What WWT Took Away from Dell Technologies World 2026

For WWT, Dell Technologies World was a chance to deepen one of our most strategic partnerships and align on what customers need next: AI-ready infrastructure, simplified operations and trusted guidance to accelerate it all. 

Here's what we took away from the week.

The AI native enterprise is no longer a vision

By Derek Elbert and Jeff Fonke

Dell Technologies World 2026 made one thing unmistakably clear: the era of AI experimentation is over. In his keynote, Dell Technologies President and COO Jeff Clarke outlined ten seismic shifts that redefined the landscape in the past twelve months alone, including the following: token costs dropped 80% while usage exploded 320x, enterprise GenAI software spend tripled to $37 billion, and inference workloads now account for nearly two-thirds of all AI compute. Clarke's central thesis was this: the AI native enterprise isn't a company born in the AI era, but one that has made intelligence a utility that flows through every workflow, decision and interaction. Getting there, he argued, requires five imperatives: build an AI-ready data foundation, deploy distributed AI infrastructure, secure autonomous systems, integrate the full stack and restructure operations around token economics as the new unit of cognitive work cost.

On the AI infrastructure side, Dell delivered a sweeping portfolio refresh purpose-built for this new reality. Arthur Lewis announced the Dell AI Data Platform, a three-layer architecture combining NVIDIA accelerated computing, the Dell Orchestration Engine (from the Dataloop acquisition), storage enhancements with the Dell Lightning parallel file system (delivering 150 GB/s throughput per rack and a 19x improvement in time-to-first-token), and a unified storage tier spanning PowerScale, ObjectScale and the newly announced ExaScale — a 4-in-1 unified rack platform capable of 6 TB/s throughput. 

The 18th-generation PowerEdge compute refresh included the XE9812 server featuring NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72​, delivering a 10x cost-per-token reduction generation over generation. Dell's desktop AI lineup — from the ​Dell Pro Max with ​​NVIDIA ​GB10 to the​ Dell Pro Max with​​ G​B300​ — positions the ​​deskside system​​​​ as a serious AI token generator capable of running models up to one trillion parameters locally. 

With a current generally available (GA) version of Dell AI Data Platform, there is a unique advantage for Dell as they own the entire stack — from the primary engines focused on analytics, RAG and data curation. WWT is positioned to deploy the latest layers of the Dell AI Data Platform within the AI Proving Ground, with functional components already present.

Perhaps the most significant theme of the week was the accelerating push to bring frontier AI models on-premises, and Dell arrived with multiple answers. Google Gemini is now available, running in fully air-gapped environments on Dell infrastructure, co-engineered with confidential computing on NVIDIA Blackwell, addressing one of the most persistent blockers for regulated industries and federal customers. Dell also announced a collaboration with SpaceX AI to bring Grok models on premises through the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, delivering advanced reasoning and multimodal AI capabilities directly into enterprise environments with full data sovereignty and no requirement to move data to the cloud. Combined with the open-source agent framework Open Claw — which demonstrates fully local, private agent execution at the desktop — Dell's message was cohesive and compelling: enterprises should own their AI stack rather than rent it. 

For WWT customers, the conversations are no longer about whether to invest in AI infrastructure, but how quickly the right architecture can be designed, deployed, and optimized to make AI a competitive structural advantage that fits their needs.

Storage gets a full refresh, from midrange to exascale

By Kevin Weissman and Brian Bartell

Dell's 2026 storage announcements covered both ends of the spectrum: modernizing the midrange while pushing performance into entirely new territory for AI and HPC workloads. 

The flagship announcement, Dell PowerStore Elite, raises the bar for all-flash midrange storage with three times the performance of its predecessor, up to 5.8PB of effective capacity in a compact 3U footprint, and modular upgrades that can be installed without downtime. WWT views that last point as a critical consideration for always-on operations. 

On the data protection front, Cyber Detect for PowerStore and PowerMax delivers AI-driven ransomware detection with 99.99% accuracy, providing organizations with tighter, more automated protection across primary storage environments. 

Rounding out the security story, PowerProtect One consolidates protection management and secure storage under a single control plane, streamlining everything from backup policy to recovery workflows.

On the high-performance computing and AI infrastructure side, Dell unveiled two platforms that push storage performance into new territory. Dell ExaScale Storage is a 4-in-1 solution combining block (PowerFlex), file (PowerScale and Lightning File System) and object (ObjectScale) on the latest PowerEdge servers, targeting extreme-scale AI and high-performance computing workloads with read performance up to 6 TB/s per rack and support for ​​NVIDIA ConnectX-8 and ConnectX-9 SuperNICs​. As part of this solution, the Dell Lightning Filesystem is a purpose-built parallel file system engineered for the demanding throughput requirements of AI training and inference. 

Together, these platforms signal Dell's commitment to closing the gap between AI ambition and real-world outcomes, giving WWT's customers the building blocks to scale confidently into exascale workloads.

Cyber resilience, simplified: Complexity is the new risk factor

By Michael Ambruso

One of the clearest signals coming out of Dell Technologies World 2026 is a shift in how organizations are thinking about cyber resilience: complexity itself is now a primary risk factor. 

As data environments expand across core, cloud and edge — and threats increasingly target backup and recovery layers — the traditional model of stitching together point solutions is breaking down.

Dell's "Cyber Resilience, Simplified" messaging, highlighted by the introduction of PowerProtect One, reflects a broader market move toward integrated platforms that unify management, automation and secure, immutable protection. The emphasis isn't just on consolidation but on simplifying operations without sacrificing flexibility across heterogeneous environments. 

From a WWT perspective, the takeaway is less about any single platform and more about architecture. Organizations that get this right tend to focus on three things:

• Reducing fragmentation across protection and recovery workflows
• Treating operational simplicity as a resilience control, not just an efficiency goal
• Prioritizing recovery confidence over protection coverage alone

In practice, organizations that can streamline operations and ensure predictable recovery outcomes will be better positioned to withstand modern cyber events — where complexity, not capability, is often the point of failure.

Private cloud gets smarter — and more autonomous

By Chris Weis

Dell Technologies World brought a notable set of private cloud and automation announcements.

Dell Private Cloud is expanding its ecosystem support to include VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 (June 2026), Microsoft Azure Local (June 2026), and Nutanix AHV with PowerStore (July 2026), giving customers the flexibility to run their preferred hypervisor or cloud OS stack on Dell disaggregated infrastructure rather than traditional HCI bundles. Dell claims customers can reduce infrastructure costs by up to 65% compared to hyperconverged deployments.

Dell Automation Platform gets its biggest upgrade yet with the addition of agentic AI. New capabilities include a conversational "generative UI" and intelligent agents that automate infrastructure operations, enabling IT teams to interact with the platform in natural language to manage and optimize their environment. A premium add-on called Dell Automation Studio extends this further, allowing customers to build custom AI-driven automation workflows across compute, storage and networking. Automation Studio is available in June, while the broader agentic AI capabilities are slated for later in 2026. 

Tying it all together is Dell Distributed Private Cloud (formerly Dell NativeEdge), which brings the same private cloud experience to edge and distributed sites with two-node HA clusters, automatic failover, VM live migration, zero-trust security and zero-touch endpoint support. It's available now and sits under the same Automation Platform umbrella, giving customers a single management plane from the core data center to the furthest edge location.

18th-gen PowerEdge: The compute refresh cycle customers have been waiting for

By Charlie Cabarcas

Dell's 18th-generation PowerEdge portfolio, unveiled at Dell Technologies World, represents one of the most significant compute refresh cycles in recent memory. Eleven new systems deliver up to 70% better performance and 13-to-1 consolidation ratios through an engineered mix of air and direct-liquid-cooling architectures, giving organizations a clearer path to dense, efficient on-premises compute regardless of where they are in their modernization journey. 

