1. The Dell Advantage
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COMMON CUSTOMER CHALLENGES: Organizations face common macro-level, external challenges, including disruptive technology trends, changing business models, and shifting work paradigms. In addition, organizations face a wide range of common internal IT challenges when evolving to meet changing demands:
Siloed IT environment: Highly fragmented, heterogeneous infrastructures are extremely difficult to manage and support.
Costly legacy systems: Outdated mainframe and proprietary UNIX platforms are often too expensive to operate and maintain.
Underperforming workloads: New computing trends—Cloud, BYOD, Big Data—expose the limitations of outdated applications.
Scalability constraints: Rigid architectures are not equipped to handle new performance demands and the rapid growth of data.
Low budgets: Budgets are not growing fast enough—or not growing all—to satisfy new requirements using old methods.
Limited skillsets: Lack of expertise leads to slower technology adoption, as well as potential implementation risks.
In the course of this presentation, I’d like to show you how Dell addresses these challenges not only through the capabilities we bring to market, but also in how we approach the design and development of our products, services, and solutions in ways that are truly unique and better.

2. Making technology more accessible
Giving organizations of any size the power to do more
Since day one, Dell has played a critical role in transforming the technology industry, making advanced technology more accessible and affordable to more people
In the simplest terms, we define our quest to create more and more value over time as “driving capabilities up while driving cost and complexity down”
A balance of all three is needed. This not only applies to our products, services, and solutions, but also the way we engage with our customers
This simple formula enables us to bring value to organizations of all sizes—and give them the power to do more
We drive up capabilities - Our aim is to move technology forward faster than our peers in the industry, not merely enhance functionality with each new generation. We combine organic development with joint partnerships and targeted acquisitions to develop practical innovations that deliver robust functionality at any scale—from entry-level offerings to the most advanced solutions.
We drive down costs - Making technology affordable helps make it more accessible to more people around the world. When more people buy, prices lower even further. This is the economics of our business model. We focus on driving down initial and ongoing expenses—ensuring a low total cost of ownership—to help customers achieve maximum results on minimum budgets.
We drive down complexity - Unlike our competitors who seem to thrive on complexity, we seek to conquer it once at for all. We believe technology should be sophisticated yet simple. That’s why so many of our innovations focus on driving out complexity wherever we can—to help our customers save time at each stage of the technology lifecycle, so they can focus resources on other priorities.
Our customers describe what we do as a combination of all these factors. Customers tell us that:
We simplify the complex—and make the powerful easy to use - We replace complicated, traditionally high-end technology with solutions that are equally capable but easier to use, manage, and grow (by people who work in organizations of any size)
We drive out inefficiency - We help them better optimize IT efficiency by finding more innovative ways to cut unnecessary cost and complexity—benefitting the entire organization
We deliver superior long-term value - We focus on creating and delivering value through the entire technology lifecycle—and find ways to extend it—to deliver a best-in-class total ownership experience

