Jeff Clarke, Dell | Dell Technologies World 2024

Summary

In this DTech World interview, Jeff Clark from Dell discusses the transformative impact of AI on the tech industry. He highlights Dell's AI Factory, emphasizing the importance of data as a differentiator and the need for an open and broad ecosystem to drive AI adoption. Clark also touches on societal impacts, the potential for increased developer productivity, and the evolution of computing architectures. The conversation hints at Dell's strategic approach to leveraging AI and its implications for future tech innovation.

Takeaways

• 🌟 Jeff Clark, from Dell, highlighted the significance of AI and its role in transforming the competitive landscape, emphasizing the importance of AI adoption for businesses.
• 📈 Data is identified as a key differentiator, with 83% residing on-premises and 50% created on the edge, suggesting AI should be deployed where the data is for efficiency, effectiveness, and security.
• 🛠️ Clark discussed the importance of an open and modular architecture to keep up with rapid advancements in technology, allowing for more flexible and adaptable AI implementations.
• 🤝 The foundation of AI is an open and broad ecosystem, which is critical for advancing technology and fostering innovation.
• 🚀 AI is set to have a profound societal impact, potentially reshaping work and life as significantly as the Industrial Revolution did, though the exact nature of these changes is hard to predict.
• 💡 AI is enabling valuable resources to be utilized more effectively, freeing up time for more valuable work and streamlining processes.
• 🔧 Dell's strategy involves creating an optimized system architecture that focuses on data movement and cognitive processing, rather than traditional computing elements like operating systems and virtualization.
• 🏆 Dell is positioned to excel in the AI ecosystem due to its broad portfolio, spanning from edge devices to servers, storage, networking, and professional services.
• 💻 The introduction of AI and new computing architectures could impact the PC market, with potential for both compression and elongation of PC cycles depending on the value and productivity gains delivered.
• 📡 Dell is now including ARM-based processors in its offerings, starting a new era for PCs that moves beyond the traditional x86 architecture and opens up more choices for performance and optimization.
• 🛑 The conversation touched on the balance between using merchant silicon partners and designing custom silicon, with the potential for both approaches to drive innovation and cost efficiency in the evolving tech landscape.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the discussion with Jeff Clark at Dell Technologies World?

The main focus is on the role of Dell in delivering AI to its customers, the importance of data as a differentiator, and the acceleration of AI adoption through an open and broad ecosystem.

How does Jeff Clark describe the AI Factory's role at Dell?

Jeff Clark describes the AI Factory as a key component in how Dell is delivering AI to its customers, focusing on making AI more accessible and easy to adopt, as well as accelerating its adoption.

What percentage of data is created on the edge according to Jeff Clark's presentation?

According to Jeff Clark, 50% of data is created on the edge.

Why does Jeff Clark believe AI should go to the data?

Jeff Clark believes AI should go to the data because it is more efficient, effective, and secure when processed close to where the data is generated.

What is Jeff Clark's stance on the implementation of AI on the edge?

Jeff Clark supports a wide range of AI implementations on the edge, emphasizing that there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

How does Jeff Clark view the societal impacts of AI similar to historical technological revolutions?

Jeff Clark draws parallels between AI and past technological revolutions like the Industrial Revolution, noting that while it's hard to predict exact societal impacts, AI is likely to free up valuable resources for more valuable work.

What is Jeff Clark's perspective on the potential increase in developer productivity due to AI?

Jeff Clark is excited about the potential for AI to streamline tasks, allowing developers to spend more time on creative work, which could lead to significant productivity gains.

How does Jeff Clark describe Dell's approach to working with various computing architectures?

Jeff Clark describes Dell's approach as being open and agnostic to specific technologies, focusing on optimizing systems and delivering the best solutions for their customers.

What does Jeff Clark think about the potential of AI in terms of enterprise architecture?

Jeff Clark believes that AI represents a new computing architecture that is evolving and will continue to do so, especially as it transitions from training to inference.

