Vlogs

• Why Technology is Important in Health Care

  Mon. Apr. 14, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  In previous posts related to health care, I've talked about better patient care and E-prescribing. In this post, I wanted to talk more broadly about the role technology can play in health care. The work of Dell, Allscripts and the other partners in the National E-Prescribing Patient Safety Initiative is one example of collaboration among companies to enable technology adoption in health care. This sort of cooperation is critical to enable technology integration across the health care ecosystem and among medical tools and devices.

  Hospitals and caregivers have hundreds of applications and devices, many of which can’t share information. Think of cell phones as an example—imagine if the different brands of phones and service carriers weren’t able to talk to each other. That’s often the state of connectivity among devices in health care.

  Leadership within the industry and the government can drive an overall commitment to standards. Dell works with many other companies as part of the Continua Health Alliance, an organization dedicated to interoperability of health care devices. Interoperability standards that allow independently manufactured products to work together enables improved quality of care, improved efficiency, reduced errors and lower costs.

  Dell has been committed to a standards-based approach to technology and believes this methodology can be applied successfully in health care. Part of Dell’s approach to driving standards in health care is collaborating with leading healthcare technology providers to bring complete solutions to customers that integrate hardware, software, services and devices. Dell’s work with GetWellNetwork is one example of this type of collaboration that benefits patients. Through the interactive patient care system developed by GetWellNetwork, run on standard Dell hardware and deployed by Dell services, hospital patients can access education, communication and entertainment tools designed to improve their hospital stay and also make the delivery of care more efficient and consistent for caregivers.

  Dell has broadened our focus on health care and life sciences because ultimately, technology can help manage cost and efficiency and improve patient care. Here's the third and final vlog with Glenn Tullman, CEO of Allscripts, where he discusses how we're working with them to broaden technology adoption across the health care industry. If you have ideas on what Dell can do to further the integration of technology and health, would love to know your thoughts.

  Format: flv Duration: 5:05

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• Let’s Create a Clean Energy Future

  Wed. Apr. 02, 2008
  by Dane Parker, Dir—Environmental Health & Safety

  Right now, Paul Bell is part of a global conference call with the CEOs of TXU, Waste Management and The Climate Group  to announce that our corporate headquarters is now powered with 100 percent green  energy, an important milestone in our commitment to become the first carbon-neutral computer company.

  This is an exciting day for the entire Dell team, not only because we’re taking another step in becoming the “greenest” technology company on the planet, but also because we’re challenging other companies to join us in integrating renewable energy into their operations. Put simply, by striving toward a clean energy future, we have an opportunity to further empower the ReGeneration – people of all ages who care about the planet.

  We’ve already saved more than $1.2 million and avoided nearly 8,200 tons of CO2 by replacing lights and retrofitting air conditioning units throughout our central Texas facilities. The power-management initiative we’re running with 1E has saved $1.8 million and avoided 11,000 tons of CO2 globally. Also, as a result of the hard work of thousands of employees, we’re running ahead of schedule in achieving our carbon neutrality goal. See the vlog of me below for more details, and if you're interested in learning more, take a look at www.dell.com/greenpowernews.

  Format: flv Duration: 2:22

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  Our challenge to you: let’s work together to create a clean energy future. Let’s open dialogues and make the environment part of our daily conversation and actions, following the well known advice of Gandhi and ‘be the change we want to see in the world.’

  If you haven’t already, be sure to join the ReGeneration and add your voice to the thousands of others working toward a “greener” future. To join, look for this image on the right hand section of the ReGeneration.org site. Clicking on the image below will take you to the main site:

   

  Change begins with each and every one of us. Together, we can change the future for our planet!

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• GREEN: The New Black in Corporate Computing

  Wed. Mar. 05, 2008
  by Rebecca Thorburn, Green IT/ Power & Cooling

  Several weeks ago, I blogged about Michael Dell and members of our ReGeneration team were in Washington, DC to participate in the IT Energy Efficiency Summit hosted by CIO magazine. Gary Beach, publisher emeritus at CIO, conducted a moderated Q&A with Michael during the event, which was attended by about 100 CIOs and other IT decision makers from the public and private sectors.

  In this recent article, Are You Green?, Gary recaps his discussion with Michael and suggests that "green is the new black in corporate computing" - an IT fashion point that Dell strongly agrees with! Gary shares key takeaways for any CIO who wants to introduce green into their operations, including getting your CEO on board with your energy efficiency initiatives; reducing power consumption in your data center; aligning your IT and facilities departments; and holding your suppliers accountable.

  Gary intends to continue his green conversation with Michael with an online Q&A to be published on or around Earth Day, April 22. Stay tuned for more details on that. In the meantime, check out the following vlog in which Gary shares his thoughts and observations on the noticeable "awakening" happening amongst CIOs around the growing need to go green.

  Format: flv Duration: 5:20

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• Dell EqualLogic Discussions at VMworld

  Thu. Feb. 28, 2008
  by Kerry Bridge, EMEA Digital Media Communications

   

  On Tuesday, I attended the inaugural VMworld Europe in Cannes, France, where Dell was a platinum sponsor discussing the future of virtualization. It was held in the same conference centre as the Cannes Film Festival. I attended the opening keynote and then joined the Dell team on the exhibition floor to see what they were sharing with customers on the Dell booth and in the breakout sessions.

   

  Note from Lionel 2/28: This was originally published at 10am in the category area. Due to a publishing oversight, did not publish it on the main page. Re-publishing now.

   

  During the keynote session Diane Greene, president and CEO of VMware, shared VMware’s future vision for virtualisation and we also jointly announced that Dell will begin the process of putting VMware ESX 3i hypervisor across all virtualization-certified Dell PowerEdge servers starting in early April. One thing that impressed me was that customers will be able to purchase this solution with a single click

  , easing virtualization planning, deployments and management.  

  The other thing that really impressed me was that almost all the presenters focused on green IT. It’s great to see Dell as well as other companies putting such a focus on ReGeneration.

   

  At the Dell booth I met with John Joseph, VP of marketing for Dell EqualLogic storage solutions, and Tim Sherbak, Dell’s manager of virtualization solutions marketing. You can hear from the vlog that there was a lot of footfall and buzz in the Dell area.

  Format: flv Duration: 4:45

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  I also attended a breakout session with John where he shared that Simplifying IT with virtualization goes beyond the server. Storage infrastructure needs to be easy to deploy, manage and scale as well.

   

  It was great to meet our new EqualLogic team. I saw a demo of Site Recovery Manager (SRM) on the stand, an integrated snap-in to VMware VirtualCenter that provides a way to set up and test your disaster recovery strategy before you need it. Even at a first glance I could tell that with SRM, disaster recovery and business continuity are no longer expensive, complicated, uncertain processes. Another example of how Dell solutions do simplify IT.

   
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• Michael Dell Talks Green at IT Energy Efficiency Summit

  Wed. Feb. 13, 2008
  by Rebecca Thorburn, Green IT/ Power & Cooling

  Michael and other Dell team members spent the greater part of Wednesday morning last week in Washington, D.C. participating in the IT Energy Efficiency Summit. Dell partnered with CIO magazine to host this first-ever event designed to provide CIOs and other IT decision makers with insight into energy efficient computing strategies.

  In a moderated question and answer session with CIO publisher emeritus Gary Beach, Michael discussed various aspects of the greening of the IT landscape. (See highlights from his comments in vlog below.) He discussed Dell's drive to become the greenest technology company on the planet, our ReGeneration movement, how we consider the environmental impact behind everything we do as a business and the importance of carbon intensity—stay tuned for more on this front.

  He also shared different ways organizations can minimize their energy footprints, such as incorporating more energy efficient systems across their IT infrastructures, utilizing advanced power and cooling solutions and leveraging virtualization technologies. By applying an energy efficient approach to every aspect of their operations, Michael reminded attendees that their organizations stand to significantly reduce energy costs while meeting their corporate green initiatives. Put simply, embracing energy efficiency makes good business sense.

  Driving energy efficiency into the data center is certainly a topic of growing importance among CIOs considering that such facilities are massive consumers of power. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, data centers account for an estimated 1.5 percent of the nation's energy use. This number is expected to double within the next five years as power and computing performance demands continue to increase, costing an estimated $7.4 billion annually.  

  Attendees at the forum also heard from David Rodgers, deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency with the U.S. Department of Energy. Mr. Rodgers reiterated Michael's point regarding the critical role that IT has and will continue to play in reducing overall power consumption. He spoke of the federal government's efforts to continue growing the economy without growing our nation's energy use, and encouraged attendees to make use of technology in new and innovative ways to help lower energy consumption within their organizations. Rodgers believes the path toward a more energy-conscious culture will be driven by industry rather than federal mandates. He envisions a future in which the IT industry works more closely with the federal government to help define new standards around energy use and drive increased adoption of energy efficient technology and best practices.

  We want to thank CIO magazine for organizing the IT Energy Efficiency Summit and helping to bring attention to an increasingly important subject. Here are video highlights from Michael's conversation with Gary Beach during the event.

  Format: flv Duration: 8:34

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• Dell ProSupport Services for Commercial Customers and Channel Partners

  Tue. Feb. 05, 2008
  by Cary Gumbert, Dell Global Services

  In my previous post, I had mentioned Dell ProSupport. So, what is Dell ProSupport? It is a collection of global, pre-packaged and standardized support services with a consistent level of support from the desktop to the datacenter-all designed to simplify how you run IT. Dell ProSupport is available to all Registered Channel Partners and commercial customers big and small, and includes all regions, with globally aligned people, processes, and infrastructure built for speed of resolution and ease of use.

  Our goal with Dell ProSupport is to offer service options to customers that are consistent to your level of knowledge. That's something that I have been discussing with Direct2Dell reader Craig and wanted to explain it in more detail in this post. Whether you are a large company, a small business, a public organization or a registered channel partner you can take advantage of ProSupport for IT service model—which will give you tech-to-tech access and the ability to "skip the script" and immediately request a part or service call when you already know what the problem is with Fast-Track Dispatch.

  Here's how it works. ProSupport for IT customers simply have to pass a certification test to take advantage of Fast-Track Dispatch. The online courseware and the test are part of the Dell ProSupport for IT offer, and are available at no additional charge. We also announced a second service model for those that need how-to support on common applications like Microsoft Small Business Server and Microsoft Office products, and new options for all...so please watch this video by Steve Meyer, Dell's VP of Global Services, to see how Dell ProSupport moves us past the outdated notion that support is one-size-fits-all.

  Format: flv Duration: 3:54

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  You can learn more about ProSupport here: www.dell.com/prosupport.

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• New EqualLogic Products

  Mon. Feb. 04, 2008
  by John Joseph, Storage VP of Marketing

  Hi, I'm John Joseph.  I recently joined Dell during its acquisition of EqualLogic, where I was vice president of marketing for 5 years.  It's been an amazing experience since 2003 when we worked to convince people that iSCSI SAN technology was real, and would cut the cost and complexity of deploying networked storage for IT. Five years later, we're a reference platform for VMware environments, we have nearly 4,000 customers in more than 30 countries and we're on the eve of bringing EqualLogic's products to the world on a massive scale as part of the Dell family. I'm excited, and Dell's reception has had a lot to do with it. The kind words, incredible enthusiasm and support of the Dell employees that I've met so far have been fantastic.

  What truly excites me about this opportunity is our ability to share with the world the experience that our customers have had with our products, partners, and employees.  The reason for this is that our customers are best situated to say what makes the EqualLogic PS Series so unique.  And thankfully, they are usually eager to tell their story. 

  Be assured we're not satisfied to sit on our laurels and wait for people to come to us.  We are well aware that serving a larger customer base can only be done by making the investments necessary to keep them delighted with Dell EqualLogic storage.  This includes expanding our support team while continuing their exceptional customer care, and making our VAR channel stronger, better trained, and profitably happy. Further, the technology innovation cannot stop. Look for us to enrich our storage management capabilities, broaden our application and third party integration, and build out end-to-end solutions for our customers.

  Here's a vlog where I talk a bit more about what customers can expect from Dell and EqualLogic in the future.

  Format: flv Duration: 2:17

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  The latest example of our continuing product improvement came today in the new PS5000E array for that packs 16 TB into our standard 3U chassis - that's nearly 50% more capacity per modular array.  EqualLogic engineering, run by my partner in crime Paula Long, worked tirelessly to test, beat, bang on, stress, retest, and QA these cutting edge drives so that the Dell EqualLogic PS Series begins its new life with industry-leading terabyte-drive technology on a unified hardware platform. 

  

  If you think that's cool - stay tuned. We'll have more details to share on the new Dell EqualLogic products coming soon. For Dell storage, things are only going to get better.

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• Dell (PRODUCT) RED Super Bowl Ad

  Sat. Feb. 02, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  Even though the Dallas Cowboys won't be playing, I'm looking forward to tomorrow's game. I'm interested to see the reaction to the commercials tomorrow, and welcome your comments here.

  Update, February 3: Here is the Dell (PRODUCT) RED Super Bowl ad. The song that's playing is Mick Jagger's "Charmed Life" from his record, Very Best of Mick Jagger.

  Format: flv Duration: 0:30

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  Beyond that, I saw that Jeremiah Owyang set up @Superbowlads on Twitter to allow the community to rate Super Bowl commercials in real time. Here's his post for more details. Rather than trying to re-create the steps, here's a screenshot from Jeremiah's post that explains how to do it (I hope you're okay with the screenshot approach, Jeremiah!).

  Also, just so you know, the screenshot is hyperlinked to the Terraminds page that Jeremiah links to in step 3.

  

  I'll post the Dell (PRODUCT) RED Super Bowl commercial here in this post once it airs tomorrow. We welcome your comments here, and I'll be watching the overall reactions via @Superbowlads in Twitter and the Terraminds RSS feed.

  Update, February 3: Some folks are using this Tweetscan feed to track the overall conversation. It seems to be update faster than Terraminds.

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• Dell Completes EqualLogic Acquisition

  Mon. Jan. 28, 2008
  by Darren Thomas, VP/GM Dell Storage

  Today we completed the EqualLogic acquisition, a leading provider of high-performance storage area network (SAN) solutions designed for virtualization and ease-of-use. The purchase extends Dell's leadership in simplifying IT for customers. 

  Customers face extreme challenges with data growth. Storage solutions that use existing infrastructure, install in minutes not days, manage themselves, can grow easily as needs increase and plug into the virtualized IT ecosystem will help businesses with their storage needs. EqualLogic provides these storage solutions and that's the incredible value that Dell will now be able to deliver to our customers.  With Dell's PartnerDirect channel, we will unleash the power of iSCSI and virtualization to redefine the economics of storing and processing data.

  Dell plans to preserve and build on EqualLogic's successful channel program in addition to offering products directly from Dell.  Starting today in the U.S. and ultimately around the world, current EqualLogic partners will be enrolled into PartnerDirect and are eligible for Dell's newest certification—Enterprise Architecture.  Certification requirements and benefits are modeled after EqualLogic's widely-regarded channel program and extend the benefits of Dell's full server and storage product lines.

  Here's a vlog where I talk more about this acquisition.

  Format: flv Duration: 1:59

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• New PowerEdge M-Series Blade Servers From Dell

  Mon. Jan. 21, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  After talking to several folks here at Dell, I can say that we have a lot of folks who are excited to bring the PowerEdge M-Series modular blade servers to market, along with a new 10U enclosure. Building on the PowerEdge 1955 blade system that InfoWorld recently named Best Blade Server System of the Year, Dell focused much attention on energy efficiency, I/O flexibility and usability in designing the new M-Series system.

  

  The 10U PowerEdge M1000e enclosure supports up to 16 PowerEdge M600 or M605 blade servers that offer two quad-core Intel  Xeon or AMD Opteron processors per blade.  We improved power and cooling by starting with our Energy Smart technologies, using high efficient fans and power supplies, and through Dynamic Power Management—which allows customers to use software to dynamically load balance across power supplies, or to even turn off power supplies when they're not needed. Flexibility is also key, and the M-Series has been designed to support snap-in capability all the way down to the switch interconnects. The PowerEdge M1000e also offers all kinds of connectivity options—including the upgradable Dell PowerConnect M6220 Layer 3 switch, three different Cisco switch options, two 4Gb Fibre Chanel switch options from Brocade, Fibre Channel host bus adapters from QLogic and Emulex, and more. 

  These blade servers are ideal for medium and large size customers who are faced with space constraints, power and cooling challenges, and the need to scale their environment quickly wihout sacrificing ease of deployment.

  In this vlog, I talked to Chad Fenner from the PowerEdge server team. He covers quite a bit here... providing insight into the development process, usability enhancements, more details on energy efficiency, ease of use, connectivity and flexibility and more.

  Format: flv Duration: 10:29

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  Folks on the development team told me that lots of customer feedback they gathered during the 2-year development cycle helped shape this product. Like I mention in the video, there's many different topics to cover with a product like this.

  We look forward to your comments—please let us know what areas you want to discuss in more detail and we'll go from there.

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