Dell Technologies announces advancements to its Dell NativeEdge edge operations software platform to simplify how organizations can deploy, scale and use AI at the edge.

Why it matters:

According to Gartner?, "by 2025, more than 50% of enterprise-managed data will be created and processed outside the data center or cloud."¹As organizations increasingly move data toward the edge and AI accelerates new edge workloads, the demand is rising for agile, connected and secure systems to deploy and manage AI models across multiple edge locations.

Today's Dell NativeEdge advancements, part of our Dell AI Factory capabilities, address these needs and offer organizations AI software integrations and high-availability (HA) capabilities to provide more resiliency and reliability in the deployment and management of AI at the edge.

Boost Edge and AI Workload Efficiency with NativeEdge

Dell NativeEdge is the industry's only edge operations software platform delivering secure device onboarding at scale, remote management and multicloud application orchestration². NativeEdge software now enablesmultinode high-availability (HA) clusteringfor NativeEdge Endpoints, such as Dell PowerEdge servers, OptiPlex and Precision workstations and Dell Gateways.

The endpoints can be clustered, or grouped together by NativeEdge software to act like a single system, so organizations can:

• Provide high-availability capabilities to maintain critical business processes and edge AI workloads, despite network disruptions or device failures. Virtual machine (VM) migration and automatic application, compute and storage failover provide organizations increased reliability and continuous operations.
• Easily adapt to changing workload demands across diverse environments, from retail stores to utility companies.
• Integrate NativeEdge Endpoints with external storage solutions, such as Dell PowerStore and Dell PowerVault, to support the training and deployment of AI models with the versatility of single, two-tier or three-tier solutions at the edge.

NativeEdge AI Software Integrations Simplify Edge AI Deployments

Organizations implementing AI inferencing at the edge may find it tedious and time consuming to deploy AI applications and solutions across hundreds, if not thousands, of edge locations. Dell offers a comprehensive catalog of more than 55 pre-built Dell NativeEdge Blueprints that automate the deployment of an organization's choice of AI applications and frameworks for faster time to value. The NativeEdge Blueprints provide customers an easy button to assemble and deploy new use cases and AI inferencing capabilities at the edge, while reducing manual set up time and errors. 

Dell is expanding the catalog to include:

• Open-source tools, such asApache Spark?, Apache Airflow?, MLflow, and Grafana, to support continuous MLOps workflows tailored for edge use cases, for quick and efficient deployment of AI-enhanced solutions.
• Aveva Unified Operations Center, to facilitate city infrastructure modernization in integrated operations, building systems, master planning, intelligent urban mobility and critical connectivity.
• EPIC iO, which uses real-time analytics for retail operations to enhance the in-store shopper experience.
• Dell Data Collector, to collect and transfer data from sensors and IoT devices to various locations in near real-time with. Organizations can use Dell Data Lakehouse to query the data for real-time insights and AI workloads.
• The Intel? Geti?software solution, to accelerate the development of computer vision AI models at the edge.
• Updates to theNVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, which includes NVIDIA NIM microservices, enable developers to more efficiently and securely deploy AI inferencing capabilities at the edge, while reducing manual setup time and minimizing errors.

Dell Services for NativeEdge Blueprints help organizations design and develop custom NativeEdge Blueprints for Dell validated and customer-owned applications, providing seamless deployment using Dell NativeEdge software.

Perspectives

"AI is accelerating new edge workloads and opportunities at an unprecedented rate, and organizations across industries are asking for simpler and more reliable ways to use AI at the edge," said Gil Shneorson, senior vice president, solutions and platforms, Dell Technologies. "Our NativeEdge expansion automates the deployment and management of edge AI workloads, with features to support business continuity, so organizations can continually use the latest AI advancements at the edge to drive revenues and positive customer outcomes."

"With over 1,000 IoT-enabled facilities, Dell NativeEdge helps us monitor real-time infrastructure elements, ensuring optimal conditions for our produce, and receive comprehensive insights into our produce packaging operations," said Keith Bradley, vice president of Information Technology, Nature Fresh Farms. "Dell NativeEdge has enhanced our operational efficiencies and reduced costs, while supporting our continued growth and innovation in yield optimization and environmental monitoring."

Availability

• The Dell NativeEdge advancements will be available by January 2025.
• Dell NativeEdge customers can purchase and activate NVIDIA AI Enterprise licenses for NVIDIA GPUs directly from Dell to simplify NativeEdge deployment and support.
• For more information, please visitDell.com/NativeEdge.

1 Gartner, Hyperscalers Stretching to the Digital Edge, Tom Bittman, July 24, 2023. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

2 Dell Technologies internal analysis, May 2024.

"Apache" is a registered trademark or trademark of the Apache Software Foundation in the United States and/or other countries.