How does Jeff Clark view the role of open and modular architecture in AI development?

Jeff Clark sees open and modular architecture as crucial for taking advantage of rapid advancements in AI, allowing for more efficient and effective implementations.

What is Jeff Clark's opinion on the societal impact of AI in terms of work and productivity?

Jeff Clark suggests that AI will enable people to focus on more value-added work, streamline tasks, and potentially increase productivity, leading to a greater societal impact over time.

Outlines

00:00

🌟 AI and the Future of Work at Dell

In this segment, Sanah Peterson and Dave Valante interview Jeff Clark, a key figure at Dell with multiple roles, following his keynote at the AI Factory. Jeff discusses Dell's strategy in delivering AI to customers, emphasizing the importance of data as a differentiator and the need for an open and modular architecture to keep pace with rapid advancements in AI. He highlights the transformative potential of AI, comparing it to the Industrial Revolution, and predicts that AI will free up valuable resources, allowing people to focus on more valuable work, thus increasing productivity and innovation.

05:01

🚀 Dell's Commitment to an Open AI Ecosystem

Jeff Clark delves deeper into Dell's approach to AI, stressing the significance of an open and broad ecosystem for the technology's advancement. He talks about the societal impacts of AI, suggesting that it will allow individuals to focus on more meaningful tasks, thereby increasing productivity. Jeff also addresses the potential for AI to enhance the work of developers and sellers within Dell, aiming to streamline processes and enable more efficient work practices. The conversation touches on Dell's partnerships with various tech giants and their commitment to an open architecture that can evolve with the rapid pace of AI development.

10:02

🛠️ Dell's Unique Positioning in the AI Market

Jeff Clark outlines Dell's comprehensive portfolio and its strategic positioning in the AI market. He discusses the company's edge in providing AI solutions at the edge, through PCs, and in data centers, highlighting Dell's broad skill set and capability in system integration and deployment. Jeff also mentions the importance of Professional Services in meeting customer expectations and the company's philosophy of being 'pleased but never satisfied,' which drives continuous improvement and innovation.

15:04

💡 The Impact of AI on PC Innovation and Cycles

In the final paragraph, the discussion turns to the impact of AI on PC cycles and innovation. Jeff Clark considers whether AI will compress or elongate PC cycles, suggesting that the increased productivity enabled by AI could lead to a desire for more advanced technology, thus driving the cycle. He also addresses the introduction of ARM-based processors in PCs, marking a new era for the platform beyond x86 architecture. Jeff emphasizes the importance of optionality in silicon choices and the potential for商户 silicon partners to drive innovation and lower costs in the industry.

Keywords

💡AI Factory

The AI Factory refers to a concept or a system in which artificial intelligence is developed, deployed, and managed at scale. In the context of the video, it is a part of Dell's strategy to deliver AI solutions to their customers efficiently and effectively. Jeff Clark mentions the AI Factory in his keynote, emphasizing its role in accelerating AI adoption and making it easy for customers.

💡Data

Data is a crucial component in the AI ecosystem, serving as the raw material for AI algorithms to learn from. The script highlights that 83% of data resides on-premises and 50% is created on the edge, suggesting that AI should be deployed where the data is to ensure efficiency, effectiveness, and security.

💡Edge Computing

Edge computing refers to the practice of processing data closer to the source of data generation, rather than in a centralized data center. In the script, the edge is mentioned as a key area for AI deployment, which aligns with the idea that AI should go to where the data is generated.

💡Open Modular Architecture

An open modular architecture in the context of AI allows for flexibility and adaptability in the development and integration of AI systems. Jeff Clark discusses the importance of this architecture to take advantage of rapid advancements in AI technology, which is a central theme in the video.

💡Ecosystem

The term ecosystem in the video refers to the broad community of technology providers, developers, and users that contribute to and benefit from the development and use of AI. The script emphasizes the need for an open and broad ecosystem to drive the foundation of AI, which is integral to its advancement.