3. Dell is different Driving out unnecessary cost and complexity
Standards-based
No deliberate technology lock in
Open approach
No intentionally closed ecosystems
Modular systems
No costly monolithic stacks
Flexible scaling
No forced constraints or rip-and-replace
Modern portfolio
No vested interest in legacy systems
End-to-end solutions
No siloed viewpoint or hidden agenda
Modern platforms" to "Modern portfolio" 
DELL IS DIFFERENT
Many vendors talk about standards, openness, modularity, scalability, advanced platforms, and end-to-end solutions
But there are lot of things our competitors do—often behind the scenes—that make IT more complicated than it already is
They add unnecessary complexity because of all the things they do—which we don’t—on the right side of the screen.
Dell’s unique design philosophy truly sets us apart from all other technology providers today. This is characterized by:
Standards-based systems—No technology components deliberately designed to lock in customers
Open approach—No closed ecosystems that intentionally block out competitors
Modular systems and management—No monolithic stacks
Flexible scaling—No constraints on scalability that force customers to rip-and-replace
Modern platforms—No vested interest in costly, legacy systems, such as mainframes and UNIX
End-to-end portfolio and view of IT—No siloed view or hidden agenda to own customers through strength in one area
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Standards-based = greater flexibility
We give customers more choice in how they customize solutions without any lock-in penalty. Others use technology as a trap to lock in customers to their products and roadmaps.
We go the extra mile to preserve investments by ensuring our products and solutions work with 3rd-party systems and software. Others block out competitors by making use of proprietary components and software.
Open approach = better interoperability
We select the most innovative best-of-breed components the market has to offer which keeps our R&D (and product) costs low. Others have a “not invented here” bias against using 3rd-party components.
We work to preserve our customers’ investments rather than force a rip-and-replace. Others design closed ecosystems that do not adequately support 3rd-party products and solutions. 
Modular systems and management software = superior manageability
We design our management software to work with systems and software already in place to ease systems administration. Others develop closed management silos for their solution, which often creates a more fragmented environment.
We only sell modular systems which are more cost-effective and easier to scale. Others sell monolithic mainframe or UNIX platforms which are expensive to own and scale.
Flexible scaling = boundless growth potential
We offer more ways to scale—up out, down—without constraints. Others design systems that scale vertically but not horizontally (scale up but not scale out).
We design solutions that unleash functionality at any scale meaning even entry-level offerings deliver robust capabilities. Others de-feature high-end systems  to reach mid-market price points (solutions do not sufficiently scale down).
We design solutions that enable customer to scale to virtually limitless capacity & performance in modular increments. Others sell fixed capacity configs—customers must predict exactly what they need.
Modern platforms = more future-ready
We have no vested interest in keeping alive the margin-rich, proprietary platforms of the past. We have no legacy platforms (and no profit pools) to protect. Others have a vested interest in the future of mainframe and UNIX.
We offer a full portfolio of solutions built on architectures optimized for the needs of the modern enterprise. Others bolt on new functionality to systems that were designed decades ago—not an optimal way to address new demands.
End-to-end solutions = greater expertise
We see the big picture and how all aspects of the enterprise function better together. Others focus primarily on only one part of the enterprise—either compute, storage, networking, or services.
We are a one-stop shop for all elements of the enterprise—and we support everything, too. Others source some elements of their full solution from partners—and require customers to get support from multiple vendors.
We are impartial as to who controls the enterprise, so we make solutions that simplify administration across the board. Others attempt to make one administrator more powerful to gain control.
COMPETITIVE DETAILS
Technology lock-in
Our competitors intentionally use technology as a trap to lock in customers. This tactic benefits them in that they can reap higher margins at the point of sale, as well as retain customers down the road because it becomes more difficult to switch to a competing product. But for customers it often equates to higher prices, and reduced flexibility and agility later on.
HP servers, for example, run at full speeds only if HP memory is used; they run only at minimum baseline speeds if customers wish to use 3rd-party (i.e. Kingston, Samsung, Micron) memory. Also, HP memory is tied to the generation and is not interchangeable between older and newer models. Dell has no restrictions on the brand of memory used and no imposed limitations on the generation of server in which it is contained. In fact, on new systems, we go the extra mile to burn in the memory and processor subsystem in our factory before we ship it to make sure it works. Whereas HP limits options, Dell offers choice—without punishment.
A by-product of technology lock-in is the idea that once the customer is hooked, more money can be extracted from them. Over the years customers have told us that HP has found very creative ways to charge more for functionality from generation to generation—such as with VMware, VCenter, and their Microsoft plugins for the virtualization devices, which got bundled into their more expensive Insight Control. Also RAID 6 functionality is a charged feature, whereas with Dell it is simply included as part of our RAID card functionality at no extra charge. And HP is moving away from lifetime licensing (where functionality is licensed in perpetuity) to annualized licensing (where functionality is licensed for a period of time and shuts off if the license time is not extended).
IBM doesn’t simply want to lock in customers; they want to own their data center. IBM will say, “We know this more than you do, so let us come in and fix it for you.” Quite often—especially when dealing with customers who have larger, more heterogeneous environments—IBM will lock customers in with customized software. Once it has been installed, the customer must deal with IBM every time the infrastructure or software requires an upgrade or the configuration needs modification. What’s more, because switching costs are so high to move off their main frame and midrange systems, the premier examples of proprietary big iron—many organizations must continue to bear IBM’s high annual maintenance fees which can often consume a large portion of the IT budget.
Cisco uses lock in schemes, as well. With their UCS product, Cisco recommends that VMware customers bypass vSwitch in favor of their VN-link and Nexus 1000v products. This means that while VMware is investing resources developing new capabilities in vSwitch, Cisco’s technology will not let VMware users take advantage of them. Locking customers into a single technology path is nothing new for Cisco—they have had repeated architectural changes, from Catalyst to Nexus 5K and now UCS 6xxx.
Closed ecosystems
Our competitors are afraid of a little competition. So, they create closed ecosystems to force sole-sourcing of their products only—now and in the future. But for the customer, it means that environments become more fragmented and interoperability becomes more challenging.
HP and IBM do not validate many 3rd-party solutions to work with their server management software or virtualization software, and will often refuse to support customer issues resulting from the use of competing products. This gets to a fundamental issue—HP and IBM do not embrace partnerships and often work in “coop-etition” mode with OS and application partners. In contrast, Dell OpenManage software contains all of the support, connecters and plug-ins to manage Dell, HP, and IBM servers and the management software tools the customer may already have in place.
Cisco has the “cream of the crop” VoIP technology for Unified Communications today. But, they don’t really want you to use it on anyone else’s hardware. So, as a customer lock-in strategy—as well as a competitive block-out tactic—their pricing model makes this technology, in effect, only supported on their UCS virtual, converged infrastructure solution.
Because of our open approach, Dell customers find it easier to manage a heterogeneous environment. And because we do not impose any block-out tactics which would make it easy for people to switch to another brand, the only thing we do to retain our customers and build customer loyalty is by delivering a superior customer experience through flawless execution.
Monolithic platforms
Monolithic platforms are self-contained and run independently from everything else in the enterprise. This means they have to be separately managed as a standalone island. While they offer benefits for some applications, IT organizations come to realize that the maintenance and support costs and complexity become unmanageable, especially as more and more monolithic systems from multiple vendors are deployed over time making the enterprise more fragmented.
IBM mainframes are the poster children of monolithic systems. But so are proprietary UNIX platforms and their associated software. For decades, both IBM and HP have been active promoters of their proprietary brands of UNIX. They have entire ecosystems in place, including applications, management tools, specialized software, and specialized hardware. And it has been so profitable for them for so many years. But tides are turning away from monolithic systems to more modular hardware and software, because many IT organizations see their future looking a lot more like the hyper-scale infrastructures used by Web 2.0-style companies like Google which are far more flexible. Plus, the economics weigh in favor of horizontal scaling, which is ideal in a modular scale-out environment.
Cisco UCS systems have a monolithic management structure—they are closed silos that don’t seamlessly integrate into an existing infrastructure or nicely work with administrative tools already in place. Essentially what they deliver is an alien management architecture that creates a new island of administration outside of the existing management infrastructure.
In contrast, Dell designed our modular Active Infrastructure which tightly integrates server, storage, and networking components, along with Active Systems Manager so customers had the flexibility to manage the complete system—and other platforms from Dell or a 3rd-party already in use—according to their preference. So, unlike others who create closed ecosystems with a monolithic management stack, we took a more open and modular approach—hallmarks of our brand—so that our solutions work with what is already in place in the way our customers want.
Scalability constraints
Scalability describes how well a system or an application can accommodate growth. If the design of a system fails when a quantity increases, it does not scale. People think ‘scale up’ for vertical scaling (adding more resources to a single node in a system) or ‘scale out’ for horizontal scaling (adding more nodes to a system). Historically, price differences favored scale-up computing. But in the last decade, advances in virtualization technology have blurred that advantage, so most data centers infrastructures today are being designed to support a scale out architecture. 
IBM proprietary mainframes and AIX platforms are used primarily for applications requiring vertical scale only. The same is true with HP and their HP-UX platforms. These scale-up platforms aren’t sufficient for certain modern data center applications—particularly in hyper-scale environments—where horizontal, scale-out architectures reign supreme. Dell does not manufacture or sell any mainframe or proprietary UNIX platforms. Our modular, standards-based systems can scale up and scale out.
Cisco has certain scalability issues when it comes to their legacy network switching products that move traffic north-south. For example, in data centers that require massive scalability, north-south traffic can be inefficient and introduce latencies that are unacceptable, particularly for rich media applications such as real-time video streaming. In contrast, Dell data center networking products move data east-west, which recues latency issues. East-west architectures are best for environments requiring the highest degree of scale with respect to performance.
At Dell, we also think about scaling down—not in terms of limiting functionality—but in terms of making advanced capabilities more accessible to more people (i.e. taking powerful systems, making them easier to deploy in more locations and easier to manage). A great example is our first-of-its-kind PowerEdge VRTX that was specifically designed for remote office requirements. But what we see in our industry today are technology providers that take shortcuts by de-featuring their advanced systems—ones designed and priced for the high-end—to get down to a lower price point. These hobbled systems may have more attractive entry prices, but they don’t offer much functionality—and they aren’t necessarily easier to set up and use.
We also see scalability constraints with competing storage products from HP, IBM, and EMC. Each competitor sells their premier lines of storage in fixed capacity configurations, which means a crystal ball is needed to determine how much capacity will be required in the future. Worse, as capacity scales (i.e. as more disk expansion enclosures are added) the performance degrades for the system as a whole. In contrast, Dell EqualLogic and Compellent storage arrays enable performance to scale right along with capacity because the storage processors are built into each expansion enclosure.
In summary, Dell addresses scalability in multiple ways—up, out, down. And we design our products logically to give customers the most flexibility to adapt as their organization grows, evolves, or changes—or if they simply wish to repurpose systems or components for other uses.
Legacy vendors
HP and IBM are working hard to defend their revenue streams and protect their profit pools. But times have changed and the UNIX trends are very discouraging. Licenses, subscriptions, deployments, install base numbers—they’re all falling off a cliff. And they have been for the last 10 years. Half the UNIX market has already made the shift to x86. New UNIX shipments are half of where they had been. And it’s about a 50/50 split when folks move off UNIX to either Windows or Linux.
Both HP and IBM feel they have a captive audience. Their customers who wish to migrate off of UNIX can simply move onto their x86 platforms. But it’s a trap. Because both HP and IBM have implemented all of these tired old tricks of the trade—to keep people locked in and paying more money in more dubious ways—that the economics of x86 never fully materialize. They have applied old school thinking to enrich their margins on x86 platforms to balance out the profit losses on the UNIX side of the house.
Cisco has been slow to shift to newer, more modern architectures. For decades they have had an architectural lock on the networking industry and focused primarily on networking as the plumbing of the IT enterprise. With complete industry domination—and hundreds of thousands of certified Cisco technicians around the world—they have had little incentive to change. But with software-defined networking and east-west traffic becoming more popular, customers are looking for new alternatives.
When you have to answer to shareholders, you must find ways to protect your revenue streams and defend your profit pools—at the risk of upsetting customers. At Dell, we answer only to our customers. As a private company, we are no longer beholden to the whims of the street. Furthermore, 0% of our profit and 0% of our revenue is made on the sale of proprietary UNIX platforms or RISC-based systems. We have always been 100% focused on modular x86 standards-based systems. So we have no vested interest in keeping UNIX alive. Therefore, we don’t have to find creative ways to shift the fat margins of a dying business to product lines of the future.
Siloed view and agenda
HP is working to dominate the data center though a software strategy designed to lock in customers and block out competition. HP’s selling strategy is to undercut competitors by selling inexpensive, low-margin hardware with the intention of selling high-margin software, services and other servers on top. They have invested billions of dollars in recent years to become the third largest software company. Yet, their software doesn’t always work well together, which means middleware and services are needed, in some cases, to get everything functioning properly. What’s more, their software portfolio is confusing with overlapping functionality, so their sales force often has difficulty positioning the right solution.
IBM is a services-led company. Their global services division accounts for roughly 60% of their annual revenue. They have a limited focus on x86 solutions, preferring instead to sell their own proprietary midrange and mainframe systems. IBM targets the top, very complex IT environments, so many of their solutions do not scale well down to mid-market accounts. Because they are services-led, their goal is to tie expensive services to most data center infrastructure solutions. Their hardware, software, and applications only offer limited integration with key OS and application providers, so they offset this gap through their technology consulting and integration services. Beyond these services, IBM puts a strong emphasis on selling ongoing management and maintenance services, with IBM-badged employees working as contractors. IBM has incredible ROI tools that show how these services can make good financial sense, but customers often do not realize how inflexible the contracts are, or how costly it can be to revise or terminate them.
Cisco is a networking company that entered the adjacent server market to expand their revenue and profitability. But today's IT challenges are not just network-centric. Because they lack storage expertise, Cisco has partnered with EMC for the storage portion of their UCS converged infrastructure solution, which means support for the full solution must come from two vendors not just one. And because Cisco is big on lock in schemes, they force customers to buy expensive Nexus networking products with their UCS solution, even if the customer uses Catalyst switches. Finally, Cisco only focuses on infrastructure convergence, and does not have a compelling strategy for management of the broader end-to-end enterprise environment.

