In a world where businesses race to embrace the latest technological advancements, having the right tech partner can truly spell the difference between thriving and trailing. And every year, as we chase the pulse of groundbreaking trends, there’s one standout event: Dell Technologies Forum 2023.

With excitement building, I eagerly look forward to the year’s major tech event on August 24th, 2023—an annual technology convergence where ideas meet innovation. Navigating the Horizons of Tech Exploration: Embracing Insights, Innovations, and Ideas at Dell Technologies Forum 2023!

Year after year, the Dell Technologies Forum continues to mesmerize its audience with an amalgamation of forward-looking insights and next-gen solutions. As I anticipate this year’s event, my excitement grows with the promise of an even more enriching experience.

My anticipation is building up for the Keynote Session, which will be led by Alok Ohrie, President & Managing Director of Dell Technologies. This session holds the promise of unveiling the path that India’s digital transformation is set to take. Attendees will also gain valuable insights into Dell’s pivotal role in driving change across Indian organizations, alongside fostering digital inclusivity among the youth.

Adding to the significance of the event, Allison Dew, Chief Marketing Officer at Dell Technologies, will illuminate Dell’s perspective on the dynamic interplay of creativity and data-driven decision-making. Apart from that, an intriguing Fireside Chat has also been lined up between Manish Gupta, Vice President & General Manager, Dell Technologies and an industry leader. The chat will unveil strategies for nurturing innovation, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and a growth mindset.

Panel Discussion Illuminating the Role of Diversity & Inclusion in Driving Lasting Change

With panelists from Dell Technologies – Geraldine Tunnell, Senior Vice President of Global Field and Partner Marketing, and Venkat Sitaram, Senior Director & Country Head – Enterprise Segment, this conversation is set to resonate with thought-provoking insights.

Moderated by Mridu Bhandari, Anchor & Editor, CNBC-TV18, this discussion will explore the pivotal role that an inclusive culture plays in nurturing innovation and fuelling sustainability. The lineup for this year’s event holds significant promise.

Here’s a sneak peek into why this abundant source of tech knowledge is an absolute must-attend:

• Insights into the Future of Work, understanding how to navigate innovation and collaboration in a hybrid world
• Roadmap on building a secure and scalable edge environment, unlocking enhanced data value while simplifying the edge
• Exploring the management of a multi-cloud environment with distributed workloads and data presenting challenges
• Discovering how to withstand and recover from cyber-attacks and tackling even the most demanding security challenges

With even more to discover…

Well, that’s not all! Make sure not to miss the captivating discussion between Sania Mirza, and Mandira Bedi who are set to talk about the transformative journey of the tennis sensation, tracing her path from a professional athlete to a source of inspiration for insights into teamwork, diversity, and inclusion.

The buzz on Dell Technologies social media channels

What caught my attention on X [earlier Twitter], where Technica, the social media host for Dell Technologies is seen in an interesting rendezvous with the Dell leaders. The video series, named ‘Sparking Ideas with Technica’ brilliantly highlights the future of work, innovative technologies, generative AI, and masterful data management.

Their discussions illuminate the path forward and provide valuable insights into what lies ahead. These interesting videos, offer us a glimpse of the ideas that will unfold at the Dell Tech Forum 2023.

Stay in the loop about all the action at the forum by following Dell Technologies on X and Facebook using #DellTechForum and #FromIdeasToInnovation. Plus, be sure to participate in some amazing tech contests happening right now – you could snag some seriously awesome prizes!

So, go ahead and secure your spot for Dell Technologies Forum 2023. It’s your chance to hop on the transformative journey taking you #FromIdeasToInnovation.

Register Now

“India’s role in advancing digitalization and tech innovation has not only been remarkable but has also made an impact – globally.”  Wonderfully put and indeed an eye-opening insight shared by Anand Ganapathy, Vice President Enterprise, Dell Technologies India, at the Keynote Session at #DellTechForum 2022, India edition.

Once again, Dell Technologies fired on all the cylinders by presenting a promising picture of the digital future at its annual tech confluence – #DellTechForum. It was truly invigorating to look at how India is catalyzing technology innovation around the world and achieving some brilliant milestones by accelerating sustainable initiatives, bridging the digital divide, and transforming key industries like healthcare, energy, and more with technology. To mention a few glaring numbers from the session, in FY2022, India recorded a spectacular growth of 15.5% and enterprises are expected to contribute $350-400Bn to India’s dream of becoming a $1Tn digital economy.

