In the rapidly evolving technology landscape, organizations increasingly harness the edge for real-time analytics, from IoT devices and compute-enabled entities – think industrial security and safety sensors, activity trackers, motion detectors and computer vision applications. The edge emerges in diverse settings wherever data creation originates, from farm fields to factory floors and retail stores. This data yields valuable insights, driving significant outcomes like operational enhancement, enriched customer experiences and heightened safety precautions.

The very notion of the “edge” has evolved over the past decade. With smaller and more affordable compute, the surge in video and streaming data and the maturation of AI and ML, the edge is becoming an imperative for organizations who seek to build a competitive advantage and an ecosystem that orchestrates real-time data streams on a global scale to surmount challenges and seize unprecedented opportunities.

Yet, with progress comes challenges. The bespoke nature of solutions at the edge has become an issue as the number of point solutions has grown dramatically, often encompassing hundreds of diverse endpoints across a distributed geographic footprint. Simultaneously, the sheer volume of data generated has surged exponentially, overwhelming traditional approaches to management and creating silos of point solutions throughout.

In fact, analysts anticipate data volumes for edge-critical workloads will grow by 80% annually through 2027. The truth is that yesterday’s manual, labor-intensive edge processes are no longer capable of supporting today’s fast-growing, data-intensive applications.

The good news is change has arrived.

Introducing Dell NativeEdge: A Paradigm Shift for Modern Edge

Today, Dell announces the global availability of Dell NativeEdge, an edge operations software platform designed specifically to eliminate the challenges of deploying, managing and securing dynamic edge environments.

Dell NativeEdge simplifies and automates the way you manage edge infrastructure and applications –securely, efficiently and at scale – from a single digital interface. By creating a unified view that encompasses the entire edge estate, the Dell NativeEdge platform helps you to:

• • Reduce operational complexity at scale via centralized management, zero touch deployment, onboarding and automated operations of infrastructure and applications from edge to multicloud.
  • Maximize edge investments using an open design that works with software applications, IoT frameworks, multi-vendor operations technology solutions and multicloud environments, reducing proof-of-concept development time and delivering a consistent experience across multiple hardware form factors and price points.
  • Enhance security from design to deployment and all along the supply chain to protect applications, data and infrastructure across the edge estate using Zero Trust security principles.

Through the automation of routine and repetitive tasks like onboarding devices, orchestrating application workloads and managing them at scale, recent analysis suggests the NativeEdge platform can speed application lifecycle management at the edge 22 times faster¹ than current processes. This means a large-scale edge implementation that may take 100 or more hours to deploy could be completed in under five hours with Dell NativeEdge.

A Sample Use Case: Enhancing Cold Chain Distribution

To illustrate Dell NativeEdge at work, we modeled the deployment of a cold-chain solution across a large grocery chain. A typical cold-chain solution involves a series of refrigeration processes that preserve perishable food items throughout the distribution journey.

In this model, the grocery chain needs a simple, consistent edge deployment process across 1100 store locations, 275 delivery vehicles and 55 warehouses. The solution must support flexible scalability as requirements grow, ensure reliable security to prevent data breach and provide centralized monitoring from any location.

By using Dell NativeEdge to deploy and manage a total of 1430 cold chain devices, the grocery chain in our model saw significant benefits², including:

• • Return on investment/cost savings. Up to 110% ROI on a $1.6 million investment over three years, and up to a $2 million reduction in lifecycle management and application orchestration costs realized through automation with Dell NativeEdge zero-touch provisioning.
  • Accelerated Up to five hours saved per edge asset, thanks to secure device onboarding and zero-touch provisioning.
  • Reduced carbon footprint. Up to 3,600 metric-ton reduction in CO₂ emissions due to more optimized distribution operations and a reduced need for truck rolls.

These model calculations demonstrate the potential cost savings, return on investment and other benefits organizations, regardless of industry, can realize when they make the move to a centralized edge operations platform for end-to-end edge management.

Real Results: Early Adopters Share Their Stories

Several real-world industry leaders have already begun using Dell NativeEdge to make their most ambitious edge goals possible. Here are a few of their stories.

• • Atos: This global leader in cybersecurity, cloud and high-performance computing solutions achieves repeatable, zero-touch edge deployment experience that ensures customer value and simplifies operations at scale
  • Bosch: Global provider of mobility, industrial technology, consumer goods, and energy and building technologies gains a new, unified approach for edge application orchestration across disparate solutions
  • Eaton: This global power management leader achieving simplified scalability across multiple edge applications in multiple edge use cases

Discover What’s Possible

Discover how Dell NativeEdge can transform edge application orchestration and infrastructure management so you can run your edge estate securely and at scale. We’ve expanded our partner and OEM customer ecosystem to help get you started on the NativeEdge journey today. You can find more information and resources here.

¹ Based on internal analyses and survey of 100 US-based IT Decision Makers by GLG Research on behalf of Dell Technologies, May 2023.

² Dell internal analysis, May 2023. Based on internal modeling, customer interviews, and third-party environmental specialist consultant review for methodology verification. Actual results will vary.