For Dell Technologies Inc., 2020 set the table for what promises to be a very active 2021.

The company achieved a record fiscal year, generating $94.2 billion in total sales, which included a high of $48.4 billion in sales for its Client Solutions Group. More recently, Dell announced plans to spin off its 81% equity ownership in VMware Inc., a move expected to provide close to $10 billion in cash, reducing debt incurred from the acquisition in 2016 of EMC.

With this kind of momentum, Dell will likely focus on the core technologies outlined by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell last year, which were 5G, artificial intelligence, hybrid cloud, security, data management and the edge. To date in 2021, the company has already made several key moves in the 5G, edge and hybrid arenas. This includes unleashing Project APEX, Dell’s as-a-service offering in the enterprise.

“Dell has a great opportunity with APEX to deliver services that customers need,” said Scott Sinclair, senior analyst with ESG, in an interview with SiliconANGLE. “APEX is about offering simplicity and offering options. If you make peoples’ lives easier, they tend to gravitate to your offering.”

TheCUBE’s coverage of Dell Technologies World 2021 will begin at 9 a.m. PDT on May 5 and will run through 6 p.m. PDT on May 6. In addition to Michael Dell, featured speakers at the event include Dell’s Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and COO; Allison Dew, chief marketing officer and executive vice president; and John Roese, global chief technology officer, as well as Sara Baack, chief product officer at Equinix. (* Disclosure below.)

Trend toward as-a-service

Dell’s as-a-service approach seeks to capitalize on a growing trend for data and edge services. IDC projects that by 2024, over 50% of all data infrastructure and more than 75% of edge infrastructure will be consumed as-a-service.

With the launch of Project APEX in October, Dell staked its claim to this movement, already reporting 2,000 customers for the service. The concept behind Project APEX is to allow easier access for customers and channel partners to Dell’s portfolio, including storage, servers and hyperconverged infrastructure.

Dell followed up its October rollout by extending Project APEX to include on-premises private clouds in February.

“Customers are looking for flexibility to easily and quickly expand, and that’s what as-a-service does,” said Scott Winslow, president of Winslow Technology Group, in an interview at the time of Project APEX’s launch. “It’s taking a lot from public-cloud-type consumption models.”

New reference architecture

Dell’s focus on hybrid models and tools for enterprises to transition to cloud architectures was further defined with a major announcement at the end of April around 5G technologies and the edge. The company introduced new telco cloud and multi-access edge compute reference architectures that will be anchored to Red Hat Inc.’s OpenShift platform.

Dell has been telegraphing its interest in 5G and the edge for some time. In a CUBE interview with Clarke, Dell’s COO and vice chairman, last year, the executive made it clear that the company would place a significant focus on building compute solutions for the more robust wireless standard.

“5G is the next data fabric for the data era,” Clarke said. “We see the world of edge, cloud and 5G, those three circles, intersecting to a high degree. What we have is the first opportunity to bring a cloud environment to the telco space that hasn’t happened before, and the opportunity is large for us; it’s one of the single biggest opportunities that we see for Dell.”

Livestream of Dell Technologies World

Dell Technologies World is a livestream event, with additional interviews to be broadcasted on theCUBE. You can register here to watch the live event. Plus, you can watch theCUBE interviews during Dell Technologies World here during the event and on demand after the live event.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch the live coverage of Dell Technologies World, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify, which you can enjoy while on the go.

Guests

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during Dell Technologies World include Dell’s Michael Dell; Gil Shneorson, senior vice president of edge computing offers, strategy and execution; Pierluca Chiodelli, VP of engineering technology; Andrew Glinka, VP of competitive intelligence; Adam Glick, senior director of product marketing for Project APEX; and Akanksha Mehrotra, VP of portfolio marketing for Project APEX. Stay tuned for a complete list of speakers.

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

Photo: SiliconANGLE