4. Unrivaled flexibility to adapt
Best-in-class total ownership experience Our design philosophy simplifies the entire technology lifecycle
Buy
Use
Grow
Velocity design point
Usability design point
Agility design point
Move from planning to production quickly, easily, and affordably
Optimize for ease and efficiency to minimize complexity and cost
Make decisions based on the best and greatest number of options available
Accelerate the buying process
Streamline deployment
Expedite planning
Engage on your terms
Ease administration
Automate maintenance tasks
Prevent support issues
Boost productivity
Scale without constraints
Unleash functionality—any scale
Grow on your terms
Leverage existing investments
Rapid time to value
Superior ease of use
Unrivaled flexibility to adapt
Simply put, Dell makes technology solutions that are easier to buy, use, and grow
We simplify each stage of the technology lifecycle—and focus on being the easiest partner to work with—to deliver a best-in-class total ownership experience
To guide our strategic decisions—including organic product development, joint partnerships, and acquisition opportunities—we developed an overarching design philosophy for all products, services, and solutions. This ensures that we stay true to our overall value proposition.
The Dell design philosophy is anchored on three design points that span the entire technology lifecycle, each that lead to better outcomes.
The velocity design point focuses on moving a product, service or solution from planning into production quickly, easily, and cost-effectively
The usability design point optimizes technology solutions for ease and efficiency to minimize cost and complexity—and boost productivity
The agility design point enables customers to easily make decisions on the best and greatest number of options available—the ultimate in flexibility
Let me provide some real-world examples of things we help our customers do in each of these areas:
Velocity design point
Simplify the buying process. Standardize it so procurement officers can order with no hassles.
Streamline deployments. Receive systems that are pre-integrated, pre-tested, and ready to go.
Deploy with automated tools. Eliminate manual processes that lead to errors and project delays.
Expedite consulting engagements. Use tools to speed up processes without dealing with an army of consultants.
Coordinate all projects through one sales rep who understand all that goes on in the account.
Engage with us directly, with your reseller, or with us both. Choose when it’s best either way.
Usability design point
Ease administration. Use simple yet sophisticated tools that work with software already in use.
Automate systems management. Reduce manual interaction and repetitive tasks.
Simplify and automate firmware updates. Eliminate frustration if and when critical systems are down.
Offload time-consuming system management tasks with services that free up time and people .
Prevent potential issues. Use support services that provide advance notice and remediation.
Boost productivity and collaboration. Choose devices with simplified tools that are easy to use.
Agility design point
Scale without constraints. Go from entry-level to advanced configurations without arbitrary limits.
Switch from systems that were hobbled to reach low price points to Dell systems offering robust functionality at any scale
Grow systems, as needed, in modular increments without having to over-provision at any time
Change configurations without being nickel-and-dimed by complex software licensing
Leverage existing technology investments without being forced to rip and replace
Enhance tools already in place with software that has all the right plug-ins and connectors
As a result, the guiding principles lead to better outcomes for you, our customer including
Rapid time to value
Superior ease of use
Unrivaled flexibility to adapt
FYI: Details on the three outcomes:
We streamline the front-end of the technology lifecycle, including making it more convenient to engage with Dell, whether direct, through a channel partner, or a combination of both. The helps customers move from planning to production quickly, easily, and cost-effectively. All this leads to more rapid time to value, which equates to faster time to production and faster return on investment.
We focus on usability which helps customers optimize for ease and efficiency—and cut out unnecessary cost and complexity. We do this by focusing on and delivering a better overall end-user experience, including how our products are used, managed, and supported—through the entire technology lifecycle. This results in products and services that deliver superior ease of use.
Today’s dynamic market has led organizations to demand greater agility to quickly respond to change. Customers want the ability to make decisions based on the best and greatest number of options available—and not feel locked in to only one path. This helps customers grow and thrive—without any of the limitations our competitors impose. And our promise is we deliver unrivaled flexibility to adapt.

