Dell Technologies APEX

Dell Technologies Cloud
Industry	Computing, Cloud computing, Web services
Predecessor	Dell, EMC Corporation
Founder(s)	Michael Dell
Headquarters	Round Rock, Texas, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Michael Dell (CEO)
Products	IaaS, DBaaS, DaaS, SaaS
Revenue	$1.34 billion (2020, Q4)
Website	delltechnologies.com/en-us/cloud/

Dell Technologies Cloud is a VMware-powered portfolio of consumption-based and as-a-service solutions by Dell Technologies that "delivers consistent management across private, public and edge cloud infrastructure—so you can choose the best environment for each application and use case."^[2] Solutions include Dell Technologies Cloud Platform (DTCP), VMware Cloud on Dell EMC, VxRail, and VxBlock.^[3] The Dell Technologies Cloud solutions support the Alibaba, Amazon, Google, IBM, and Microsoft public clouds, among others.^[4]

Provider research

This section uses public information to provide some answers to the 18 questions posed in Chapter 6 of the wiki-based guide Choosing and Implementing a Cloud-based Service for Your Laboratory. In some cases, public information could not be found, and a recommendation to further discuss the question with the cloud service provider (CSP) is made. Additionally, as a hybrid cloud provider, some of the questions from Chapter 5 (e.g., "How segregated is our cloud data from another customer's") are not relevant, as they are not providing public cloud services.

1. What experience do you have working with laboratory customers in our specific industry?

It's not clear what laboratories have adopted Dell Technologies Cloud solutions. However, Dell does discuss putting some of its cloud-scale systems to use in the laboratory realm with its solution brief on Dell EMC PowerScale. A Dell Technologies Cloud representative is likely to be able to supply more examples of laboratories that use or have used Dell Technologies Cloud.

2. Can your solution readily integrate with our other systems and business processes, making it easier for our end users to perform their tasks?

Dell promotes integration of existing legacy cloud and on-premises platforms with other private and public cloud platforms largely through its Dell Technologies Cloud Platform (DTCP) and strong VMware integrations. DTPC instances "deliver standardized combinations of compute (in some cases GPU/accelerators), memory, storage, and networking resources, on which a virtual machine or container can run. They are aligned and optimized to your workload requirements, ranging from small (4GB) to extra-large (32GB) memory-to-CPU core ratios."^[5] On the VMware side, the company adds that "VxRail, powered by Dell EMC PowerEdge server platforms and VxRail HCI System Software, delivers deep integration across the VMware ecosystem. This means you can rapidly deploy secure on-premises cloud infrastructure and take advantage of a full stack single-click lifecycle management experience."^[5] These technologies further enhance integration with business processes and systems by allowing for workloads to be seamlessly transferred between public and private cloud infrastructures. For more on this topic, discuss it with a representative.

3. What is the average total historical downtime for the service(s) we're interested in?

Dell Technologies Cloud is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. That said, Dell Technologies provides disaster recovery as a service for hybrid cloud platforms using its Dell Technologies Cloud Storage, VMware Cloud, and Dell EMC solutions, helping laboratories limit the repercussions of their public or private cloud going down.

4. Do we receive comprehensive downtime support in the case of downtime?

Dell Technologies Cloud is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. However, Dell still provides support services for its service offerings. Per its Dell Technologies Cloud Services Terms of Service:

Service Provider will provide support to Customer for the Service Offering in accordance with the applicable Support Terms as specified in the applicable Service Description. Service Provider will not provide support to Customer’s End Users or for Content of Customer or End Users.

Be sure to confirm the support terms for the service you select.

5. Where are your servers located, and how is data securely transferred to and from those servers?

Dell Technologies Cloud is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. That said, it will be useful to understand the underlying technology supplied by Dell in regards to data transmission to public and private cloud instances. Cloud-based data protection services from Dell such as Dell Technologies Cloud for Data Protection and Dell Technologies Cloud PowerProtect for Multi-Cloud may be of additional interest.

6. Who will have access to our data (including subcontractors), and what credentials, certifications, and compliance training do they have?

Dell Technologies Cloud is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. That said, Dell Technologies does state its policies on secure development of products and applications, stating^[6]:

"Dell provides security training to employees on job-specific security best practices and policies to create a security-aware culture across its entire employee community."
"Dell has established a comprehensive security program, which ... includes analysis activities such as threat modeling, static code analysis, and security testing to discover and address security defects throughout the development lifecycle."
"Dell has also designed a baseline set of security capabilities to meet customers’ security objectives and compliance requirements."

