Techaisle Blog

Dell Technologies World 2025 (DTW) recently provided a comprehensive look into Dell's strategy and vision, with a particular focus on the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for businesses of all sizes. Keynotes from Michael Dell and Jeff Clarke, alongside detailed briefings on Client Solutions Group (CSG) and Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), painted a picture of a company positioning itself as the end-to-end partner for the AI journey. While much attention often focuses on hyperscalers and large enterprises, Dell offers significant opportunities and tailored strategies for the midmarket as well as the vital channel partners who serve them.

Here are my seven key takeaways:

1. The Dell AI Factory is an End-to-End AI Framework, Not Just Hardware

Dell introduced and expanded upon the concept of the Dell AI Factory, describing it as an unmatched set of capabilities in the industry designed to help businesses get started with Generative AI and scale it. It is presented as an open, modular infrastructure with a rich ecosystem, delivering powerful GPUs, scalable storage, high-throughput networking, curated tooling, and integrated cutting-edge models, supported by deployment services. This framework covers the entire computing architecture for modern AI workloads, from PCs to data centers and the edge. Dell has helped over 3,000 businesses build their factories and launched over 200 new features since its inception a year ago. The vision is for customers to bring their own company data to the AI Factory, driving unique business outcomes.

Why this is important for Midmarket and Channel Partners: This framework provides a structured approach to AI adoption. For midmarket, it demystifies the complex landscape of AI infrastructure by offering a seemingly integrated and supported stack. They don't need to piece together disparate components or become AI experts overnight. For channel partners, the AI Factory is a complete solution portfolio to take to customers. Dell is making it easier to consume and deploy through reference architectures and packaged software. This enables partners to concentrate on delivering value and outcomes, rather than merely selling individual pieces of hardware. The concept of bringing "your own company data" to drive outcomes resonates strongly with businesses of all sizes, emphasizing that AI value is tied to their unique operations and data, which partners are often intimately familiar with.

In today's data-driven landscape, organizations grapple with myriad challenges stemming from the increasing volume, velocity, and complexity of data. These challenges encompass data governance and management, the need for predictive and prescriptive analytics, the democratization of insights, and the rapid pace of technological advancements. To address these complexities, Zoho has introduced a new AI-powered self-service BI and analytics platform.

Since 2009, Zoho has been a prominent BI and analytics platform player, offering a robust foundation for data management and preparation. Zoho's self-service analytics platform is highly versatile and capable of running on Zoho's cloud, third-party clouds, or on-premises. Furthermore, Zoho caters to the embedded market, enabling third-party applications to leverage its analytics capabilities for insights within their business tools. As of the end of 2023, Zoho serves a substantial customer base of 17,000 directly paying organizations for Zoho Analytics, with over 70,000 businesses utilizing Zoho Analytics daily, embedded as part of any other Zoho apps. While Zoho One is widely recognized as its flagship suite of applications, the widespread adoption of Zoho Analytics within Zoho One, second only to Zoho CRM, across customer and employee experience applications, finance, marketing, and low-code applications, underscores its simplicity, reliability, and value.

Zoho Analytics is a powerful tool that offers both descriptive and prescriptive capabilities, enabling businesses to extract valuable insights and make informed decisions. Its descriptive features allow users to delve into historical data, understand past business trends, and identify key drivers. On the other hand, its prescriptive capabilities, driven by machine learning and AI, provide actionable recommendations to tackle specific business challenges. This includes features like decision intelligence, which assists users in understanding the root causes of certain events and how to respond effectively. By integrating these two types of analytics, Zoho Analytics not only helps businesses comprehend their past performance but also guides them in making proactive decisions to enhance future outcomes.

Let us explore why Zoho is emerging as a market differentiator in AI-powered self-service BI and analytics platforms. Its unique blend of features and capabilities makes it a compelling choice for organizations seeking to harness the power of data-driven insights.

Data Velocity and Diversity - A Modern Challenge

In today's digital age, organizations rely on many applications to manage their operations, resulting in a deluge of data. With modern enterprises often utilizing over 100 applications, the volume and variety of data generated are staggering, encompassing both structured and unstructured formats. To address this challenge, Zoho offers a comprehensive data management hub that provides a solid foundation for organizations to handle their data effectively. Zoho's platform excels in data integration, supporting over 500 data sources and facilitating real-time stream processing. This enables businesses to extract data from cloud data warehouses, files, feeds, and other unstructured sources seamlessly. Moreover, Zoho's commitment to innovation is evident in its ongoing expansion of data connectors, with plans to add 25 more soon. The platform's ability to process data in real-time from systems like Kafka, PubNub, or Cloud PubSub empowers organizations to efficiently collect and analyze data from diverse sources, regardless of their structure or format.

Enterprises are grappling with AI's transformative power, a technology poised to automate and elevate both creative and analytical tasks. Despite its early stages, AI adoption holds immense growth potential. Recognizing this, IBM took center stage at Think 2024, showcasing its unwavering commitment to AI innovation.

IBM's leadership in driving enterprise AI is evident through its three key pillars: open-source initiatives, which democratize AI and make it more accessible; leveraging the combined expertise of its consulting arm and ecosystem partners, which ensures the highest quality of AI solutions; and significant updates to the watsonx platform, which enhance the performance and capabilities of AI. These updates are about technological advancements and making AI more accessible and impactful for businesses worldwide. By prioritizing openness, affordability, and flexibility, IBM is breaking down barriers and paving the way for widespread AI adoption.

Open-Source Innovations and InstructLab

AI, a field deeply rooted in open collaboration, has been shaped by a tradition that dates back to its inception. Consider Alan Turing's groundbreaking 1950s paper, 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence,' which introduced the world to AI. This vision turned into reality thanks to the open sharing of work by countless researchers worldwide, laying the foundation for the AI we know today. IBM, a torchbearer of this tradition, continues to place open-source innovation at the core of its latest AI initiatives, inviting users and businesses to be part of this rich and impactful tradition.

IBM has unveiled a family of Granite models, a significant addition to the open-source AI ecosystem. These models, with parameter counts ranging from 3 billion to 34 billion, have been trained in 116 programming languages. They are available in base and instruction-following variants, offering a wide range of applications from complex modernization to bug fixing. These models represent some of IBM's most advanced language and code capabilities and are available under Apache 2.0 licenses on collaborative platforms such as HuggingFace and GitHub. This exciting development opens up a world of possibilities.

IBM's approach to AI development sets it apart from other major companies. While many have chosen to release pre-trained models, withholding the datasets used for training, IBM has taken a different path. It has offered open-source models, democratizing AI development and inviting clients, developers, and experts worldwide to explore new AI advancements in enterprise settings. This unique strategy, coupled with IBM's commitment to quality and efficiency, ensures that these models consistently generate high-quality code superior to many alternative large language models (LLMs) and excel at various code-related tasks, surpassing larger open-source counterparts.

“We firmly believe in bringing open innovation to AI. We want to use the power of open source to do with AI what was successfully done with Linux and OpenShift,” IBM CEO Arvind Krishna at IBM’s Annual Think Conference.

To further its commitment to open-source AI, IBM has announced InstructLab, an open-source project designed to address challenges in fine-tuning LLMs for specialized tasks. This project focuses on scalability by efficiently handling large volumes of data for model training and specialization by tailoring models to specific industry needs.

AI has swiftly moved from being a mere buzzword to a pivotal catalyst of transformation across various sectors. In the face of modern technological strides, adopting AI is not just an option but a necessity. Its transformative potential is not limited to large enterprises but also permeates small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), reshaping the business landscape by streamlining operations, boosting efficiency, and enabling data-driven decision-making.

Echoing the global trend towards AI integration, Lenovo unveiled its ‘AI for All’ vision at its ninth annual global event, Tech World 2023. The company is committed to driving intelligent transformation by prioritizing inclusivity and accessibility. This commitment is underscored by the introduction of innovations across its three business segments: the Intelligent Devices Group (IDG), encompassing PCs and smart devices; the Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), tasked with delivering infrastructure solutions; and the Lenovo Solutions and Services Group (SSG), offering a wide array of IT solutions and services.

Lenovo’s Hybrid AI Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data Everywhere

Believing in the universal accessibility of AI, Lenovo has embraced a dynamic hybrid AI strategy aimed at unleashing the power of data everywhere. This extends AI capabilities beyond the conventional cloud environment, delivering real-time solutions at the edge. The strategy envisages a harmonious coexistence of public, private, and personal foundation models to make AI increasingly accessible and secure.

Lenovo’s AI can function solely within a device or securely on on-premises servers, learning from data supplied by individual users or proprietary enterprise data. Importantly, it ensures that no shared information is publicly disclosed or incorporated into open training datasets. This not only bolsters security but also facilitates more personalized AI experiences.

Lenovo and NVIDIA: Pioneering Next-Generation AI Infrastructure and Services

Lenovo is actively developing next-generation AI-ready and AI-optimized infrastructure, aiming to deliver powerful, customized, scalable, and energy-efficient AI to customers through a hybrid approach. This includes an expanded partnership with NVIDIA, introducing a new generation of hybrid AI solutions and engineering collaboration. This partnership is based on a shared vision of making generative AI (Gen AI) accessible to all businesses. Lenovo plans to deliver fully integrated systems that bring AI-powered computing to every location where data is generated – from the edge to the cloud. This will enable businesses to deploy custom Gen AI applications at scale, fostering innovation across various industries.

Moreover, Lenovo and NVIDIA will develop next-generation systems based on NVIDIA’s flexible MGX modular reference design, providing robust and secure solutions for demanding Gen AI workloads.

The companies will also introduce the Lenovo AI Professional Services Practice, offering businesses a suite of services, solutions, and platforms to navigate the AI landscape. This initiative aims to help businesses of all sizes find the most suitable solutions, implement them swiftly and cost-effectively, and simplify their AI journey. With Lenovo’s AI expertise and NVIDIA’s cutting-edge AI technologies, businesses can confidently and quickly embark on their AI-driven transformations.

