‘The GPU compute layer is where we’re seeing a lot of the action. But we know that the compute requires data, so we’re going to see more storage. We’re still in the early days of the edge of AI at the PC, so it’s hard for me not to get really excited about the opportunity for our partners,’ Dell Technologies Vice President of Global Partner Marketing Eric Arcese tells CRN.
Dell Technologies Vice President of Global Partner Marketing Eric Arcese said when partners look at the company, they see that it is “meeting the moment” at every step with AI, from the PC refresh to demand in the data center.
“I think the message is we’re meeting the moment,” he said. “We’re meeting it with this refresh wave, the tsunami that’s coming … We want to make sure that Dell is simple to engage with, predictable in how to work with us, and ultimately profitable. We want to make sure that our partners can build a profitable business on our portfolio.”
Arcese is new to the role of partner marketing, taking over from former head of partner marketing Cheryl Cook, who retired last year. In a recent interview with CRN, Arcese said across generative AI’s expansive digital estate — which stretches from assessing the customer’s data to the services needed to clean it and prepare it for AI, to the hardware that is training and inferencing it — partners have a role to play in delivering AI’s value.
“If I’m a partner, looking at this, where I’m really charged up is the seams,” Arcese told CRN. “There are gaps there. And I feel like where our partners can play and build managed services around, and consultancy practices is around stitching those seams together.”
During recent earnings calls, Dell has talked up its turnkey solution called Dell AI Factory, which can deliver rack-scale large model training compute hardware to enterprises that arrive in a customers’ colocation or data center, ready to work.
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“It’s been really cool,” he said. “It’s so cool to go around the world and see everyone as excited as we are around how Dell not only has the portfolio, but has the partner program to support our indirect ecosystem globally.”
Dell’s Partner First for Storage program uses Dell’s core storage sales force to move deals through the company’s network of channel partners, giving its own sellers better compensation when the deal closes through the channel.
In May, the company announced it would introduce partner of record for its client devices opening up those accounts to partners who have captured PC business. He said between the hardware, the software, and the data services, is where partners will find opportunity.
“What I think is the most compelling part of the story from a partner perspective is we can’t do it all ourselves,” he said. “We will provide the infrastructure, the building blocks, for our partners to deliver the services around.”
The year ahead has several tailwinds coming from the PC refresh to the deployment of AI hardware and workloads. Arcese predicts that partners will need a deeper understanding of the infrastructure required to support AI growth across the spectrum from server and storage to the AI PC. But, he said, Dell has the experts, training and certifications they need to make that happen.
“The GPU compute layer is where we’re seeing a lot of the action. But we know that the compute requires data, so we’re going to see more storage. We’re still in the early days of the edge of AI at the PC, so it’s hard for me not to get really excited about the opportunity for our partners. I’m pretty amped up about it. I know as a Dell partner that I have the best infrastructure in the market with Dell, but now I can start adding the richness of services to ultimately drive that business outcome.”
