The rapid expansion of edge computing presents unique challenges and opportunities for businesses across industries.

In a recent interview, Ash McCarty (pictured), director of multicloud product management at Dell Technologies Inc., shed light on the company’s innovative solutions and strategies for effectively managing and scaling edge environments.

During the interview, McCarty shared insights into the company’s efforts to simplify multicloud management and address sustainability challenges at the edge. He also discussed Dell’s portfolio, including VxRail and APEX Cloud platforms, and highlighted the importance of automation, scalability and resource optimization in meeting customer demands.

“Customers are looking to simplify the problems they’re seeing at the edge, which are problems with managing at scale, problems with updating at scale and security concerns,” McCarty said. “How can they get the most effective efficiencies out of their resources so they don’t have to assign resources to do hundreds of different sites? They want to be able to scale effectively.”

McCarty spoke with theCUBE industry analysts Dave Vellante and Lisa Martin at Dell Technologies World, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed Dell’s efforts to simplify multicloud management and address sustainability challenges at the edge. (* Disclosure below.)

Meeting customer needs and delivering multicloud solutions

McCarty’s team is responsible for overseeing Dell’s entire VxRail business and delivering on the APEX Cloud platforms. The collaborative nature of their work means partnering with other teams to ensure the seamless delivery of the multicloud announcements made by the company.

One of the critical issues faced when managing infrastructure at the edge is the distributed nature of the edge environment. Unlike centralized core data centers, edge deployments involve numerous sites, each with its power infrastructure limitations. These power management and sustainability challenges become even more significant at the edge, according to McCarty.

“It’s not one answer that fits every problem, but the key unifier that’s helping customers solve this is the VxRail HCI system software,” McCarty said. “They’re running it on-prem or out to the edge; that software enables them automated operations, automated management, and we have the capability to scale with integrations into our CloudIQ platform.”

Use cases and value proposition: Enabling edge simplification

Customers in the retail, defense and manufacturing verticals are leveraging VxRail to address scalability, security and resource optimization challenges. The common thread across these deployments is the need to simplify edge operations and achieve effective efficiencies in managing multiple sites.

VxRail HCI system software emerged as a key enabler for customers looking to address their edge challenges. The software provides automated operations and management capabilities, allowing for streamlined deployment, updates and patching across thousands of sites. Integration with Dell’s CloudIQ platform further enhances scalability and operational efficiency, according to McCarty.

Dell also conducted a study in collaboration with IDC, showcasing the significant business value that can be achieved with VxRail. The study revealed that customers can save approximately $54,000 annually per node, resulting in a payback period of 11 months. Over a typical five-year tech refresh cycle, customers can expect an ROI of around 460%, McCarty added.

“I hear it from every customer. They’re all being asked to do more and they’re wanting to focus less on managing their infrastructure, which is what we provide being able to automate. But they also want to focus more on their strategic business outcomes, and that’s what we’re trying to empower them to be able to do,” he said.

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

(* Disclosure: Dell Technologies Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Dell Technologies nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE