Dell launches AI Factory to boost AI adoption & innovation

Dell Technologies has launched the Dell AI Factory, which aims to provide customers with an extensive AI portfolio and a robust ecosystem of technology partners. This initiative is designed to assist organisations in adopting and deploying AI applications through traditional purchases or Dell APEX subscriptions.

Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and chief operating officer of Dell Technologies, stated, "AI is transforming business at an unprecedented pace. Data centres must be designed from the ground up to handle AI's speed and scale, while new AI PCs are transforming productivity and collaboration." Clarke emphasised that the Dell AI Factory provides customers with the necessary infrastructure and devices tailored to optimally meet AI's specific demands.

Dell's end-to-end AI portfolio spans client devices, servers, storage, data protection, and networking. Additionally, the company has rolled out AI PCs equipped with Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors and new Microsoft AI experiences. These PCs, aimed at professionals and consumers alike, promise enhanced performance and longer battery life, enabling users to manage their tasks more effectively.

For AI data management and protection, Dell has introduced the PowerScale F910 all-flash file storage and PowerScale: Project Lightning, designed to accelerate AI insights and reduce training times for complex AI workflows. The Dell Solution for AI Data Protection offers comprehensive data security for critical AI applications and data.

Networking innovations are also a significant part of this launch. The Dell PowerSwitch Z9864F-ON, powered by Broadcom's Tomahawk 5 chipset, and the Dell PowerEdge XE9680 servers with Broadcom 400G PCIe Gen 5.0 Ethernet adapters, promise to double the network performance of AI applications and improve scalability and efficiency. Innovations in Enterprise SONiC Distribution and SmartFabric Manager for SONiC software aim to simplify the deployment and management of AI infrastructure.

The collaboration between Dell and ecosystem partners such as Hugging Face and Meta seeks to further simplify AI deployment. Dell is the first infrastructure provider to partner with Hugging Face for the optimised on-premises deployment of generative AI models. This partnership allows organisations to train and deploy large language models securely on Dell infrastructure, facilitating the development of applications like chatbots and customer support solutions.

Additionally, the Dell AI Solution for Microsoft Azure AI Services accelerates the deployment of AI services by leveraging the Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure, streamlining processes like speech transcription and translation.

Dell's expanded AI Professional Services portfolio aims to enhance business outcomes from AI projects. Implementation Services for Microsoft Copilot solutions, as well as Accelerator Services for Dell Enterprise Hub on Hugging Face, are designed to guide organisations through AI transformation and rapid prototyping.

The Dell AI Factory continues to evolve with the addition of new offerings and infrastructure advancements, developed in partnership with NVIDIA. This expansion is intended to drive faster AI adoption through integrated capabilities and pre-validated solutions.

Commenting on the significance of the new offerings, Charlie Kawwas, president of Broadcom's Semiconductor Solutions Group, said, "AI workloads generate immense traffic and demand exceptional performance capabilities across clouds and data centres. We are proud to partner with Dell to unveil world-leading networking innovations that empower organisations to harness peak performance from Dell's infrastructure solutions."