Mark Davison at Dell EMC World in Las Vegas – Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies still remembers when his father brought home one of the first calculators and how he thought the device “was magic”. But he’s even more amazed by the magic currently being weaved by his company as it strives towards being “all for everything in one place”.

Addressing more than 13 000 delegates at this year’s Dell EMC World, Dell says he is excited by the set of announcements the company will make this week, ranging from a new generation of servers, through storage and networking products, as well as various services and applications, to address the digital transformation that is encompassing the world and will impact organisations’ IT, workforce and the way they view security.

“We’re starting to make Dell Technologies happen,” Dell says. “We’re making it real. That’s why we created Dell Technologies and we’re committed to innovation from Dell EMC, VMware, all the way through to Pivotal and RSA to be the company that can offer all for everything in one place – from cloud through to the software-defined data centre.”

Dell says the companies under the Dell Technologies’ banner are already the leaders in 15 of Gartner’s Magic Quadrants.

“This engine is fuelled by $4,5-billion in R&D and backed by the most effective supply chain in the industry to drive efficiency,” he says. “We have more direct customers and more channel partners than anyone else in IT. We have the most powerful group of partners in the world today. And, due to the fact we’re a private company, we’ve managed the financial structure to bring the best innovations at the highest quality and of the greatest value to you, our customers.”

Dell cautions, though, that there is still work to be done at the company.

“I deal with a lot of CEOs, a lot of CIOs, and I see their hunger for digital transformation,” he says. “And while it is great to be front and centre, there is still progress to be made on an IoT strategy, cloud and workforce strategies, and a security strategy. We’ve still got a lot to do.”

And the company has already started on this journey, he adds.

“To get to digital transformation, you have to have IT transformation,” Dell says. “And when it comes to modern infrastructure, we lead in almost every category. This week will see the launch of our 14th generation PowerEdge servers, the first server designed for the digital era. We’ve also entirely refreshed our storage offerings, designed to support a full range of applications; and our open networking products.”

Following on from IT transformation, Dell says that company workforces are also going through their own transformation.

“Business is not about the cloud, but what you do with the cloud,” he says. “The workforce and the workplace is changing – the activity is different and the workplaces are different because you have different teams around the world. We’re designing technology around the way people work and you’re going to see some amazing innovations in the client area. We’re making technology consumer simple and enterprise secure – right out of the box”

Dell says a further transformation is taking place in the security arena.

“The explosion in data is an opportunity for all of us,” he says. “But it also poses new risks. We have to think differently about security – and as you will see this week, we are doing this harnessing the expertise of group companies including SecureWorks and RSA.

“With the innovations that will be announced – leading infrastructure and leading client innovations – we’re number one in everything, all in one place,” Dell says.