Dell Technologies announces IoT solutions to automate actionable insights

Dell Technologies' Edge and IoT Solutions Division announced new solutions and bundles to simplify deployment of secure, scalable solutions for edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) use cases. The company is combining tools from its broad portfolio with technology from Intel and partners in the Dell Technologies IoT Solutions Partner Program with these solutions. This will drive workloads for computer vision–enabled by imaging sensors and machine intelligence–characterized by structured telemetry from sensors and control systems. Dell Technologies has collaborated with Intel to advance these solutions with its computer vision and analytics technologies.

"Workloads and use cases for computer vision and machine intelligence require different combinations of tools, but the computing infrastructure elements are the same," says Joyce Mullen, president, Global Channel, OEM and IOT Solutions at Dell Technologies. "Dell Technologies provides a scalable, secure, manageable and open infrastructure–spanning edge to cloud–so customers and partners can realize value today and build a foundation to support these workloads and case studies in the future."

Cameras provide rich information about the physical world, but the deluge of video data creates too much data to cost-effectively monitor for real-time decision making. Applying analytics, such as Artificial Intelligence, to these data streams automates powerful, actionable insights. Events driven by computer vision and analyzed together with telemetry from machines–including data that imaging sensors cannot provide, such as voltage, current and pressure – results in even more powerful insights.

Because of rapid evolution in the IoT market and the fast pace of innovation required to stay competitive, many now require an 'IT grade' infrastructure. This should include a security-first perspective to support scalability, data diversity and the increasingly complex needs of connected devices.

Using computer vision with Dell Technologies IoT solutions, customers can more accurately, efficiently and effectively "see" relevant information pertaining to areas such as public safety, customer experience, and product inventory and quality. Surveillance is the first-use case to which Dell Technologies has applied computer vision, so customers can more cost-effectively monitor events in the physical world and automate decision‐making.

The solution is built to simplify how surveillance technology is delivered with an easy-to-deploy and manage hyper-converged, software-defined solution. Available later this year to purchase as a package, the engineered, pre-integrated solution will provide a consistent foundation from edge to distributed core to cloud. The solution is currently available as a reference architecture to align systems and build a framework for computer vision learning and adoption for other use cases.

The Dell Technologies IoT Solution for Surveillance will offer:

• Rapid return on investment: An open architecture allows for customization with choice of technology, purchasing and configuration. Additionally, it is flexible to adapt to changing technologies or industry regulations.
• Reduced risk: Dell EMC Surveillance Validation Lab tests hardware and ISV software solutions together in extreme simulations to ensure it will stand up in the real world.
• Integrated security: The built-in security measures include micro-segmentation (NSX-T) and the ability to push over-the-air (OTA) updates and security patches in real time to all surveillance devices from camera to cloud. It also will include holistic management capabilities across IT and operational technology (OT) concerns through a combination of VMware Pulse IoT Center and Software Defined Data Center.
• Reliability with scalability from cameras/sensors: The solution offers an automated, fault-tolerant approach to scaling from 300TB to 50PB+ on Dell EMC Elastic Cloud Storage for private, on-premise, off-premise or hybrid needs. High availability and zero data loss will be guaranteed with vSAN RAID 5/6 across flash and disk. Additionally, ESXi Enterprise Plus enables high availability and disaster recovery services.