The liquid-cooled M9825 — factory-integrated into Dell's IR7000 rack and powered by 6th Gen AMD EPYC processors — is purpose-built for AI and high-performance workloads that have outgrown traditional air-cooled environments. For organizations not ready to make that leap, the air-cooled R9825 and R9815 deliver up to 256 cores per system without requiring a facility overhaul. Dell's new PowerRack offering ties it together as a turnkey rack-scale system spanning compute, networking and storage — factory-validated and ready to run live workloads in under six and a half hours from delivery.

For organizations evaluating a compute refresh or standing up infrastructure for AI workloads, the timing is relevant. With Dell's 18th-gen rollout staged across the second half of 2026 and into 2027, now is the right window to assess fit against your environment and workload roadmap, particularly for the accelerated compute-focused XE5845 and XE7845. 

WWT's Advanced Technology Center gives you the ability to see, test and validate these platforms hands-on before you commit, and our AI practice group works directly with customers to map infrastructure decisions like these to real inference, consolidation and sovereign AI use cases.

Federal and public sector: AI modernization gets a roadmap

By Heath Muchmore

Dell Technologies World 2026 carved out meaningful space for the public sector, with sessions that went beyond product updates to address the structural challenges government and education customers are navigating. A session on AI-accelerated innovation in government and education put a sharp point on something WWT regularly hears from federal customers: public sector leaders are under real pressure to catch up with the commercial sector on infrastructure modernization and AI adoption. For WWT, this reinforces the value of our AI workshops and our efforts to connect eligible customers with Dell's Grants Office Support Program.

A second session — "Breaking Silos: AI's Role in Government Data Integration" — tackled a problem endemic to government: decades of accumulated data trapped in fragmented systems, making it nearly impossible to act on efficiently. The session focused on how agentic AI enabled by Model Context Protocol (MCP) can securely connect across government silos, enabling AI reasoning without requiring sensitive data to be moved or copied. Dell's position is that agencies layering MCP onto existing infrastructure today will have AI-capable operations by next year — an aggressive but credible timeline given the pace of adoption we're seeing. 

Dell Federal's Ray McDuffie, VP of the Federal Transformation Office, reinforced another dimension of this opportunity in a session focused on Five Eyes procurement. WWT is well-positioned to build on its US Public Sector, Federal and highly regulated agency expertise to deliver integrated solutions across the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand operating environment.

For product updates, it was good to see the new 18G PowerEdge starting with AMD 6th Gen CPUs and the details on the new lightning and Exascale storage, as well as the Z9965 (1.6Tbps 64 port) switch, as it helps make bundles easier to create without always needing third-party products on HPC and AI solutions.

25 years in the making: WWT recognized at the Global Partner Summit

By Kelly Chew

Dell Technologies World 2026 was a milestone moment for WWT's partnership with Dell — one that's been more than 25 years in the making.

At this year's Global Partner Summit, WWT was honored with two awards: 2026 Dell Marketing Partner of the Year and 2026 Dell Federal Strategic Impact Partner of the Year. These recognitions build on a consistent track record of joint investment — from the 2024 Dell Federal Marketing Partner of the Year to the 2025 North America AI Partner of the Year and Federal AI Partner of the Year. Each award reflects not just what WWT has achieved with Dell, but the depth of commitment both organizations have made to driving outcomes across enterprise and federal markets.

What makes this partnership distinct for clients is the combination of trust, technical depth and execution capability behind it. As Dell's first-ever Titanium Black partner, with more than 250 Dell certifications, WWT brings validated expertise across Dell's full portfolio, with the ability to design, test and deploy solutions at scale through the Advanced Technology Center and AI Proving Ground. Clients aren't just buying Dell infrastructure. They're getting a partner relationship built on decades of co-innovation, with the hands-on rigor to match, whether the goal is accelerating enterprise AI, modernizing federal infrastructure or navigating a complex data center transformation.