5. Delivering a superior long-term value Our unique approach lowers total cost of ownership
Decreasing operating costs
New proprietary solutions
The Optimized Enterprise
Closed management stack
Limited interoperability
Lock-in penalty
Initial costs
Ongoing costs
Rapid time to value
Superior ease of use
Unrivaled flexibility to adapt
Initial costs
Ongoing costs
Increasing acquisition costs
Decreasing acquisition costs
Legacy systems
Commodity systems
Initial costs
Ongoing costs
Initial costs
Ongoing costs
Proprietary to one vendor
Complex and monolithic
High cost-per-transaction
Hardware with no value added
Technology transition issues
Limited vendor support
One of the most important parts of any sales conversation involves demonstrating how Dell's approach is different from the competition. Most competitors use one of four broad strategies to sell their products and services. Just to keep things simple you can break this down by costs: CapEx (the initial acquisition costs) and OpEx (the costs related to ongoing maintenance and support).
Legacy system vendors (e.g. IBM mainframes, IBM & HP UNIX platforms): In the lower left quadrant (below) there are the legacy system vendors who sell complex, monolithic, proprietary systems—such as mainframes and UNIX platforms—that are very expensive to acquire and maintain, and have a high cost-per-transaction. These budget-busting systems might be good at scaling up, but not out, or not down for smaller environments, such as remote offices. When customers choose legacy systems, they are signing up for sole-sourcing from one vendor, and locking in to the vendor’s roadmaps, technology transitions, and timelines—which limits flexibility down the road. Organizations might believe that moving off these expensive and inflexible systems is too costly and risky. Dell can show them this is not true—and the cost to switch will pay dividends in the future.
Additional insights:
Vendors have a vested interest in protecting their install base of proprietary “big iron” to reap in profits from high margin after point-of-sale software and services
People with specialized skillsets—which are increasingly difficult to find and costly to hire and retain—are required to run and maintain legacy systems
Technology lock in and years of sunk costs in legacy systems make migrations to more advanced platforms seem too cost prohibitive for many customers
Commodity system vendors (e.g. catalogue brands): In the lower right quadrant there are the commodity players—also known as white-box vendors—who sell inexpensive pieces or parts of hardware with little added value add beyond the components being pre-wired. Built for “do it yourselfers,” these systems are designed with little regard for how they integrate or operate in increasingly heterogeneous environments. Buyers are on the hook to find systems management tools and load up applications. Worse, there aren’t usually any formal roadmaps or technology transition schedules, so if buyers want more systems later, the internal components may be very different, which will likely cause firmware or compatibility issues. Often, there’s no vendor support, so initial costs for the hardware are low but ongoing maintenance costs are very high.
Commodity systems are sometimes considered for larger, cloud-based infrastructures or for high-performance computing applications where there are a high number of nodes
Use of commodity systems means that IT organizations must staff resources to manage technology transitions, integration, interoperability, and support
In many regions of the world, buying from local white-box vendors is the preferred path, especially when “lowest price” is the leading purchase criteria
New proprietary solution providers (e.g. converged infrastructure solutions from HP, IBM, and Cisco): In the upper left quadrant are the solution providers who take a more modular and bundled approach to their hardware platforms, but a completely monolithic and closed approach to their software stack. While expensive to acquire, these proprietary solutions gain traction because a pre-bundled package seems at the onset to be an easy way to deploy large blocks of infrastructure. And because everything is self-contained, ongoing maintenance costs are generally lower. However, customers are buying a completely proprietary platform that may not be compatible with anything else in the IT ecosystem. This siloed approach creates more complexity because of increased heterogeneity and fragmentation in the overall IT ecosystem, as well as complicating backup/recovery, security, and compliance policies.
These providers often boast about modularity and the use of standardized components, then use devious lock-in and block-out tactics, which can limit flexibility down the road
Administrative tools that manage all elements of the bundled solution may be easy to use, but in the grand scheme, overall IT management becomes more complicated
These short-term fixes can create long-term problems due to the vendor’s unwillingness to support 3rd-party technology, often forcing a rip and replace
Dell Optimized Enterprise: The upper right quadrant is where CapEx and OpEx are optimized. This is where Dell fits in. Our modular, scalable systems create more uniformity in the IT environment leading to superior ease of use and operational efficiency, as well as greater agility when adapting to change. We help customers build out a high-performance, hyper-scale environment that is as reliable and resilient as more expensive legacy systems—but with far more flexibility. Our open approach enables Dell solutions to seamless integrate with existing infrastructure and enables the use of management tools already in place. As a result, customers can preserve their investments without a forced rip and replace. And of course, we pre-configure, pre-test, and pre-validate our solutions straight from the factory, so customers get speedier deployment. All this leads to better outcomes: rapid time to value, superior ease of use, and unrivaled flexibility to adapt.
The Dell Optimized Enterprise is a unique and better approach that gives customers all the advantages of other approaches but with none of the drawbacks
Dell minimizes CapEx through commoditization and standardization which drives volume and velocity—all necessary components in reducing costs
Dell reduces OpEx through better management strategies, more open interoperability, and greater flexibility to grow, evolve, or scale—on the customer’s terms
Increasing operating costs