💡Disruptive Technology

Disruptive technology is a term used to describe innovations that significantly alter the way an industry operates and create new markets. In the script, AI is described as a groundbreaking and disruptive technology that changes the basis of competition, which is a key message of the video.

💡Productivity

Productivity in the video is discussed in the context of how AI can streamline tasks, allowing valuable resources to focus on more valuable work. Jeff Clark mentions that AI enables people to do greater value work, which is a central benefit of AI adoption discussed in the script.

💡Developers

Developers are highlighted in the script as key beneficiaries of AI, with the potential to increase their creative time and efficiency through AI's ability to automate routine tasks. The video discusses the potential for developers to spend more time on creative work, which is a significant theme in the context of AI's impact on the workforce.

💡Hybrid AI

Hybrid AI refers to the integration of AI capabilities both on-premises and in the cloud. The script touches on the societal impacts of AI and the potential for hybrid AI to reshape how we work and live, suggesting a future where AI is seamlessly integrated into various aspects of life and work.

💡Silicon

In the context of the video, silicon refers to the chips or processors that power computing devices. The script discusses the importance of having a variety of silicon options to meet different performance needs, which is a key aspect of Dell's strategy for AI deployment.

💡Innovation

Innovation is a recurring theme in the video, with the discussion of AI, new computing architectures, and the potential for AI to drive significant changes in how we work and live. The video emphasizes the role of AI in fostering a new wave of innovation, particularly in the realm of personal computing.

Highlights

Sana and Dave Valante are covering Dtech World in Las Vegas, Nevada, discussing the impact of AI and data technology.

Jeff Clark from Dell discusses the AI Factory and its role in delivering AI to customers, focusing on ease of adoption and acceleration.

Clark emphasizes the importance of data as a differentiator, with 83% of data residing on-premises and 50% created on the edge.

AI should go to the data for efficiency, effectiveness, and security, according to Clark's presentation.

The need for a wide range of AI implementations due to the absence of a one-size-fits-all solution is highlighted.

Clark talks about the importance of an open modular architecture to take advantage of rapid AI developments.

The foundation of AI is an open and broad ecosystem, crucial for its advancement, as per Clark's keynote.

AI's societal impact is compared to the Industrial Revolution, with potential for profound cultural and economic changes.

AI is expected to give valuable resources more time to do valuable work, streamlining tasks and allowing for higher value-added work.

Developers could gain more creative time, potentially increasing productivity and the quality of development work.

The potential for AI to improve seller efficiency by better informing and connecting marketing and selling data is discussed.

Dell's open stance on various computing architectures, including GPUs and CPUs from different vendors, is emphasized.

Clark describes a new computing architecture centered around data, with AI and machine learning at its core.

The evolution of AI from training to inference and the concept of quantization for efficiency are touched upon.

Dell's unique positioning with a broad portfolio, from edge devices to professional services, is highlighted by Clark.

The potential for AI to compress or elongate PC cycles based on performance and productivity improvements is debated.

Dell's recent announcement of an Arm-based PC with Qualcomm and the implications for the PC market are discussed.

The impact of cloud players creating their own silicon and the role of merchant silicon partners in cost reduction is considered.

Clark reflects on the new era for PCs with the introduction of Arm-based processors and the innovation it brings.

The potential for increased PC innovation, including 24-hour battery life and optimized performance, is anticipated.

