Dell announced three new managed service offerings that address the challenge of keeping developers productive rather than staying idle while waiting for resource availability. Business growth and success is dependent upon how fast application developers can generate new digital services and products and now Dell has a solution.
Dell announced three new managed service offerings that address the challenge of keeping developers productive rather than staying idle while waiting for resource availability. Business growth and success is dependent upon how fast application developers can generate new digital services and products and now Dell has a solution.
Dell estimates that developers spend only a fraction of their time coding and building AI/ML models and the rest of the time waiting for IT resources, approvals, or managing the underlying infrastructure. A recent IDC report estimated 310 million new applications were built during 2022, and an estimated 750 million new applications are expected in 2025. Those new applications will ideally keep businesses moving forward.
Alternative to Public Cloud
In most instances, AI/ML model builders and application developers jump on the easy-to-consume public cloud services without considering the potential cost and integration challenges with existing systems and data. Add to that the rise of large language models like ChatGPT and Google BARD require increased compute power and large data sets for AI/ML training.
Rising cloud expenses, as well as privacy concerns, have businesses considering building their own AI/ML operations and management without a staffing plan or the cloud skills needed to drive solutions at the required speed necessary for success. It’s not easy, we’ve recently written about getting started with LLaMa and our favorite new AI rig.
We had an opportunity to speak with Satish Iyer, Vice President of Emerging Services at Dell, and engage in a detailed discussion about the new Managed Services. It’s evident from the interview that Dell is enthusiastic about providing a vital component of the AI and ML development process for enterprises that may not have adopted public cloud solutions yet.
Satish expressed his passion for how the comprehensive end-to-end management of these services will enable developers to dedicate more time to coding while reducing time spent waiting for the necessary tools to perform their tasks.
To assist organizations with these challenges and rapidly scale their digital business, Dell Technologies is rolling out three new managed services:
- Dell Managed Developer Cloud: Self-service virtual machines and containers in an API-based cloud environment with built-in infrastructure-as-code infrastructure management designed to accelerate innovation by letting developers spend more time coding instead of managing infrastructure.
- Dell Managed Services for ML Ops: A fit-for-purpose platform for ML model development with integrated lifecycle management based on Dell-validated designs to get models to production faster by reducing the complexity of deploying and maintaining AI/ML systems.
- Colocation with Dell Technologies Services: Streamline cloud integration and simplify deployment, making operations more efficient. Dell’s new partnerships with colocation service providers offer more choice and flexibility.
Dell Managed Services can manage as much of the technology stack as needed optimizing management of the data center infrastructure. All services are delivered with service-level guarantees, fixed scope, and fixed pricing. Custom-managed solutions include hosting options for colocation and Dell-managed colocation options for select Dell APEX solutions.
These solutions let IT teams focus on productivity and innovation while Dell manages the rest. Dell’s growing portfolio of managed services leverages modern, easy-to-consume, and increasingly automated solutions that drive business value from technology investments.
Pricing Model
Dell has implemented a flexible, modular pricing model. For Managed Developer Cloud, pricing is based on the number of containers and virtual machines managed. Managed Services for ML Ops pricing is based on the number of compute nodes and storage.
Pricing for ML Ops Managed Services is based on the following:
- Number of nodes organized in ranges (Node Bands)
- Node Bands include the number of compute nodes + storage
- Node Bands range from less than 50 to over 1000
- Moving to a higher Node Band decreases node pricing
- Customers can start with a small number of Node Bands and increase over time
Final Thoughts
We’re talking to many end users and aggregating our own thoughts as we deploy advanced AI models in our lab. Sometimes Ai is fun and productive, other times aggravating and most of the time an iterative exercise in surrender. That’s not to diminish the power of AI, but despite the headlines on CNBC, making a business impact with AI is demonstrably harder than they make it sound. While we don’t have hands-on experience with this latest Dell offering; if they’ve found a way to peel the AI onion faster and easier so customers have fewer tears and more insights, then fantastic. We welcome a more refined path to enterprise AI and look forward to seeing how this latest aaS program comes together.
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