7. Will our sensitive and regulated data be stored on a machine dedicated to complying with the necessary regulations?

Dell Technologies Cloud is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. However, as noted in the prior question, as well as Dell's compliance statement, the company attempts to embed strong data protection and compliance mechanisms into its offerings.

8. How segregated is our cloud data from another customer's, i.e., will lapses of security of another customer's cloud affect our cloud? (It typically won't, but asking the question will hopefully prompt the provider to better explain how your data is segregated.)

Dell Technologies Cloud is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant.

9. Do you have documented data security policies?

Dell Technologies documents its thoughts and practices on security in several places:

10. How do you test your platform's security?

Many points about security and testing can be found in prior questions (e.g., 6 and 9). For further details, discuss this with a Dell Technologies representative.

11. What are your policies for security audits, intrusion detection, and intrusion reporting?

Dell Technologies Cloud is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. That said, Dell's implementation of VMware Cloud Foundation in some of its cloud technologies allows for setting up firewall rules, antivirus scanning and intrusion detection in their hybrid cloud.^[7]

12. What data logging information is kept and acted upon in relation to our data?

Dell Technologies Cloud is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant.

13. How thorough are those logs and can we audit them on-demand?

Dell Technologies Cloud is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. However, in its Dell Technologies Cloud Services Terms of Service (presumably for its SaaS services), Dell does mention that it^[8] :

monitors and collects configuration, performance, and usage data relating to Customer’s use of the Service Offering: (a) to facilitate delivery of the Service Offering (such as (i) tracking entitlements, (ii) providing support, (iii) monitoring the performance, integrity, and stability of the Service Offering’s infrastructure, and (iv) preventing or addressing service or technical issues); and (b) to improve Service Provider’s products and services, and Customer’s experience. Customer must not interfere with that monitoring.

14. For HIPAA-eligible data (e-PHI) we may have, will you sign a business associate agreement?

Dell Technologies Cloud is not a public cloud, and as such, this question is not fully relevant. That said, it's worth noting that the Dell Technologies Cloud Services Terms of Service actually mentions HIPAA, stating "Customer must not upload into the Service Offering any Content that: ... (e) constitutes information governed by HIPAA unless Customer has signed a Business Associate Agreement (as defined by HIPAA) with Service Provider."^[8] As such, if data and information governed by HIPAA gets stored on Dell Technologies Cloud machines, it sounds like yes, a business associate agreement will be signed.

15. What happens to our data should the contract expire or be terminated?

The company states in its Dell Technologies Cloud Services Terms of Service the following^[8]:

Deletion of any Content remaining in the Service Offering will occur as specified in the applicable Service Description. As between Customer and Service Provider, Customer is responsible for ensuring that Customer has necessary copies of all Customer’s Content prior to the effective date of any termination.

For more clarity, discuss this with a Dell Technologies representative.

16. What happens to our data should you go out of business or suffer a catastrophic event?

Presumably, if Dell goes out of business, you may have to return equipment, but not without first being able to back up data from that equipment first. You'll have to clarify this with a representative. As for catastrophic events, it appears you'll be responsible for "lost profits or business opportunities, loss of use of the service offering, or loss of content" in the case of failures, per the Dell Technologies Cloud Services Terms of Service.^[8] Read the Terms of Service and discuss with a representative to confirm.

17. Can we use your interface to extract our data when we want, and in what format will it be?

As a hybrid solution, you should be able to extract data at whim to another private of public cloud location.

18. Are your support services native or outsourced/offshored?

It is unclear if support personnel are local to the customer or if support is outsourced to another business and country. Discuss this with a Dell Technologies Cloud representative.

Managed security services

Dell doesn't appear to explicitly advertise "managed security services." Dell does, however, offer a standard managed services portfolio through its Dell Technologies Managed Services offering.^[9] One of the offerings in that managed services portfolio is "Dell Technologies Managed Detection and Response." Dell describes these services as "a fully managed, end-to-end, 24x7 service that monitors, detects, investigates, and responds to threats across the entire IT environment, helping organizations with 50 or more endpoints to quickly and significantly improve their security posture—while reducing the burden on IT."^[10] This managed service is described as having four components: agent rollout assistance, thread detection and investigation, response and active remediation, and remote cybersecurity incident response.^[10]