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Dell Technologies drives evolution of modern support and security

Services and security updates deliver customised IT support and secure PC experiences for work-from-anywhere employees.

Johannesburg, 30 Sep 2021

News summary

  • ProSupport Suite for PCs enhancements provide greater IT visibility, remote remediation, actionable recommendations.
  • AI-driven support, tools and cloud portal now available for channel partners globally through ProSupport Suite for PCs.
  • New endpoint security offerings help prevent, detect and respond to threats and help deliver secure deployments of commercial PCs.

Full story

In today’s “do anything from anywhere” world, the PC is more than just a tool; it has become the key connection point for work and communication. Employees rely on it as a gateway for collaboration and productivity – and any downtime is disruptive especially to the bottom line.

New Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) support services and security solutions enhance the way IT leaders provide a modern, intelligent and secure PC experience for employees. Added capabilities in the ProSupport Suite for PCs build on the foundation of artificial intelligence and an always-on approach to make IT support easier and more customisable. New endpoint security offerings enhance commercial PCs[1] with new security verification capabilities and additional protections below the operating system.

“If your PCs aren’t productive, your employees aren’t either,” said Patrick Moorhead, founder and chief analyst, Moor Insights & Strategy. “Support services and security offerings must evolve with changing employee experiences and stay ahead of the threats that exist at every corner. I believe Dell Technologies is stepping up to the plate with some unique offerings that are designed with the future in mind."

ProSupport Suite for PCs maximises productivity and uptime with new features that customise and tailor IT support

According to a recent survey from Forrester Consulting, 70% of companies plan to increase their investment in remote workforce in the next year.[2] With ProSupport Suite for PCs, IT managers can now customise and automate the way they support employees and optimise PCs. New features include:

  • Customisable IT management tools: ProSupport Suite for PC, a support service that provides IT managers with automated custom update catalogue management and deployment capabilities.[3] Now they have the ability to update Dell BIOS, drivers, firmware and applications automatically and remotely, and customise how those updates are grouped and managed.
  • Tailored, actionable information for PC fleet in one place: IT managers can see the health, application experience and security scores for their entire Dell PC fleet in one glance.[4] They can use those scores over time to uncover performance trends and also take immediate action when needed, remotely, leveraging tailored recommendations and utilisation metrics provided by Dell Technologies' AI-powered services support software.
  • Customised, remote workflows: Using a customised rules engine to define and orchestrate remote remediation workflows at scale, IT managers are also able to predetermine who receives updates automatically and how they are administered.
  • ProSupport Suite for PCs features available to channel partners and their customers: Channel partners can leverage the entire scope of our AI-driven support, tools and portal within the ProSupport Suite for PCs. Partners can view and manage the support experience for multiple organisations using SupportAssist in TechDirect and have the option to leverage Dell Technologies’ expertise to overcome customer challenges on a case-by-case or fleet-wide basis.

“The role of IT has never been more important. While the mission remains the same – keep everyone productive and systems up and running – the operations behind it have become a lot more complicated, especially with the amount of data and opportunities at the edge ever-increasing,” said Doug Schmitt, president of Services, Dell Technologies. “Our approach to IT services is built on an AI-driven, adaptive, always-on foundation, taking today’s realities and future customer needs into consideration. At the end of the day, the new capabilities are about helping IT leaders see ahead, and stay ahead, while providing workforces around the world the ability to continue collaborating and innovating without disruption.”

Doubling down with innovations for the secure and intelligent commercial PC portfolio with built-in AI[5]

The rapid shift to remote work, increased use of cloud applications and new ways of addressing employee productivity needs have created new threat vectors at the endpoint. Every business is a target regardless of location, industry or size as threats have grown increasingly sophisticated and sometimes challenging to detect. Recent data suggests 44% of organisations experienced at least one hardware-level or BIOS attack over the past 12 months.[6] For an endpoint security strategy to be effective, it must take the entire attack surface into consideration, including supply chain hardware and firmware.

Dell Trusted Devices security portfolio helps protect Dell commercial PCs throughout the supply chain and device life cycle. This comprehensive suite of above and below the operating system (OS) security solutions leverage intelligence and help empower businesses to prevent, detect and respond to threats with improved mean-time-to-detect (MTTD) and mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR) of issues.

Dell Technologies builds on its leadership position with new security capabilities that include:

  • Advanced Secure Component Verification for PCs allows customers to verify Dell commercial PCs and key components arrive as they were ordered and built. Dell Technologies is the first commercial PC manufacturer in the industry with this native capability, extending its supply chain security and integrity controls.[7]
  • Intel Management Engine (ME) Verification verifies critical system firmware and detects tampering. The initial release of Intel ME Verification targets boot processes critical to system security and provides additional layers below the OS security.
  • Dell Trusted Device Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Integration brings customers full visibility of critical below the OS security events through select SIEM dashboards.[8] It allows for a comprehensive analysis of the organisation’s security status while enabling them to extract more value out of existing security investments.

Availability

  • New ProSupport Suite for PCs capabilities will be available to new and existing customers directly and through channel partners globally, starting 19 October.
  • Advanced Secure Component Verification is available today for US federal customers and on select Dell commercial PCs.
  • Intel ME Verification and Dell Trusted Device SIEM Integration are available today in North America, Europe and APJ on Dell commercial PCs.

[1] Applies to Dell Precision, Latitude and OptiPlex. Based on Dell analysis, January 2020. Learn more at https://www.dellemc.com/endpointsecurity.

[2] IT Leaders Outside Experience to Achieve Business Outcomes: A Spotlight on IT Service Providers – A Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Spotlight Commissioned by Dell Technologies, May 2021.

[3] Dell ProSupport Plus is the only/first support service to provide automated custom update catalog management and deployment, based on Dell analysis, August 2021.

[4] Dell ProSupport Plus is the only/first support service to provide all three actionable scores on one dashboard: fleet health, security and application experience scores, based on Dell analysis, August 2021.

[5] Based on Dell analysis, November 2019.

[6] Futurum Research, Four Keys to Navigating the Hardware Security Journey, Oct. 2020.

[7] Based on Dell Analysis, September 2021.

[8] Based on Dell Analysis, September 2021.

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Editorial contacts

Debra Johnston
debra@pbpr.co.za