Transcripts

good afternoon AI fans and welcome back

to beautiful Las Vegas Nevada we're here

Midway through day two of three days of

coverage of dtech world my name is sanah

Peterson joined by Dave valante I feel

smarter than I did when I woke up this

morning what about you yeah well we had

the Duel at least dual master class this

morning like jeel or triy Master Class

Ser we're going to go deeper now and and

know and and now we're going to take it

one step further with our next guest

Jeff Clark the you you're you know you

have 17 jobs at Dell I when we were

talking I I was going to introduce you

just by your title right now but you

literally gave us you know four

different roles you're basically playing

internally you were the keynote this

morning huge room full of people

listening to you drop serious knowledge

about data about AI about everything can

you give us a little

recap it was a fun morning yes it was

big morning for Dell

we talked about the AI Factory its role

our role how we're delivering AI for our

customers and ultimately how do we

accelerate the adoption how do we make

it easy and we spent a whole lot of time

talking about how to take this

tremendous I think groundbreaking

technology that is so disruptive

gamechanging changing the basis of

competition and then enabling our

customers because quite frankly if

you're not doing it it's going to be

done to you

and it's going to change the basis of

competition again as I mentioned and we

had some fun with that today so I threw

out a few things that I think are

important sort of five things that we

believe in to help accelerate the

adoption of AI one of those being the

data the data is the differentiator 83%

of the data is on Prim 50% of it created

on the edge and because of that we

believe AI goes to the data because it's

more efficient more effective more

secure we believe that there is no one

siiz fits-all so it's going to be a wide

range of implementation out on the edge

out on the PC in a department in a data

center combined combined data centers

and then I talked about two versions of

open an open modular architecture so you

can take advantage of the rapid

development and advancements I think

about a year ago where we were and where

we are today and what's coming oh my

gosh and then the last component that we

believe in that drives the foundation of

AI is an open and Broad ecosystem

because it's equally advancing you um

super critical you likened the the AI

wave you said we haven't seen anything

this big since and you I know you love

trains since the Industrial Revolution

right steam power the the societal

effects of folks moving you know The

Agrarian societ moving to the city and I

think look PCS were awesome right made

us all more productive mobile Cloud big

data but but nothing like what you're

projecting here how do you think what do

you think of the societal impacts we all

going to move back to the country are we

going to move in space are we going to

start

flying very hard to predict well I I I

don't think when people move from farms

moved to cities began to work in

factories and we had the massive

modernization that was associated with

the Industrial Revolution we knew where

we were going and we reflect back on it

as historians and we can see it had

these profound impacts culturally social

impact or social economic impact and a

variety of other

ways what what I can tell you at least

our experience inside Dell and working

with our

customers what we're finding is it takes

our most valuable resources and gives

them more time to do more valuable work

mhm it allows people to

do rather than what we call inside at

least our company some of this

connective tissue work to kind of make

it work that now is streamlined because

you've simplified standardized

automated those Basics go away of people

having to do the task and you can apply

intelligence gain knowledge and then

drive more value added work so maybe

that's a way of saying which I really

believe we will all do greater value

work in time have a greater impact in

time and then for us again I think about

having our developers have more time to

develop yes be more efficient at develop

think about the productivity gains that

we can have with our large R&D footprint

and our ability to develop more things

faster higher quality I get excited

about that being Absol a former

developer it's only I I it always shocks

me every time this stat comes up it's

only 27% of a developer's day that's

spent actually creating or their week

their work week if we got 73 more per

creative time or even 50% more creative

Time Imagine what we can create world's

our oyster top desile uh software

companies have roughly 60% of an

engineer developer's time coding

architecting thinking about how to code

that's the gold standard to get

everybody to and once you get to 60 why

not 80 why not 90 why not more right

yeah absolutely think about

the the potential the latent potential

that is tied up in the nonsense that

we've created and the human potential

that could be gained in making them more

productive think about our sellers the

same way our sellers don't spend enough

time selling how do we get them selling

more often let's inform them better

let's Bridge the marketing data and the

selling data to help inform with our

customers how to to best meet their

needs the