The Keynote by Mr. Ganapathy also vividly captured Dell Technologies’ vision to pivot India’s transformation story by bringing breakthrough technologies and solutions and empowering customers and partners in a fast-evolving world. From multi-cloud to future of work, modern data center to edge solutions, and not to forget cybersecurity, Dell aims to build on the innovation momentum in our country by unleashing cutting-edge, emerging technologies.

With this, the #DellTechForum raised the bar of my expectations right at the beginning. And leaving me completely enraptured was the second Keynote session by Tian Beng, Senior Vice President & General Manager – Channels, Asia Pacific & Japan, Dell Technologies, which deep-dived into what forms the cornerstones of Dell’s roadmap for future innovation.

The tech giant envisions making some phenomenal tailwinds by delivering digitally enhanced experiences across:

• Multi-cloud: Dell’s pioneering ‘multi-cloud by design’ approach, APEX as-a-Service, and the newly-launched software-driven storage innovation, defining new horizons in the multi-cloud era.
• The Future of Work: Relentless innovation across Dell’s entire PC portfolio, particularly Latitude and Alienware, Dell Optimizer expansion, modern connectivity solutions, and display innovation with new OLED systems and form factors.
• The Edge: From tablets and laptops built for harsh environments to high-powered workstations to purpose-built edge gateways, a broad portfolio of Dell’s edge products and solutions catering to varying business needs across verticals.

Modern Cyber Resilience: Dell’s new paradigms such as Zero Trust, a cyber recovery plan, and a trusted ecosystem of partners and supply chain to accelerate secure innovation for customers.

Next up was the Fireside Chat where industry leaders shed light on the top tech trends revolutionizing the business landscape and reshaping the future. And equally enlivening was meeting women pioneers reimagining business leadership roles in the Women in Technology session.

However, the most outstanding moments from the day for me were the Breakout Tracks that reflected Dell’s unwavering commitment to steer its customers’ transformation journey forward. Be it empowering business for the multi-cloud future, equipping the workforce with intelligent and secure technologies, unlocking real business value with next-gen solutions, or innovating modern, intelligent and scalable security solutions, Dell is constantly pushing the boundaries to redefine tech modernization for enterprises.

What grabbed my attention next was an exclusive Partner Track, designed for Dell’s top and emerging partners, that showcased monumental milestones, strategic channel priorities, and the roadmap for future impact.

But I had no idea more was coming my way to keep me hooked completely! It is indeed enthralling how Dell is continually pushing the envelope for startups in India and this time, they came up with the unique Startup Café, where top 10 B2B startups presented new-age technology solutions. Dell Designathon, a one-of-a-kind, 24-hour challenge, was another brilliant stroke which promoted design innovation in the Indian startup community.

Like every year, I was really looking forward to the Celebrity Chat, and this time, it was the ‘God of the Offside’, Sourav Ganguly, sharing inspirational words on the value of adaptability, the secret of resilience, and setting new benchmarks for the next generation.

But what garnered the limelight was the Celebrity Talk with the timeless icon of Indian Cinema and a global star, Anil Kapoor on innovation, building grit, and breaking the barriers of performance.

With this, my experience at the #DellTechForum 2022 turned out to be incredible! I’m glad to have witnessed some never-before-seen ideas, perspectives, and innovations that will transform the way we lead our lives forever.

Catch all the action that unfolded at the #DellTechForum at Dell Technologies’ India Twitter handle. Watch out for the event recaps and track all the details with #DriveInnovationForward and #DellTechForum.

Fynd Platform, a Reliance Industries backed SaaS company, announced the launch of “BSE Fynd Bazaar” campaign in India. The campaign centers around giving SMEs a chance to grow their business profitability online at zero investment. In a world brought to a virtual standstill by the global pandemic, the absence of a balanced shopping experience prompted a search for a new platform that offers a holistic e-commerce solution.

Fynd Platform features user friendly in-built themes, bulk catalogue upload, marketing tools along with an integrated order management system to offer a holistic e-commerce suit to the businesses. With a strong tech and logistic support the brands can offer a seamless shopping experience to their customers.

