Cloud computing is a popular topic in technology publications and everyone seems to have an opinion on the best solutions for moving businesses to the Cloud. I recently represented Dell at a hearing before a Committee of the Texas House of Representatives which was looking into cloud computing and how the state can save money and resources by using this emerging technology.
One important takeaway for states and CIOs is how the Cloud can enable businesses to solve problems through innovation, scalability, flexibility, faster outcomes, anywhere-anytime data access, reliability, and cost improvements. This same approach can help solve real issues that the state is facing as well. In business or government, cloud is not a destination or singular path, but rather a transformation that places IT squarely at the center of the enterprise as both a leader and enabler of value-creation.
Several Dell Cloud solutions demonstrate how we help customers achieve a competitive advantage through innovative and practical solutions that deliver faster results, including:
- Small businesses using cloud to reduce capital costs and infrastructure needs and enable faster time to revenue through easy and flexible access to applications, compute and storage.
- Dell’s Powering the Possible pediatric cancer high-performance cloud computing research that shortens diagnosis and treatment options from months to days.
- Less-than-24-hour disaster recovery for a university’s operating system.
- Consolidating and providing disaster recovery for university’s data centers.
- Veterans Administration use of a hybrid private/hosted cloud to provide infrastructure and software services.
In addition to the proven success that Dell customers have experienced by utilizing the Cloud, a terrific industry example for U.S. States to reflect upon is the State of Colorado’s use of college students to develop apps for its state’s big data. By involving the state’s universities, Colorado was able to develop new applications that leverage the same data it had stored, while allowing students to experience real world situations when working with a very large data base to solve individual and agency needs.
State and local governments are a large market segment for Dell Services and our partnership with the State of Texas is key. We believe that the Cloud will help to better serve constituents, bring new services to the state and its residents, and be more cost efficient. It is important that the state work with a partner that not only provides cloud solutions but also helps it through the journey. Dell is excited to be a trusted advisor as Texas leverages the power of the cloud.