6. Practical innovation Powering our R&D strategy in three ways
Build
Partner
Acquire
Best-of-breed platforms
Organic innovation
Integration across all elements
Joint product and solution engineering and testing
Common strategic roadmaps
$18 billion and acquisitions
Full adherence to the Dell design philosophy
PRACTICAL INNOVATION: We are efficient in everything we do, including how we innovate. We have direct visibility with our customers and their real-world challenges so we focus our research and development where it matters the most. Where possible, we leverage best-of-breed partner innovations, and then build on them to create ingenious and intuitive solutions that make great technologies more accessible to more people.
DELL POWERS OUR R&D STRATEGY THREE WAYS:
This three-part strategy speeds Dell’s ability to deliver what customers demand more rapidly than other companies.
We’re continuing to build solutions organically, and as we acquire new technology we integrate all the elements to ensure that everything from Dell can be run and managed with optimum efficiency
Dell continues to leverage its long-standing relationships and agreements with the largest and most marketplace-tested and vetted solutions. Through these relationships, we enter into joint engineering and delivery engagements to provide the highest value and functionality, ease of management, and the best value with deep integration.
And Dell’s strategy has also been enhanced by some important acquisitions. Put a different way, these acquisitions improve our ability to help our customers deliver transformative agility, efficiency, and scalability. These points are important to state about Dell's acquisitions
Acquisitions help complete Dell's journey to become a better, more responsive end-to-end solutions provider to our customers.
Having this technology in-house allows us to integrate more deeply across all IT solutions, to embed best-of-breed technologies into existing and new solutions, and to ensure that solutions continue to be easy to buy, deploy, run and integrate.
Dell has a unique strategy to integrate acquisitions into the Dell family. It comes down to three tenets:
Do no harm: These companies were acquired because they were best of breed. We want to make them successful, not ruin them
Don’t blow them up: These companies are leaders in their markets, and the people who lead them had a unique vision. We don’t ever want to get in the way of this
Make them successful: Many companies are limited by investment capital, access to global markets, and the patience that only a larger company can provide. Dell works to power these innovations and make them globally available and supported