The BSE Fynd Bazaar campaign offers curated packages crafted to meet the varied requirements of diverse sized brands. The standard plan package offers comprehensive inclusions such as zero subscription fees, minimum transaction fees inclusive of payment gateway integration, free domain name and a fully functional e-commerce website. This plan is ideal for small start ups and home grown brands.

Established businesses who are considering to shift online to increase their reach and sales can opt for the booster package applicable on professional and premium plans. Under this package, Fynd Platform will help the brand update their catalog for the first time along with training support. Once the website is live, the team will also runs ads for the brand with zero retainer fees. The monthly budget for the ads can be decided and borne by the brand.

Farooq Adam, Co-Founder of Fynd said

With world class tech resources and a high performing engineering team we have built a no code platform that will enable all entrepreneurs in India to build and scale up their business online.

The special promotion under the ‘BSE Fynd Bazaar’ campaign will run until 31 October 2021. Those wishing to sign up for the offer can visit platform.fynd.com to view their options.

BlueStacks, a pioneer of Android gaming on PC and the world’s leading mobile gaming platform, announced the release of BlueStacks X (Beta), the world’s first cloud-based game streaming service for mobile games.

BlueStacks X is available on Windows 10 and 11, Mac, iOS, Android, Chromebook and Raspberry Pi. It is the only cloud gaming service on the market that offers free game streaming for mobile games across platforms and devices.

BlueStacks X (Beta) is powered by hybrid cloud technology, built in partnership with now.gg,  BlueStacks’ sister company. Hybrid cloud enables the cloud to offload parts of compute and graphics rendering to the endpoints, dramatically reducing the cloud costs and enabling users to enjoy a free service. This can be achieved both with using a native client and browsers capable of native graphics rendering. This technology works transparently and does not require any integration from game developers.

Rosen Sharma, CEO, BlueStacks Inc, said

BlueStacks App Player recently crossed 1 Billion lifetime downloads. BlueStacks X is a natural next step for us. Hybrid cloud is a big technological breakthrough which makes it economically viable to launch the service,” said . “We are a trusted partner to top mobile game developers. There is a lot of excitement among them about BlueStacks X and some of the other innovations we have like deep Discord integration.

Aevatrex (Jonathan Fermin), leading mobile gaming influencer, said

These days all gamers practically live on Discord. Launching BlueStacks X as a Discord bot is so innovative and smart. We can literally just click a link and jump into a game. I can customize the service for my server, way cool.

BlueStacks X can be accessed via the mobile browser on iOS, Android, Windows 11, Mac, Chrome books and even some smart TVs. The BlueStacks X native client is available on Windows 11, Windows 10 and older versions of Windows. BlueStacks X can also be used by BlueStacks App Player users.

BlueStacks X (Beta) already has over 200 games, and several new games are being added every week. The service has a great collection of RPG and Strategy games with other genres being added over time.

What a brilliant event!!

Dell Technologies has outdone itself yet again with another virtual Dell Technologies Forum. The theme this year – Your Digital Future is Here – was vividly reflected throughout the event. And I am glad to have been a part of some truly inspiring and thought-provoking sessions.

Let me begin with the Keynote Sessions by Dell Technologies leaders – Alok Ohrie – President and Managing Director, Jeff Boudreau – President and General Manager, Infrastructure Solutions Group, and Amit Midha – President, Asia Pacific & Japan and Global Digital Cities. 

Realizing the pace of digital transformation that the world is undergoing, and the India perspective shared by Alok Ohrie was very inspiring. It’s amazing how the year 2020 compelled 52% of Indian firms to accelerate the adoption of digital ways of working practices, and how 138,000 new hires were brought into the IT industry during FY22. The country is surely pacing up towards the digital future. 

It’s also remarkable how Dell Technologies has been at the forefront – powering up businesses to move forward in their digital journey.

I was also inspired to know how Dell Technologies has been partnering with NGOs and the government to initiate various programs to upskill the youth of the nation. Initiatives like Atal Tinkering Labs and partnership programs with NGOs like Shikshana Foundation, Hope, etc. are not just upskilling the youth but are also empowering the next generation to drive the country’s digital economy. By fostering the youth with tech readiness, we can create a better and much stronger digital future for the country. I really applaud the initiatives taken by Dell and its partners.

