware focused vendor, but one focused on the software and services that makes cloud computing tick.

This was the upshot of a keynote speech Wednesday morning at the OpenSource World conference in San Francisco, in which Judy O'Brien Chavis, director for business development and global alliances at Dell, elucidated Dell's position on open source, cloud computing, and the next generation data center.

Speaking to a sparse gathering of about 150 attendees, O'Brien Chavis sought to dispel the conventional industry view of Dell as a one dimensional company. "Everyone thinks Dell just does hardware," said O'Brien Chavis. "But Dell does know the cloud and we do understand what customers need."

Dell, which has been working with Linux on the server since 1999, believes that open architecture and standards are best suited to building a cloud computing stack. Once that's in place, companies can begin to deploy cloud services on top and start reaping the benefits of their infrastructure investments, said O'Brien Chavis.

For many companies, virtualization is a logical starting place for cloud computing, and many Dell customers are running virtualized ERP and database applications today. "As you start to virtualize, you'll see your server utilization ratchet up and your labor costs decrease. That's why the virtualization space is the key to getting into the cloud arena," she said.

Dell believes that interoperability between private and public clouds offers companies more flexibility, O'Brien Chavis said. For example, larger firms with more stringent security needs may find it necessary to archive email on-site in a private cloud, while SMBs may prefer a public cloud where cost scales based on usage, she said.

"The cloud is about business model flexibility. We're not saying that everything needs to be in the cloud, but this is going to be the new approach for delivering IT as an infrastructure service," O'Brien Chavis said.

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