7. Our strategy in action Innovating in six key areas to create more value across the enterprise
Flexible transition services
Intelligent converged infrastructure
Seamless cloud enablement
Business-class connected devices
Data- driven insights
End-to-end connected security
Modernize apps/platforms faster and with less risk
Unify management of data center components
Extend the delivery and management of IT services
Empower the workforce and drive performance
Discover the information hidden in your data
Safeguard seamlessly from wide-ranging threats
Transform your IT efficiency
Connect your workforce
Inform your decisions
Protect your organization
We have a very clear vision of how to transform IT so that our customers can become the agile and efficient engine of growth for their organization.
A few lucky organizations get to start from scratch, so they can leverage the latest and greatest technologies on high-performing and standardized platforms. But most have to transition incrementally to a better state.
Most organizations must incrementally evolve because of today’s fast rate of change. Dell has a clear vision to help customers transition from legacy systems and outdated applications to a more to a more modern, agile, and efficient IT infrastructure. This unique transformation journey addresses six core areas of IT.
Transformational services: To help organizations make the transition from old, outdated and under-performing platforms to newer, more agile and scalable systems. This often requires information sharing, best practices, and services to assess, plan, design and/or implement the movement and modernization. Dell Transformation Services help make the transformation process simpler, faster, and with less disruption, and Dell's application migration, modernization and connectivity tools lower the time and risks associated with these moves.
Intelligent converged infrastructure and private cloud: To transition to a more efficient and agile, software-defined architecture and to increase data center agility and efficiency through modernization, virtualization, convergence and cloud. This starts with Dell's end-to-end integration of intuitive, flexible and comprehensive management tools that automate, streamline, add flexibility and increase scalability. It also includes different options to get infrastructure, such as pre-validated and pre-integrated solutions and templates, deep partner integration (VMware, Microsoft and others), modular and scalable systems, and by addressing the whole management picture.
Seamless cloud delivery and management: To make cloud a natural extension of the data center to deliver SaaS, PaaS and IaaS. Dell's offerings include unified application and cloud management for single or multi-cloud environments irrespective of which cloud vendor is chosen.
Business-class connected devices: Secure, connected and managed heterogeneous end points that empower a more mobile workforce for anytime, anywhere and any device access, as well as empowering IT to manage them. Dell delivers the most manageable business-class devices, that are centrally controlled and managed, comprehensive endpoint security solutions, better responsiveness, battery life and customer support, the leading cloud client computing solutions, software and services to develop and modernize mobility apps, and a wide array of award-winning end points
Turning data into insights: To enable data-driven decision making and intelligence, which is the goal of IT. Dell's solutions help customers virtualize and optimize storage, breaking through the data integration barriers, converge and collapse silos of storage, automate data management, and by make it simple to move data from old platforms to new ones.
Connected security: from the device to the cloud: Addressing persistent security threats via tools for security and compliance, smarter and efficient defenses and threat intelligence, identity and access management, unified threat management and encryption.