Coming back to the business world, leaders – Jeff Boudreau and Amit Midha had some interesting views, highlighting the role that data plays today and will play in the future. In this world where everything is connected, data has a critical role to play. For businesses, data can help in driving intelligent insights and can also enable businesses to innovate better – from analytics to prediction. It was also interesting to know about the current-day data paradoxes from Amit Midha and how Dell Technologies has the right set of technologies and solutions to help businesses overcome these paradoxes. 

Some of the other sessions that kept the audience hooked were:

• The fireside chat with Aongus Hegarty, President, International Markets, Dell Technologies along with a customer that elaborated the need for an effective cyber resiliency strategy 
• The session on Diversity and Inclusion, which highlighted the alliance between Dell Technologies and Intel in establishing an inclusive culture
• The insightful breakout sessions on the future of Work, IT and Data – that had multiple sessions deep-diving into how businesses can reinvent themselves in the digital future and the role that technology plays in enabling the same
• An inspiring celebrity session with the tennis champion Leander Paes and host Mini Mathur
• The live session on Empowering women in technology underlined the unique struggles of women employees in the technology sector, the key reasons behind women’s leadership gap, the path of advancement and much more
• And the exclusive session on Startups had shed light on the key tech drivers that will make India ‘the’ Digital Economy; how well startups are equipped to integrate tech to scale; the challenges and opportunities; and the way to accelerate the startup growth through technology –  a lot to take back from this session!

All in all, Dell Tech Forum 2021 was truly a very insightful, interesting, and inspiring event. And the rock and roll conclusion was a cherry on the top. 

I am definitely looking forward to the next year and I am sure Dell Technologies will stop at nothing to amaze us all. If you missed out on the event, you could check the on-demand sessions and set the path to the digital future for your business.

[Watch On Demand]

While COVID-19 continues to play out an unprecedented upheaval across the globe, businesses will need to tune up technology to bring some semblance of order to uncertainty, complexity and to rethink and reboot their digital strategies.

Padmanabhan Iyer, Managing Director and Global CEO, 3i Infotech, pens some major tech predictions that will help steer through 2021:

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence [AI] is undoubtedly one of the biggest tech trends at the moment and during 2021, it will become an even more valuable tool to help us interpret and understand the world around us. Customer patterns have changed drastically given the COVID-19 period and will continue well into 2021.

This means that machine learning algorithms will become better informed with more data as well as increasingly sophisticated in the solutions they uncover for us. 

Digital Integration: Bridging the Physical and Digital

As the digitalization trend continues to accelerate, the potential for optimizing processes, making data-driven decisions in real time, and creating new products, services, and business models will be the key that guides an organization’s efforts. Realizing the full promise of digital may require integrating systems and data across entire ecosystems. The more data one feeds into a digital ecosystem, the more detailed, dynamic, and valuable the digital initiative becomes. 

In the digitization space, from a vertical perspective, payments & remittances will continue to have accelerated growth. Digital on-boarding has picked up pace in 2020 considering the social distancing required in view of the pandemic. This trend will continue as well. Micro, small and medium enterprises will be the focus area from digitization perspective. 

Automation

The urgency and need for automation technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), AI, and machine learning, are stronger now than ever before. And the COVID-19 pandemic has made such automation solutions undeniably urgent. Democratization of automation would make these solutions easily accessible to all and when this concept becomes a reality, organizations will certainly see massive business transformation.

Automation often requires extensive human participation and support. Thus, democratization will give companies sufficient access to automating mundane tasks and empower non-tech users. However, every new approach comes with a set of challenges, and the democratization of automation is no different. By developing and following a systematic framework, businesses can address such complexities with ease. 

XaaS [Everything-as-a-Service]

As-a-Service [aaS] has already become the standard to turn into a truly digital-native enterprise. The new pattern in the aaS model is Everything-as-a-Service [XaaS] where services delivered will totally dwell on the cloud with virtual access to nearly everything.

Tools, for example, the Internet of Things [IoT] and Artificial Intelligence [AI] will play a critical part in building those services or expanding existing services to go beyond the digital-native status quo. 

Open Banking

Open banking is reported to have generated $7.29 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach $43.15 billion by 2026. Open banking will become the norm with even emerging markets rolling out regulations. This will fuel innovation in the fintech space addressing the New to Credit segment.

Fintech as a service platform will emerge enabling banking as a service. This trend will be seen across the BFSI segment with multiple use cases that are evolving on a day-to-day basis. 

