The ongoing enterprise partnership between Dell Technologies Inc. and Microsoft Corp. illustrates a key element of both companies’ strategy for AI: Follow the data.

Dell has charted a course to build full-stack solutions for multicloud and hybrid ecosystems. This includes Dell’s implementation of Cloud Platform with Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft’s Jeff Woolsey and Dell’s Kenny Lowe talk with theCUBE about their enterprise partnership during Dell Technologies World.

“We really want to bring AI to the data,” said Kenny Lowe (pictured, right), technical staff, cloud platforms evangelism and enablement lead at Dell. “But the data is going to live in different places. We are bringing, for example Dell PowerScale to the Azure Cloud so people can have their unstructured data running in Azure and use Azure services on top of that. We can have that consistently running on-premises as well.”

Lowe spoke with theCUBE’s Dave Vellante and Savannah Peterson at Dell Technologies World, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. He was joined by Jeff Woolsey (left), principal program manager at Microsoft, and they discussed how the two firms collaborate to provide hybrid solutions for IT customers. (* Disclosure below.)

Enterprise partnership delivers management control

Both executives have heard a growing list of needs from IT administrators over the years. Organizations are trying to manage multiple data centers, with information stored in branch offices and processed continuously by edge devices, a situation where IT staff need visibility and insight.

“The big challenge is management,” Woolsey said. “This is where the Dell and Microsoft partnership comes together. With Dell AX solutions for Azure Local, these are systems that you’re deploying on-premises, but you’re managing it from the cloud. We have customers that are now deploying not just one, not two, but dozens if not hundreds of solutions that they can manage all in one place and they can see them wherever they reside around the planet.”

Management consistency also extends to security solutions as well. Dell’s partnership with Microsoft Azure allows the protection capabilities of both firms to be implemented in on-prem environments in addition to cloud.

“Microsoft gets tremendous insight into attack vectors around the world by virtue of running Azure, this massive cloud, and they’re able to bring that insight to the on-premises world as well,” Lowe noted. “You get all that insight from Azure and what’s happening from an attack footprint there, and they are better able to protect your SQL workloads on-prem.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Dell Technologies World:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dell Technologies World. Neither Dell Technologies Inc., the primary sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE Media