There has been a lot of big news recently for Dell, with the largest tech buy-out in history dominating headlines in the industry press.
As Dell prepares for its flagship IT show, here are some of the topics expected to dominate at the 2015 event.
1. EMC Acquisition
Dell recently announced that it would be buying fellow IT giant EMC for $67 billion. The combination will create the world’s largest privately controlled, integrated technology company.
This will be the major talking point, particularly as little is currently known about how the two companies will be integrated. Possibly the company formed will split into two highly specialised companies or compete with other IT heavyweights as one combined entity.
2. Pivoting to software
Dell has been gradually reorienting itself towards the software market as some of its traditional hardware lifelines decline. These include new product offerings focused on the enterprise such as endpoint management, data protection and identity and access management.
Citrix was reportedly in talks with Dell recently over a possible acquisition, giving Dell a strong foothold in the edge software market. Expect software products to take centre stage.
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3. Consolidation in the PC market
As well as moving towards software, Dell is faced with the need to ensure that it remains the leader in the markets it does dominate – especially when Microsoft is making inroads into the market with its own Surface laptop devices.
Recent figures from IDC revealed that competitors Lenovo and HP have 20.3 and 18.5 percent share in the PC market, respectively, while Dell has 14.5 – so even if the market is lacking organic growth there is plenty more that Dell could be doing.
4. Partnerships
As well as acquisitions, we can expect Dell to announce how it is working with partners to launch new products. The major company to look out for is Microsoft, as CEO Satya Nadella is scheduled as one of the main speakers at the event.
This could centre on Dell launching new products that take advantage of the Windows 10 inter-connected ecosystem or a collaboration around cloud. Other major sponsors include Deloitte, Samsung, VMware and AWS.
5. The future
Of course, tech industry events are never just about the future of the company hosting them. The opening general session is called "A Future-Ready World." Dell will be using the event to reveal its own vision of what the world of the future is going to look like and how industries such as healthcare are set to be transformed.
This vision will include the role that technologies such as the Internet of Things and Big Data are going to play in getting there, and to articulate the position that Dell will occupy once we get there.