8. $18 billion in investments Disciplined M&A strategy aligned with our design philosophy
Flexible transition services
Intelligent converged infrastructure
Seamless cloud enablement
Business-class connected devices
Data- driven insights
End-to-end connected security
Transform your IT efficiency
Connect your workforce
Inform your decisions
Protect your organization
DELL’S STRATEGY HAS BEEN ENHANCED BY SOME IMPORTANT ACQUISITIONS: We’ve spend $18 Billion dollars to acquire 20 companies to
Put a different way, these acquisitions improve our ability to help our customers deliver transformative agility, efficiency, and scalability.
Acquisitions are only a part of a larger Dell strategy: They are not Dell's only strategy. We continue to develop solutions internally as well.
Acquisitions help complete Dell's journey to become a better, more responsive end-to-end solutions provider to our customers.
Having this technology in-house allows us to integrate more deeply across all IT solutions, to embed best-of-breed technologies into existing and new solutions, and to ensure that solutions continue to be easy to buy, deploy, run and use.
Acquisitions are building greater Dell competency in several key areas:
TRANSFORMING THE EFFICIENCY OF IT
Modernize the foundation (PowerEdge)
Converge management of virtual, cloud, workloads & apps together (Quest, Gale, Enstratius)
Virtualize memory for performance (RNA)
Maximize network performance (High-performance Ethernet switching Force10)
Modernize apps and rehost them (Quest, Make, Clerity)
INFORMING THE ORGANIZATION BY TURNING DATA INTO INSIGHTS
Converge storage (Exanet, EqualLogic, Compellent)
Automate storage management (Ocarina & AppAssure)
Simplify data integration (Boomi)
Manage and protect physical and virtual apps and data (Quest, AppAssure, Credant)
Improve DR, backup and recovery (Quest, SonicWALL, EqualLogic)
CONNECTING PEOPLE FOR MORE PRODUCTIVITY
Simplify management of remote clients (KACE)
Embrace cloud client computing (WYSE)
Protect mobile data in transit (Credant)
PROTECTING EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE
Unify threat management (SonicWall)
Proactively and remotely manage & monitor network security (SecureWorks)
Automate identity and access management (Quest & KACE)
Improve endpoint security and data protection (Quest & SonicWALL)
Secure and web (SonicWall)

9. One place for end-to-end solutions Addressing technology trends that impact the full IT spectrum
Comprehensive portfolio built with the industry’s most innovative IP
Optimized enterprise
Business-class connected solutions
Flexible, next-gen services
Value-added software
Servers
Storage
Networking
Applications/workloads
Data center solutions
Tablets
Laptops
Desktops
Workstations
Printers
Proactive support, BPO, Consulting, deployment
App/cloud/managed
Security
Financing
Data center/cloud
Data protection
Information mgmt
Mobile workforce mgmt
Security
Engineered to work better together—and work with what you already have
ONE PLACE FOR END-TO-END SOLUTIONS: Dell has a complete portfolio of technology solutions, including hardware, software, and services that address every aspect of enterprise computing from the desktop to the data center—all built on a foundation of our own intellectual property. Our customers can acquire everything from one source with a single point of accountability, which makes everything easier to buy and support.
All of our products and solutions are engineered to work together seamlessly because everything stems from our unique design philosophy. Better yet, we go the extra mile to ensure interoperability with 3rd-party technologies, which means our customers can preserve their investments rather than rip out and replace their current infrastructure—and they have the flexibility to choose their own path forward.
We feel that each of these four areas are very strategic to our business. Despite the rumors our competitors were spreading as we were in the process of going private, we believe that business-class connected solutions are very strategic to our business (we do not plan to jettison our client portfolio as IBM did). Our enterprise business is strong and growing, along with our services business which in addition to support services has been broadened in recent years to support consulting and managed services, and much more. Also, what you may not know is that we have created a strategic business unit with its own P&L centered around value-added software that works in any type of IT environment regardless of who designed the underlying infrastructure.
COMPETITORS HAVE NARROW PORTFOLIOS OR HIDDEN AGENDAS: Our competitors, on the other hand, have narrow portfolios or hidden agendas to gain greater control of their customers’ data center by leveraging strengths in one area (e.g. HP through software, IBM through services, Cisco through networking, EMC through storage, etc.) or by attempting to make one administrator more superior than the others. Their goal is to create a closed ecosystem that locks customers in and blocks competitors out. But from the customer’s standpoint, these tactics create a more siloed IT environment that is more difficult to manage, as well as limit flexibility down the road.
WHAT DOES END-TO-END MEAN?
Unlike some other vendors, our solutions are built and supported on a foundation of our own innovative IP.
This is important, because it simplifies things for you—not only can your entire solution come from a single vendor, with a single point of contact for support, but your technology is validated to work together, as it stems from the same base of IP.
ANY COMPANY CAN CLAIM THEY ARE AN END-TO-END PROVIDER BUT FEW ACTUALLY CAN DELIVER ON THAT PROMISE
NO OTHER TECHNOLOGY MANUFACTURER CAN OFFER FULL END-TO-END HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, SERVICE, AND SUPPORT
Others may offer technology across the board, but require channel partners to provide the full solution.
Better yet, we design our solutions to work with what you already have—no other company goes as far as we do to ensure our end-to-end solutions work with your existing investments and the tools you like to use. None of these technology vendors go as far as Dell to support competing technologies and ensure you can preserve your investments while giving you the ultimate flexibility down the road. Unlike our competitors, we aren’t afraid of a little competition, especially because our products, services, and solutions often rank better in terms of competitive features that matter most.