Lenovo’s Vision for the Future of Devices: AI-Ready Devices and Personalized AI Solutions

Lenovo showcased the future of AI-ready devices and AI-powered features, including a vision of an AI PC designed to enhance productivity, streamline workflow, and protect data. The company is also developing a new concept feature, AI NOW, a personal AI twin (AI assistant) solution for AI PCs. This solution leverages personalized models and information stored on the user’s device to effectively understand and assist the user while ensuring data privacy and security.

Furthermore, Lenovo announced the development of Enterprise AI Twin, a suite of AI applications tailored for businesses. This suite is designed to deliver customized solutions by synthesizing and extracting relevant enterprise data from various sources, including devices, the edge, and private clouds. Users can utilize Enterprise AI Twin in different scenarios and for multiple purposes. For instance, it can simplify travel bookings in accordance with company policies and individual preferences or assist supply chain teams in risk management by integrating public AI data with enterprise-specific information, thereby enhancing decision-making across business areas.

Lenovo’s Digital Workplace Solutions: Navigating the Evolving Work Landscape with AI and Security Innovations

In response to the dynamic work environment characterized by the widespread shift to remote and hybrid models, Lenovo introduced its Digital Workplace Solutions (DWS) in May 2023. This comprehensive suite of managed services is designed to assist businesses in seamlessly navigating the evolving work landscape, with a strong emphasis on enhancing the digital workplace experience. DWS encompasses a variety of tools and systems that address critical facets of the modern workplace, including technology, security, operational efficiency, and employee satisfaction, thereby helping businesses address the unique challenges posed by the changing work environment. This holistic approach prioritizes employee productivity, job satisfaction, and workplace efficiency.

Lenovo’s commitment to enhancing the digital workplace experience with a human-centric approach is further exemplified by the upcoming launch of the “Care of One” platform. This platform aims to elevate the employee experience by offering automated and hyper-personalized support, leveraging AI and data-driven insights to understand various user personas within an organization. Besides improving individual experiences, it contributes to overall employee productivity, allowing them to focus on more critical tasks and enhancing job satisfaction.

Moreover, Lenovo is making significant progress in the area of security. It has broadened its partnership with Microsoft by announcing an upcoming offering, “Cyber Resilience as a Service.” This cybersecurity solution combines Microsoft’s AI-enabled security stack with Lenovo’s robust security operations center (SOC) capabilities and global reach. As such, this partnership aims to equip businesses with essential tools for protecting their digital assets.

Lenovo’s TruScale: Revolutionizing Business with ‘Everything as a Service’

In recent years, the “Everything as a Service” concept has garnered considerable attention, offering businesses flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. This approach provides a wide range of products, software, and infrastructure as services, simplifying operations, minimizing upfront costs, and facilitating quick adaptation to changing market demands. Lenovo’s TruScale, launched in February 2019, is a testament to this as-a-service trend. It offers a solution that enables businesses of all sizes to access Lenovo’s extensive portfolio within a unified contractual framework. TruScale provides a scalable, pay-as-you-go model with predictable payment options for hardware and services.

Under TruScale’s ‘pay-as-you-go’ model, Lenovo’s hybrid AI solutions are now accessible. Kirk Skaugen, Executive Vice President and President of Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions Group, underscores, “We’re offering everything as a service through Lenovo TruScale, unlocking the power of Next Generation AI technology not only for large enterprises but also for small and medium-sized businesses.”

The TruScale approach is particularly beneficial for SMBs as it allows them to manage and scale their IT resources based on their current needs without any minimum capacity commitment. This ensures they always have the necessary technology to stay competitive in the market, whether experiencing rapid growth or facing challenges that require scaling down. This “as-a-service” approach creates a win-win situation for all parties involved. It enables SMBs to thrive in a constantly changing business environment while IT providers can maintain steady revenue through subscription-based services.

Final Techaisle Take

Lenovo's "AI for All" vision is a significant step forward in the AI landscape. The company's focus on inclusivity, innovation, and data security, combined with its hybrid AI strategy, paves the way for AI to become accessible to everyone, including individuals and businesses of all sizes, in a secure and personalized manner. Lenovo is well-positioned to shape the AI landscape and drive intelligent transformation by establishing strategic partnerships, delivering AI-ready infrastructure, and showcasing the future of AI-powered devices and features.

Lenovo has been undergoing a significant change over the past few years, transitioning from being recognized primarily as a hardware company to providing solutions and services. This transformation is exemplified by Lenovo TruScale, which showcases the company's adaptability and unwavering commitment to meeting the ever-changing technology needs of businesses. A key part of the transition to solutions/services is the relentless innovation of intelligent devices so that the solutions, services, TruScale, and DaaS are wrapped around cutting-edge tech.

It is inspiring to see Lenovo, despite having achieved remarkable success for decades, embracing what's best for its future, even if it means deviating from the tried-and-tested model that initially brought them success. Suffice it to say, the future looks bright for Lenovo.