Dell launches software platform to simplify AI & cloud management

Dell Technologies has launched the Dell Automation Platform, a software platform aiming to streamline and bring consistency to the management of AI, private cloud, and edge deployments.

A recent survey cited by Dell found that 88% of C-level executives expect to confront greater change in 2025 than in the previous year, placing additional pressure on IT teams contending with both traditional and modern workloads. These challenges are intensified by industry shifts including new AI mandates, virtualisation disruptions, and sustainability goals, prompting organisations to seek more dynamic IT strategies and relief from the constraints of vendor lock-in.

Automation platform details

The Dell Automation Platform has been introduced as a single software orchestration layer that unifies deployment and management processes across varied environments, including AI, private cloud, and edge installations. The software is designed to reduce complexity by bringing together zero-touch onboarding, centralised inventory management, AIOps automation, and full lifecycle management for IT operations.

According to Dell, the platform can be deployed on-premises or as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and gives access to a curated catalogue of validated solutions. These offerings are supported by Dell teams and integrated with a global supply chain, supporting consistent deployments and update processes from initial deployment (Day-0) through general operations (Day-2).

The integration of core capabilities includes native IT Service Management (ITSM) integration and automated updates, such as for Dell PowerStore OS, aiming to simplify operations. Multi-system storage management and automated validation processes are also part of the offering, with Dell stating that their platform results from decades of development and collaboration within their partner ecosystem.

Private cloud deployment

Dell Private Cloud, built on disaggregated infrastructure, is central to the new platform and now includes support for both VMware and Red Hat, with Nutanix support planned. This approach is intended to improve resource utilisation and lower costs by allowing compute and storage capacity to be scaled independently.

With the inclusion of Dell Automation Platform, organisations using Dell Private Cloud can deploy their infrastructure in significantly fewer steps than with previous manual processes - Dell reports up to 90% fewer steps and deployment time for workload-ready private cloud clusters reduced to approximately 2.5 hours. Automated, pre-validated updates help maintain infrastructure in a validated state, and lifecycle management tools are provided to assist with planning and risk mitigation. Subscription licenses are transferable between hardware nodes, allowing organisations to adapt to changing requirements without additional retraining or infrastructure replacement.

Organisations can continue to use existing software licenses and familiar management tools such as vCentre and OpenShift Console, facilitating continuity for IT teams.

Centralised edge management

Dell NativeEdge is also integrated into the Dell Automation Platform. Serving the needs of organisations with distributed or edge environments, NativeEdge is promoted as a comprehensive solution for secure centralisation of deployment and lifecycle management of both infrastructure and applications. It supports traditional production-grade virtualisation features, including high availability and backup, and accommodates legacy Dell systems as well as third-party infrastructure.

Balaji Ganesan, Vice President of IT and Chief Technology Officer at Eaton Corporation, commented on NativeEdge's impact:

With zero-touch updates and centralised lifecycle management, we've drastically reduced our IT dependency at local manufacturing sites.

NativeEdge's integration with the Automation Platform is intended to centralise AI-driven management and provide a unified management approach for workloads spanning the edge, distributed data centres, or cloud environments.

AI solutions and future developments

Dell Automation Platform includes support for AI workloads, offering a central catalogue of validated configurations for tasks such as large language model (LLM) inferencing and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). According to Dell, these pre-configured solutions are intended to reduce the transition time from proof-of-concept to production for AI projects, with deployments optimised for customer systems on a single platform.

In the near future, Dell plans to expand the Automation Platform further, offering additional customisation for customers with DevOps and platform engineering teams. Users will gain access to resources like templates, blueprint AI assistance, and system plug-ins, enabling more tailored management of their technology stacks and better reuse of existing investments in infrastructure-as-code.

Dell stated that the Automation Platform will continue to develop as customers' needs evolve, supporting both the validated solutions provided by Dell and more flexible options for organisations seeking granular control over their IT environments.