Affordable Digital Transformation is Our Priority: Amit Luthra, Dell Technologies

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5aDJ33tlMKXwSE6I8YxIPF?si=MRFA7onCQn-Wk-h8Jxmkag

In an exclusive conversation with Faiz Askari of SMEStreet, Amit Luthra of Dell Technologies have highlighted how COVID-19 have created an impact on 'on-going' digital transformation.

Edited excerpts:

Faiz Askari: How this trend is moving forward and what we expect in the near future, especially in regards to digital adoption?

Amit Luthra: I think digital adoption; it is at its forefront. Social media, mobility, analytics and cloud computing have not only changed the way people live today but also has changed the way businesses are done. So if any organization is still contemplating that- how do I adopt digital? I feel that they are lagging in the industry. Digital is at the forefront and organizations need to have these technologies to create a differentiation with their competitors in the industry. Everyone wants to leverage this and create a better customer experience. The intent is to create a better end customer experience and increase customer loyalty. That is what we hear when we go back and talk to most of our customers. 

Faiz Askari: Especially regarding the COVID 19 phase, Dell Technologies has been a leader in this domain. As an executive leading this space, especially for the SMB segment, what has been your experience this whole journey in last about six or eight months?

Amit Luthra: What we have seen is that with the complete end-to-end portfolio that we carry of industry-leading solutions, we are making transformation a reality.  There were many examples where these discussions of adopting technologies, were on whiteboarding and what we are seeing most of the organizations have taken them into life. We have helped them in making this as a reality. To help them in these uncertain times, what we have done is we have combined our flexible payment solutions and flexible payment solutions on value-added services that is something that we call as Dell Technologies on demand. It has three key tenets; it helps organizations to pay as they grow which helps them in making predictable payments over an agreed term. Next is that it helps them to pay as they use, they can actually go back and have a monthly payment based on variable usage, as their elastic security demand goes up and down they can pay as they use, and most importantly pay as a service. They can leverage and consume this complete technology Infrastructure as a Service. This is something that we have launched in the last eight months and have has been widely accepted by most of the organizations. In a nutshell, Dell Technologies on demand is doing great.

"To help organizations during these tough times, we have come up with many technologies, which can help them to move their workloads in their multi-cloud environment, and we are sure that most of our customers are leveraging those platforms to create a differentiation in the industry."

Faiz Askari: Another aspect is related to the overall perception of technology among small and medium enterprises is about the affordability aspect and access. How do you look at these two aspects while ensuring Dell technologies' reach among SME sector? 

Amit Luthra: We always go and talk about solutions, which are affordable. The proof or testament of this is our market leadership position across very varied infrastructure components. If we are not affordable, and if we do not have forefront technology, then we would not have that. Even prior to the current scenario, we have always been affordable. What differentiates us from everyone in the industry is that we make things real. There are promises, which most often organizations go and give. To help organizations during these tough times, we have come up with many technologies, which can help them to move their workloads in their multi-cloud environment, and we are sure that most of our customers are leveraging those platforms to create a differentiation in the industry.

Faiz Askari: Which are the sectors you have observed, as the early adopters of the latest technologies, especially in terms of collaboration technologies, which have been high in demand these days?

Amit Luthra: All sectors are actually looking at adopting collaborative technologies. For example, the VDI, each organization is in the final stages of either deployment or finalization of VDI infrastructure. Everyone wants to give security, a secure environment, desktop environment to their employees so that they can happily work from home. All the major verticals, be it banking, financial services, insurance, IT organizations, and in fact, the government in most of these cases, have actually adopted those solutions. It is not just an industry-specific phenomenon, it's, a horizontal phenomenon. 

Faiz Askari: Is there anything specific or dedicated Dell Technologies have come up with, for sectors like education, health care etc. which have shown an interest in the adoption of technology?  Is there any dedicated solution Dell Technologies has developed?

Amit Luthra: We always had industry solutions, specific to the industry use cases. The adoption of these solutions with respect to these domains have increased in India over the past few quarters. We have industry-specific solutions when it comes to healthcare, Life Sciences, drug manufacturing, education and departing education, and high-performance computing. A lot of research, collaborative research is happening on medication again, in the education, vertical, higher education, which is researching on medication. We have enabled most of the organizations with solutions, which can help them create solutions, and help them address their needs in this environment.

Faiz Askari: What is Dell Technologies’ list of priorities for the next year; can you share some insights on that?

Amit Luthra: One year is too big of a timeframe. I would say in this scenario, at this moment, one thing which we actually want is that we support a holistic approach to cloud transformation. Right. When I say the holistic approach to cloud transformation, it means giving the right application or workload the right platform as most of the organization and customers that we talk to want to manage their workloads and application portfolio better. Organizations have a set of applications or workloads that are traditional, which require different treatment and some organizations have workloads or applications that are cloud-native. At this moment, every CIO that I talk to personally, and as an organization are focused on managing their workload and application portfolio. We as an organization are helping them to manage their application portfolio better.

Faiz Askari: As of now, there is a focus on building an ecosystem for technology adoption. For instance, enabling channel partners to become closer and trusted advisors to the customers and enabling customers themselves, to engage with the organization, which don’t have positions like CIOs and CISOs, giving them insights and engaging them concerning contemporary information and knowledge. On these fronts, where do you see Dell Technologies line of activity in the next six months or next to one year?

Amit Luthra: We have the industry's largest channel ecosystem. While we have our own ways to reach most of our customers, we do impart our knowledge and industry experiences through various platforms like webinars and webcasts where we talk about multiple solution areas. We also have a larger channel ISV ecosystem, which is also helping us to go back and share knowledge with organizations that are having skeletal IT problems.

Faiz Askari: Lastly, a trend that has been very active is the hybrid cloud. These days, hybrid cloud is one important aspect of the technology infrastructure and CIOs tend to struggle in this front. What is your message to that kind of CIOs and what is the best strategy, which you suggest for creating a technology infrastructure, which requires hybrid cloud infrastructure?

Amit Luthra: While the cloud has many great characteristics. What we have seen is the excitement in its adoption. Most organizations are very much excited to adopt it. In fact, the mindset, which they have, is a cloud-first mindset, which means that everything should move to the cloud. What we have seen is that this has created challenges when it comes to data, areas like access, data, gravity, latency, data lock-in, or even compliance and control issues. In this process, while we are not taking anything away from the cloud, in this process, organizations have realized that they need to have a platform wherein they can have the right workload at the right cloud and with the correct service level agreement. Ultimately, every organization should look at it as a multi cloud strategy rather than a hybrid cloud strategy, which allows the organization to ensure that their most valuable asset is at the right place at the right time with the right SLA. We are helping most of our customers to help them do this.