Dell Launches Dell Create, Media and Entertainment Consultancy
Dell joined good company today – such as Microsoft Azure, Sony Media Cloud Services, and Adobe Primetime – launching a grand unified content management system. Dell Create, as it’s called, has several differences, however, that make it useful for media and entertainment companies that need custom solutions and that are concerned about security.
Dell Create isn’t a system that companies buy into, but a system that Dell creates around them. Dell’s consultancy practice is a major element to the comprehensive solution. Dell meets with the customer and studies the workflows inside the organization – which could take days, weeks, or months – before recommending a solution.
With Dell Create, Dell is trying to provide media and entertainment companies with comprehensive, unified workflows that meet their needs and help them grow. The problem, as Dell sees it, is that companies moving from traditional video workflows to file-based workflows are creating solutions for specific projects, but then have no way to join those solutions and reap the benefits of having them all work together. With Dell Create, it wants to help them transition, leveraging the benefits of big data, high-speed networks, and connectivity.
To create a unified system, Dell needs to get its own solutions and those from partner companies speaking the same language. That language is called COMPASS, which stands for Collaborative Multi-vendor Platform-as-a-Service. COMPASS was envisioned by Dell, but is open to all vendors that want to build compatible solutions. In five years, Dell would like COMPASS to be the operating system for workflows.
When Dell consults with a media and entertainment company, it looks at the company’s projects, then builds one infrastructure that addresses those needs. With a common infrastructure, companies can create more ambitious projects, such as GPS technologies that work with mobile devices or metadata managers that collect and carry data from filming to distribution.
“We’re trying to introduce a plan that lets our customers make those connections,” says Chad Andrews, Dell’s vertical strategist for telecom, media, and entertainment.
One technology driving Dell’s efforts is Boomi, which it acquired three years ago. Boomi lets customers take databases from disparate systems and connect them. They can then share data between systems that weren’t built to share data. Launch partners for Dell Create include Mediasmiths and Integrated Media Technology.
While other multi-part media solutions emphasize the cloud, Dell is launching on the ground. For now, Dell Create is largely an on-premises solution focusing on storage, asset management, and security. Those are the big pain points that Dell wants to focus on. Dell Create is for companies that want to keep their media assets securely in-house.
Dell is looking to work with medium to large broadcasters to start, and hopes the studios will take notice as the system’s ROI is proven. The first step is a free-half day workshop, where Dell reps explain the benefits of Dell Create. They then spend time studying the client’s business needs up close, and make a proposal.
“This is the head of the baby crowning,” says Andrews. Dell Create has only just been created, and should become something even more ambitious as it grows to solve new problems.
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