10. Leadership that benefits every customer Making powerful technology more accessible and affordable
Servers
Storage
Data center
Search #1
server provider in North America, Latin America, China #1
provider of iSCSI storage solutions #1
provider of virtualized data center infrastructure
4 of 5
top search engines worldwide powered by Dell
Support
Cloud
Software
Social #1
in enterprise services support #1
provider of cloud infrastructure—over 1M servers shipped
90%
of Fortune 1000 companies use Dell software
3 of 4
top social media websites are powered by Dell
We are a listening company.
Part of our innovation story includes ongoing, direct conversations with customers on a daily basis, through sales calls and active social media outreach programs. We continuously receive feedback on the needs of our customers. This information is relayed to our product teams and becomes part of our research for new product innovation. The reward is that customers get a lot more value from Dell’s investment dollars because innovation is relevant and practical.
In contrast, our competitors proudly boast their R&D spending as a percentage of sales is much higher than ours. It’s true. Our competitors have a “not invented here” bias against using 3rd-party technology, so they spend time and money inventing proprietary solutions versus sourcing best-of-breed technologies readily available in the marketplace. Often, their investments are in far-out, visionary things that are irrelevant and impractical today. Worse, much of their R&D is spent on devising schemes to lock in their customers and block out competitors. The downside for customers, among other things, is higher cost and reduced flexibility.
SIMPLIFYING YOUR PATH TO THE FUTURE:
Many companies can claim to be #1 at something, but what does that actually mean?
You get the best performance: A product or solution becomes #1 because it provides the best functionality/performance at the right price and meets the needs for the largest number of customers. This is why customers choose Dell.
You get the broadest knowledge: The largest selling products and solutions are based on the experience of the largest number of users. Dell extends this knowledge and shares it, based on joint engineering with the largest partners like Microsoft, VMware and Intel. And Dell engages with customers at every juncture – strategy, design, testing and updating – to ensure that customer needs are met.
You experience fewer problems or glitches: The most popular products and solutions are marketplace-tested. Issues are identified and addressed much earlier, so you get the predictability and stability you require.
You get more for your money: Large volume purchasing drives costs down and functionality/performance up.
NOW IS THE TIME TO PARTNER WITH DELL because we’re a leader in our markets and our strategy is delivering results in a major way
SOCIAL NETWORKING: As the infrastructure provider for some of the largest social networking and search providers, Dell enables 1B people every day to play, work and communicate through the cloud.
VIRTUALIZATION: Dell has an aggressive virtualization strategy and we believe that customers can achieve significant performance and efficiency gains through virtualization. At Dell, we’ve avoided $100M in costs through virtualization. 50% of our servers are virtualized already, and we’ve eliminated nearly 6K with the goal of 10K by the end of the year.
SUSTAINABILITY: For us, efficiency spans across everything we do and being environmentally efficient is core to our DNA. We’ve been ranked by analyst firm, TBR (Technology Business Research), as #1 vendor on their sustainability index.
END-TO-END: Based on extensive engineering in end-to-end solution design and certification, our pre-built solutions can help you build a dynamic and efficient virtualized infrastructure from the server and hypervisor to the network, storage systems and management toolsets—quickly and efficiently.
SEARCH ENGINES: 4 of the top 5 global search engines use Dell
SERVICES: We now have more than 40K professionals globally that can provide a range of services and solutions to help you be more efficient. Our solutions are scalable so you can choose only the services needed.
SAAS: Today we manage more than 10,000 IT SaaS customers
AN EXAMPLE OF HOW YOU CAN USE THIS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE: The reason large firms are moving away from big iron is because they see their future looking a lot more like the hyper-scale infrastructures used by Web 2.0-style companies like Google. Google processes billions of searches each day on more than a million servers and if one server fails it doesn’t affect uptime—and they just recycle the failed server and put it back into production. There’s a certain kind of appeal to this flexibility. Plus, the economics weigh in favor of horizontal scaling, if the application is made to scale that way.
DELL CAN HELP YOU TAKE THIS SAME PATH USING MUCH OF THE TECHNOLOGY YOU ALREADY HAVE.

11. Let’s continue the conversation What are your priorities
Let’s continue the conversation What are your priorities? What are your views?
Make IT more agile and responsive to change
Make the workforce more productive
Make more data- driven decisions
Make the organization
more secure
Is the risk and cost of modernizing apps/platforms worth the reward?
Can collapsing silos and converging infrastructure lead to increased IT innovation?
Should IT become an objective cloud broker for your entire organization?
Can mobility become an engine for improving your business performance?
Do you see enhanced data analytics as a path to progress or economic growth?
Do you feel your overall security strategy enables or impedes the success or your organization?
Transform your IT efficiency
Connect your workforce
Inform your decisions
Protect your organization
TBD

12. Recognized for our technology solutions Dell currently ranks as a leader in nine Gartner Magic Quadrants
Social
3 of 4
top social media websites are powered by Dell
North America
Global
Global - Dell SecureWorks
Global - Dell PowerEdge
Global - Dell Boomi AtomSphere
Data center outsourcing and infrastructure utility services
Unified threat management
Managed security service providers
Blade servers
General purpose disk arrays
End-user outsourcing services
IT asset disposition
Enterprise desktops & notebooks
Enterprise integration Platform-as-a-Service
SPEAKERS NOTES TBDS

13. Make IT more agile and more responsive to change
How can you build a cloud strategy that puts your business needs before those of the vendor?
Simplify the acquisition, integration, and management of your cloud
Control and secure your cloud-based IT, applications and services
Innovate faster and embrace greater organizational agility with the use of cloud

14. Connect your workforce for better productivity and performance
Can a more effective mobility strategy become an engine for improving your overall business performance?
Empower the workforce to be more productive, more satisfied, and better able to serve customers
Drive business performance by unleashing employee potential so the business runs better
Enable IT control and innovation with simplified management and security

15. Inform your decisions Make your organization more data-driven
Do you feel that better analysis of your data can put your organization on a path to greater progress or economic growth?
Uncover and act on insights and opportunities hidden in data
Optimize the storage and management of information
Connect teams across the organization with the right analytics tools

16. Protect your organization Mitigate risk, achieve compliance and enable productivity
Do you feel your security strategy enables the success of your organization?
Protect
your whole organization, not just parts of it
Comply with regulations and achieve consistent, reliable governance
Enable users to be productive anytime, anywhere — driving growth