Dell recently made an announcement about its APEX Data Storage Service which has stirred up some speculations about Dell’s product goals with it. According to the announcement, APEX which was formerly fully vendor-managed can now be alternatively managed by the customers themselves.
This may be just another step along the way, or maybe, it isn’t. APEX was always meant to be a storage delivered as-a-service – fully managed, ready to consume. So why has Dell decided to shift from its original plan to accommodate a customer-managed option? Is it a smart business strategy to bring more customers into the fold? Or is it something more?
Technologist and Field Day delegate Chris Evans ponders on this question in his most recent article “Is Dell Technologies seeing enough traction with APEX Storage Services?” He writes,
Dell Technologies now offers a “customer-managed” option to complement “Dell-managed”. In this scenario, the common tasks of performance and capacity management revert back to the customer. Dell simply provides the support functions for break/fix that would come with a traditional support contract. This new option seems remarkably similar to legacy EMC OpenScale offerings first introduced in 2003. Customers using that purchasing model will remember that capacity trending only went one way (upwards).
Follow his thoughts in Evans’ article “Is Dell Technologies seeing enough traction with APEX Storage Services?”. For more interesting updates on what’s happening in the enterprise tech world, sign up to our mailing list.
