Dell is looking for fresh ways to attract customers who are spending more on cloud-based computing services at providers such as Amazon and Microsoft Corp.
The tech giant has stated it will set up three IoT labs and its strategy will include using partners to develop a strong ecosystem.
Currently the idea is that customers can buy Dell equipment to be placed near a connected device which will manage all of the data being created. Dell is betting that this is far superior to waiting for data to travel to the cloud and back via a network.
As an example Michael Dell used an analogy of a deer running out in front of a self-driving car. The car has to wait for a public cloud to receive sensor data, recognise what that means (ie. there is a deer in the way), weigh up the collision possibilities and direct the car to safety. Whilst waiting for all of that to happen it is highly likely the collision will have happened before the cloud can respond.
The new unit will be led by Ray O’Farrell, chief technology officer at data-center software provider VMware, which is part of Dell, the company said in a statement.
IoT edge computing is essentially Dell's way of combating the Public cloud phenomenon as the on-premise data centre market shrinks, thus shrinking the need for servers, network switching and shared storage with it. Dell see's the future of IoT IT computing at the edge and has now put some serious resource behind it.