Dell Technologies has announced Project APEX, an expansion of its as-a-service strategy that gives customers a single, self-service interface through which to access and manage Dell technology and services on demand.
The Project APEX initiative -- essentially, hardware as a service (HaaS) coupled with management software -- spans storage, servers, networking, hyper converged infrastructure, PCs and more, according to a statement from the company.
Project APEX will unify the company’s as-a-Service and cloud strategies, technology offerings and go-to-market efforts, Dell said in the statement. Businesses will have a consistent as-a-Service experience wherever they run workloads including on-premises, edge locations and public clouds, the company added.
Dell's Project APEX: More Details
A new Dell Technologies Cloud Console will provide the foundation for Project APEX and will deliver a single dashboard for the effort. Customers and MSP partners can browse the marketplace and order cloud services and as-a-service solutions.
“Project APEX will give our customers choice, simplicity and a consistent experience across PCs and IT infrastructure from one trusted partner—unmatched in the industry,” said Jeff Clarke, chief operating officer and vice chairman, Dell Technologies. “We’re building upon our long history of offering on-demand technology with this initiative. Our goal is to give customers the freedom to scale resources in ways that work best for them, so they can quickly respond to changes and focus less on IT and more on their business needs.”
Additional advances within Dell Technologies Cloud and as-a-service offerings include instance-based offerings, subscription-based pricing and pre-defined configurations for Dell Technologies Cloud Platform; a geographic expansion of Dell Technologies Cloud Platform in the UK, France and Germany; Dell Technologies Cloud PowerProtect appliance for Multi-cloud, a fully managed service that uses deduplication technology via a single, low-latency connection to major public clouds for data and application protection and pre-configured, Flex On-Demand pricing and partner rebates for Flex On-Demand solutions, according to the statement.
Dell’s As-A-Service Strategy: Looking Ahead
In the first half of 2021, Dell plans to offer its Storage as-a-Service (STaaS), an on premises, as-a-service portfolio of scalable and elastic storage resources that will offer block and file data services and a broad range of enterprise-class features, the company said in the statement. STaaS is designed for OPEX transactions and also will be manageable through the Dell Technologies Cloud Console.
“By the end of 2021, the agility and adaptability that comes with as-a-Service consumption will drive a 3X increase in demand for on-premises infrastructure delivered via flexible consumption/as-a-Service solutions.” Rick Villars, group vice president, Worldwide Research at IDC.
Hardware as a Service: Rivalries Intensify
The overall hardware market continues to introduce more hardware-as-a-service options. The efforts typically blend financing and other components to help make hardware more consumable for MSPs and end-customers. Cisco Systems is expected to make as-a-service moves during Cisco Partner Summit 2020 later this month. And just last week, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) provided an update on its overall as-a-service push.