Augmented & Virtual Reality [AR & VR]

AR & VR will evolve with use cases in businesses beyond the entertainment industry. The fact that they can create large simulation environments and the collaboration further with Artificial Intelligence will stimulate innovation.

5G technology will accentuate the use of AR/VR with better user experiences with shorter latencies. 

Regulatory Aspects

The enormous growth in the digital space puts equal focus on the regulatory aspects. Firstly, RegTech is gaining importance to ensure compliance is made simple with required analytics in place. This also helps the entities to focus on growing business where RegTech will enable required support for regulatory aspects. 

Secondly, there is a growing concern on ‘Security & Privacy concerns’ that needs to be addressed comprehensively with cybercrime increasing day by day. According to Gartner, by 2023, 65 percent of the world’s population will have its personal data covered under some kind of modern privacy regulations.

The year 2020 is likely to be remembered as the year that changed the lives of many of us, all thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic:(. The global pandemic that wreaked havoc on the global economy also resulted in expediting the digitalization process across different sectors and industries. The long-standing digital transformation is the most encouraging result that will come out of the pandemic.

Remote work became a reality for millions of people across the globe. Cloud computing is helping people and businesses stay connected. Its adoption will increase in years to come and it makes utmost sense to have skills in those areas that will be relevant in the fast-changing technology sector.

Owing to remote working, professionals are finding time to focus on improving their competency by investing time on quality courses. Upskilling has become extremely relevant during the ongoing pandemic [Source]. Developers have a once in life-time opportunity to upskill whilst doing their office work from the comfort of their homes.

Here are some of the top developer courses that will help to stay relevant in the year 2021 [and beyond]:

Cloud Computing

The global cloud market size is expected to grow at a CAGR [Compound Annual Growth Rate] of 12.5 percent during the period 2019 to 2021. Retail and healthcare segments are the biggest contributors to the growth in the global cloud market. Cloud computing has also made significant inroads in the Smart Utilities sector.

An extensive course on Cloud Computing will help you gain an understanding of the nitty-gritty of cloud from both business and practitioner perspectives. Even though you have to play with code on a regular basis, it is important to understand the business case associated with any technology.

Introduction to Cloud by IBM is an ideal course that walks you through the varied aspects of cloud computing. It also digs deep into Virtualization, VMs, Storage, Networking, Containers, and Serverless – the key components of the cloud architecture.

The best part about this free Cloud computing course is that it is self-paced and you get to learn from the brightest minds who have hands-on skills on the technology.

Conversational AI Applications [Chatbots]

There is a high probability that you would have interacted with a chatbot at least once when you are on a banking/e-commerce website. The conversational AI market is growing at a burgeoning pace and the spending on Cognitive and AI systems is predicted to reach $77.6 billion in 2022 [approximately three times the forecast for 2018].

If you are thinking of leveraging chatbots for providing your clients (or customers) with fast and consistent answers across applications; you should give a brief look at Watson Assistant. You can use the cognitive computing power offered by Watson Assistant to build a chatbot without writing a single line of code!

Customer service chatbots are redefining support with AI and the course on introduction to chatbots with a focus on Watson Conversion could be your gateway to gain expertise in the emerging world of conversational AI.

Containers and Kubernetes

When writing blogs for a few of my clients, I got an opportunity to explore the endless possibilities offered by Containers. To start with, Containers are completely different from Virtual Machines [VMs]. I have used Docker Container for Selenium web automation testing and the experience is super awesome! No extra load on the CPU, something which is very much evident when using VMs.

The Docker compose file that uses the YAML format [.yml] makes it easy to spin new containers. Debug variant of container images has VNC Server preinstalled in it, a feature that is useful for web automation testing. When we talk about deploying and scaling containerized applications, Kubernetes immediately comes to mind.

An extensive course that walks you through the essentials of Kubernetes [kubectl commands, Kubernetes objects, etc.], including the ever-expanding Kubernetes ecosystem could be a good place to get started with Kubernetes. The introduction course on Kubernetes and Containers can be further leveraged to run containers, build container images, and more.

Conclusion

The pandemic has put immense focus on upskilling and having the relevant skills are important to stay ahead of the cut-throat competition. Remote working is providing an opportunity for developers where they can take self-paced courses while working on their project work.

Which course did you recently take up and why? Do share your thoughts in the comments section…