Dell Cloud – Disrupting with Simplicity

It’s been an exciting couple weeks for Dell. Not only did we unveil our first public and hybrid cloud offering with Dell Cloud for VMware vCloud Datacenter Services, but last Tuesday, in conjunction with Dreamforce ‘11, we launched Dell Cloud Business Applications (DCBA) – a family of integrated SaaS applications with cross-application cloud analytics for SMBs supported by end-to-end Dell services. Paulette Altmaier, Dell’s VP of Global SMB Solutions, summarizes our solution well – “we’re disrupting with simplicity versus making money out of complexity.”

We shared the news at a media roundtable, gathering a diverse set of reporters, analysts and customers. Ray Wang, CEO and principal analyst of Constellation Research Groups, said it well “they [SMBs] require the same functionality and staffing as large businesses yet they’re still living on Y2K software and thus looking to the cloud as the upgrade.” Dell is here to help.

Following the roundtable, the team met with Maria Martinez from salesforce.com. In her unique role as Executive Vice President for Customers for Life, she is responsible for ensuring long, successful business relationships with saleforce.com customers. As Marc Benioff passionately stated in his Dreamforce keynote, “it’s more important to listen now than ever before.” I couldn’t agree more. After all, at the end of the day our customers not only look to us for solutions but advice. We’re not only their vendor, we’re their technology partner – watching, listening and responding with solutions that make business sense. I love Maria’s focus and her title says it all — we should all have “customers for life” in our titles and our actions!

At Dreamforce, everyone was a buzz about the benefits of SaaS integration but nothing beats firsthand experience and sharing the stories of innovative “social enterprises.” For the past six years, Paul Leary, president of Blackbird Vineyards, has made SaaS an integral part of his business. He explained the key benefits his company has experienced through SaaS and integration in an industry that is fragmented and heavily regulated.

Participate in the Dell SMB SaaS conversation at #dellcloudbizapps and be sure to mark your calendar for our Tweet Chat at 10 a.m. PT this Thursday, September 8 with Rhonda Abrams.

What did you enjoy most at Dreamforce ‘11? How are you making cloud computing work for your business?

About the Author: Steve Felice