APEX: The New Everything as a Service Solution

Author: Rony Toro, Business Development Manager, Dell Technologies at CDW Canada

Throughout the past year, technology has taken an important role in an organization’s business plans. IT departments became the lifelines for business continuity in a global event that changed the workforce overnight. This year, Dell Technologies World presented a highlight reel of successful partnerships during these times of “trial by fire” and brought forward some real innovations from the lessons learned during these unprecedented times. Michael Dell’s keynote kicked off the event, where he expressed pride in being part of the technology community that enabled the world to keep moving forward. He also made a major announcement and introduced the main focus for the conference, which was Dell’s new Everything as a Service solution called APEX. APEX is enabling access to Dell technology for all, with one of the most thorough portfolios for data centre in the market now being offered as a service for storage, HCI and almost any other Dell data centre and edge solution your organization needs for digital transformation.

The future of Dell

Dell Technologies has taken what they learned from their Flex on Demand offerings and has wrapped it with simple, predictable, cloud-like management and consumption. They are calling this the future of their brand and introducing it in three options:

• APEX Data Storage Services is a Storage as a Service option that provides scalable, on-premise storage that can be deployed at either a customer’s site or a co-location. The equipment is owned by Dell, so customers have little upfront cost and only pay for what they consume. Dell offers predictable and simple pricing models that CFOs can appreciate. To begin, the customer simply chooses the type of storage they need as well as the starting capacity (beginning at 50TB), and Dell can have them set up in about 14 days for initial start-up. Dell promises transparent pricing and no overage fees.
• APEX Cloud Services offers two options that are built around VxRail and VMware Cloud Foundations.
  1. APEX Hybrid Cloud allows full automation and orchestrations of workloads across a customer’s cloud environment. The potential here is that a customer can launch enterprise level workloads like databases, AI and even VDI on a consumption-based model – making it easier than ever for the IT department to take on innovative initiatives.
  2. APEX Private Cloud is a straightforward approach to Infrastructure as a Service using VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus and VSAN – making it ideal for most applications. Branch and remote offices are great for this solution and some interesting options for AI at the edge will also allow for some fantastic innovation for manufacturing customers.
• APEX Custom Solutions brings almost any piece of the Dell’s storage, server and HCI offerings to a consumption-based model for a customer to create a tailored solution for their specific environment or workload. Anchored by Dell Financial Services, it gives customers a flex on demand, procurement model that can be managed through a single pane of glass via the APEX console. This gives customers the potential to move part, or all of their data centre operations to a pay-per-use model to bring simplicity, agility and most importantly, control to their operating model.

What makes APEX different?

Recently, we have seen many other vendors come out with on-demand services for their solutions, so, how is APEX different than the consumption models from other manufactures? Well, all of Dell’s APEX services are managed through a single pane of glass via the web-based APEX Console. This allows customers to monitor health and performance of APEX resources, order new resources and optimize performance, utilization and spend. With a portfolio as robust as Dell’s available at the tip of their fingers, it promises more agile IT with control of their resources, while reducing operational risk.

Another big announcement that will help differentiate Dell’s APEX service is its partnership with Equinix, which allows co-location deployment across the globe. The scope of solutions and the APEX Console allows for partners like CDW Canada to become an outcome-based advisor for our customers without the limitations of big hardware investments. Our experts can take our customers on a multiphase journey with infrastructure that can scale over time and provide a consistent experience that compliments our managed services. Having a partner like CDW Canada means you can focus on innovation while we keep your data centre running efficiently. Dell’s APEX infrastructure promises to give the cloud aficionados a great way to leverage CDW experts in AI, application modernization and beyond, without the limitations of traditional cloud models. APEX solutions are available through Dell in the US right now and are expected to roll out in Canada by the second half of 2021. We are looking forward to the inevitable innovation that can happen when our customers partner with CDW and Dell Technologies’ new, forward thinking solutions for the future.

To learn more about the benefits of APEX and how our experts can help you in AI, application modernization and more, visit cdw.ca/solutions or contact your account team today.