With Dell Tech World 2023 officially wrapped, I thought it would be worthwhile to collect some thoughts and observations as a first-time attendee. Thanks to the organizers at Dell and an awesome event team here at StarTech.com, everything at the event ran smoothly from setup to teardown. We received hundreds of enthusiastic visitors at the StarTech.com booth, representing every continent and a multitude of industries and job roles from front-line technicians and helpdesk reps to software developers, sysadmins, engineers, and solution architects. Security and platform integration both remain a focus One of the most consistent themes of the show was security, and the related multi-faceted challenges in this increasingly hybrid landscape. IT pros are managing risks at the edge, across private and public clouds, and anywhere a highly mobile hybrid workforce is connected. Dell is particularly focused on making separate platforms secure and manageable: The demonstration of how the production team for Avatar: The Way of Water was able to have teams working on a digital-first film on multiple continents, while managing and integrating petabytes of data, is a powerful example of how integrated solutions can drive tangible real-world advancements in scope and capacity. In discussions with front-line technicians and administrators, it is clear StarTech.com products can help mitigate risks from physical security threats: Our secure charge cables were a huge hit, and definitely addressed a need in the IT pro’s toolkit. At a time when cybersecurity risks (and solutions) are multiplying and increasing in complexity, IT pros also appreciated high performance, simple to deploy solutions that can reduce user vulnerability to more traditional security risks like juice jacking, shoulder surfing, and device theft. AI will become a foundational tool AI was very much front and center at Michael Dell’s keynote address and based on guest speaker (and Microsoft CEO) Satya Nadella’s comments it is clear Microsoft is integrating an AI ‘co-pilot’ into its core products. The increasing integration of AI into routine business operations has implications for requirements at the endpoint (laptops and PCs certainly, but other devices too) and for infrastructure as well. AI at the edge has significant implications for IoT applications that can effectively analyze complex data in real or near-real time and make decisions without intervention. As an example, Dell demonstrated its project Luna platform at Dell World: A modular laptop design with the potential for AI-driven repair and analysis. Using a robotic repair station that permitted onboard laptop diagnostics to drive a work order (in this case a failed motherboard), the repair platform also dynamically assessed the device being repaired with imaging data to detect other flaws or damage that could be dynamically swapped out by the robotic repair arm. These principles can be applied to a wide variety of in-life applications that may have data being collected but lack the bandwidth and analytical platform to monitor and analyze conditions in real time. This move toward intelligent, proactive real-time analysis means IT pros will need to deliver more bandwidth to more devices as AI-enabled platforms become the standard. High-performance solutions like StarTech.com’s networking and rack accessories (fiber media converters, 10 Gbps-capable copper Ethernet devices and cables, high performance network cards) can help enable next-gen solutions and extend existing infrastructure investments in offices, warehouses, and factory floors to meet these demands going forward. …and it’s nice to feel the love My favorite part of attending a trade show of any size is the ability to meet IT professionals from a wide range of industries and listen to their challenges and talk about the innovative solutions they’re deploying. Even after multiple days of working the booth and walking the Solutions Expo at Dell Tech World, I never got tired of hearing things like “I love your stuff!” and “We use your [insert products here] all the time!” I got to hear some interesting use cases (StarTech.com on a submarine!) and—based on what I heard—we also walked away with a few new product ideas. This was a great event that generated equally great ideas and conversations: I can’t wait for next year! #dtw2023 #leaveitallinthebooth To learn more about the solutions that StarTech.com showcased at Dell Technologies World, visit our Unique Solutions for Network & Server Administrators page.