possibilities are endless almost your

your conversation with Charlie kaas was

was really quite interesting and

enlightening I mean they broadcom made a

bet that a long time ago we're going to

connect all these you know NP gpus and

CPUs xus together it's a trend that

obviously you guys you got Intel you got

AMD you got Nvidia you got arm-based

stuff you got you know others risk five

you're sort of agnostic to all this and

then you double down on the ones that

are going to serve your customers best

in the moment we're open Dave but yeah

you're open but yeah yes you always have

been right yes sir but so I'm trying to

figure out

like is what you're doing in in gpus

with Nvidia is it just sort of another

opportunistic move or is it something

that

has has potentially the legs of

you know winel back in the day um well

how do you think about that I I think

about it in the following way I tried to

describe it this morning and hopefully I

I I got this concept across this is a

different Computing architecture yep so

winel arguably is the old traditional

Computing architecture certainly is in

reference to the data center this

morning and we're creating and a new one

has been created

and if you think about how it's being

created it's around what I like

Charlie's analogy around the human body

the gpus the brain the networking is the

heartom storage is the

lungs the oxygen in would you expect

anything less techology is really going

for it this year well but but if you

pull that

together that's what we're building is

an optimized system there notice we

didn't talk about operating system we

didn't talk about virtu ization we

talked about data and getting data to

the cognitive part moving it in a very

fast way extracting it out of these

storage subsystems how do we deliver

those workloads via containers it is a

new architecture that's being invol

evolving and as we go from training to

inference it's going to evolve again I I

use the word quantization today which is

essentially the world try trying to make

things much more efficient whether it's

absolute performance being efficient and

you think of things around going from n6

N8 N4 you talk about going better memory

utilization floating Point 16 to 8 to

four as well you can really take these

models and take this infinite data sets

and put them into more finite defined

data sets and you can Rune the model

retrain it and get much more efficient

it's a different

architecture and you I I loved when I

was doing my homework for this show

Morgan Stanley calling you the best

architecture for this the best way to

play in the AI ecosystem game when it

comes to

Enterprise when you're looking out at

the room today when you hear things like

the market validating that when you see

your team performing at the level that

they're performing right now how does it

make you

feel oh probably uh mounting

expectations yeah we have a lot we have

a lot to do to help our customers

through this I I I tend to sit back and

look at what we haven't done versus what

we have done it's kind of a trade of our

company pleased but never satisfied

might have heard that from my

boss but never satisfied going to take

that tend to think about why we we

believe we're uniquely positioned as the

breadth of our portfolio as I mentioned

we believe AI goes out to the edge we're

at the edge we're a very very large

commercial PC uh provider to our

customers we're at the edge with a edge

business which I was on stage with you

last year talking about our Edge

business native Edge specific Al and

then you talk about servers and storage

and networking then ultimately to

Professional Services and then I talked

about the complexity of these of these

systems that we're building the level of

integration speed of deployment time to

First token time to

Value what a what a playground that we

can operate in and we think we have the

the breadth of skill and capability to

do it so you just had Doug Schmidt up

here I think well Doug's got he's got a

whole list of things for me to do and

Professional Services so we can

accomplish what our customers expect of

us so I think it's rising expectations

is how I would characterize it and we're

going to rise to the occasion I got to

ask Jeff the the PC question we got I

got my new XPS here and then you go Ling

those yeah and except you just announced

the aipc and I'm like well I want one of

those so my question is is is WW

dell.com XPS I know but I just got this

one so will will like you can have two

okay all right well fair enough I've got

will Ai and I can argue both sides of

the equation will it compress or

elongate PC Cycles I could argue on the

one hand more power so I might be able

to keep it longer on the other hand I

want the next one you remember we went

from 286 to 386 we were buying PCS every

two years because we had to have the

latest and greatest it that was fun so

what is your assumption

here I think it's too early to call okay

my my belief is if you look at that

pattern that you and I have been around

the block for a while of 286 I remember

28616 20

38616 20 penium and so on that each

incremental step in performance you were

more productive you could do more things

there's no reason to believe with the

horsepower that we're harnessing in

these npus and looking at the

measurement of what we launched earlier

