Dell Innovation Days 2016

May 31, 2016 John Obeto

I am off to sunny – and likely rainy – Austin, Texas, for Dell Innovation Days 2016.

This is a 2-day event organized by Dell ESG to showcase, and be transparent, about some of the innovative things they are doing.

Myths and Truths
One of the myths about Dell that I have to admit I help propagate, is that Dell doesn’t innovate, well, anything!

For a lot of people, Dell innovation is purely financial, or in manufacturing efficiency, of in product fulfillment. They see blandness across Dell product lines, not innovation.

For me, it is a case of familiarity breeding contempt. I have used Dell systems they were PC’s Limited devices.

Everyone was a boxslapper then, from Dell to Northgate, to the myriad number of local ‘OEMs’ in the Anaheim/Tustin/Costa Mesa/Orange County area, to those yo-yos in one of the Dakotas.

That image still resonated in my thoughts of Dell, not helped by the quality failure debacle during the Rollins era, at which time I ended my nearly two-decade association with Dell.

And moved to using HP products. After validating them, of course.

A Chance Meeting with an Old Friend
At Intel Cloud Day 2016 in San Francisco, I chanced upon Jim Ganthier, who is Vice-President and General Manager for Engineered Solutions, HPC, and Cloud for Dell.

Jim is a very smart, astute man, and someone I have known for years. I have interviewed him on several occasions for both this blog, the Blackgrounder podcast, and The Interlocutor newsletter. He is always on point, and gives very bright, insightful answers. I consider him a friend. (Hopefully, that is mutual J.)

As noted here, his answers to posed questions in a Q&A session were very intelligent, and pointed directly to Dell products or solutions for those posed questions. I like that. It showed preparedness.

Upon conclusion of the Q&A, we had a few minutes to talk, and he basically dared me to give Dell a look.

He assured me that my opinion of Dell – and Dell’s SMB and enterprise offerings, in particular – may have been valid a decade ago, but weren’t the case today.

I was intrigued.

Resultantly, when this opportunity to attend Dell Innovation Days 2016 arose, I practically leapt at it.

What I am looking for
I want Dell to blow me away.

In the words of several folks from that fine TV show, Fringe, I want Dell to ‘Show Me’.

I want to see Dell attempt to move computing forward in the spheres in which they compete. I want to see them with new products in their enterprise offerings.

I want to see them with world-beaters such as the delectable Dell XPS 15 – a SmallBizWindows Product and Laptop of the year Winner on this very blog – and XPS 13 laptops.

Can they do it?

Can Dell, you know “Show Me”?

This is a delayed blog post due to equipment and travel issues.

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