in the year with meteor Lake what we

just launched launched with our Qualcomm

partnership and the five products we

talked about yesterday and again today

and what's to come the leap frogging

leap frogging of performance is

massive so now we're going to unleash

the ability to you're going to have a

personal assistant in front of you that

personal assistant is going to help you

search it's going to help you organize

it's going to help you do live caption

it's going to help you recall it's going

to help you create aren't you going to

want more of that yeah so the the answer

comes down to if it makes us more

productive like that earlier cycle that

you just described you know through

Pentium it always does then then it's

going to be a compression of the

otherwise we'll be in a replacement

cycle but if if if to your point if

there's true incremental value that can

be delivered in the form of productivity

or new skill or potential that we give

uh our

workers you're going to want to go drive

that productivity Improvement I got to

ask you another question so couple years

ago several years ago now as part of big

years we were just kind of thinking out

of the box and pushing Dell to think

about maybe designing your own Arm based

silicon and you and I have talked about

this and you're like yeah we got

Merchant silicon partners that are going

to do a better job than we will at that

having said that all the cloud players

are now doing their own silicon that

when you talk to them as to why they say

because we need to lower our cost will

the merchant silicon partners that you

have be able to deliver that on a

continuous basis from to to help you

lower your cost to stay competitive

because everybody's talking about hybrid

ai ai on Prem what are what are your

thoughts on that in terms of what are

you seeing from the merchant silicon

vendors and their ability to do Nitro

like stuff or training or or or

inference type silicon well at low cost

in many ways Dave we're entering I think

a new era for the PC that was since it

was a PC question which has

predominantly been

x86 right mhm

not anymore as of yesterday arm just

entered the equation for us with

Qualcomm uh I can't say exactly who's

doing what but there are more arm

processors coming that are targeted into

the design point for the PC so again as

a former designer I'm going I have more

Choice than I've ever had before so I've

been doing this for nearly four decades

and I go let me get this so I can begin

to pick parts

for performance per wat absolute

performance price point mixed

environment and I can find a piece of

silicon for each one of those that are

optimized that sounds like a lot of fun

and do you think comp what has

competition taught us in our industry

yeah lowers cost right it it his at

least if history is any indicator of

what's happening in the future it will

lower absolute cost for our

so this is interesting so your the

argument would be that that optionality

gives you options that you can take

advantage of perhaps vertical

integration may not give it reminds me

of Connor and Seagate some you you

remember this when finest came out it's

like hey we're going to use you know

Merchant heads and media and was able to

get to Market much quicker Al would say

well we're going to vertically integrate

because it's better for margins um

obviously not the perfect example but

for a period of time there in the PC

World that

optionality conferred competitive

Advantage for for quite some time it

created a lot of

value well look what we have around the

windows

platform is an enablement vehicle if you

will that that drives tremendous

Innovation the history of the PC space

has been a rich vibrant ecosystem has

driven Innovation incremental features

over the course of time

and now you're seeing that from a host

CPU with addition now npus these npus

have to be tuned to the OS stack right

so now we're going to see tuning we're

going to see performance Deltas back to

again when we used to do this a long

time ago you could design something that

was faster than someone's someone else's

even if you started from the same

building

block that opportunity to optimize

whether it's your distinct software in

our case what we do or working with

Microsoft and others absolutely

I mean I think this is I don't know what

the right characterization is but it's a

new wave of innovation that's going to

hit the PC that we haven't seen it's

going to be a reason to love your PC

again and and you're going you're going

to get 24-hour battery life but then

you're but then that's not the end of

the story you're going to want more of

that Innovation that's just scratching

the surface well it's going to be one of

the edge devices that brings that power

into a lot more hands which is a very

exciting time for Innovation across the

board for all of us it's still the

world's greatest productiv device and

we're going to make it better it is Jeff

thank you so much for being here with us

today in the middle of what is a very

busy day for you this has been fantastic

my pleasure and insightful Dave thank

you as well and thank all of you for

tuning in wherever you might be enjoying

our delicious 3 days of Deltech week

coverage here live on the cube my name

is Savannah Peterson you're watching the

cube here in Las Vegas Nevada we're the

leading source for Enterprise Tech news