'We prevented a complete societal economic meltdown' - Michael Dell praises role of technology during pandemic

Dell CEO uses keynote speech at Dell Technologies World to stress importance of tech during the past year and in moving forward

Michael Dell praised the role of technology and his company in dealing with the problems posed by the Covid pandemic during his keynote speech at Dell Technologies World.

Kicking off the two-day conference, Dell said he was "grateful" for the role of his company in keeping organisations running and stressed that technology's role in the world has never been more important.

"It's been a year of humanity and a year of humility, a year of desperation, and inspiration, a year of loss and learning about what we are about, what we can be in the future, and about what we can build together," he said.

"Above all, for me and for all of us at Dell Technologies, I stand here grateful for our role in keeping your organisations up and running and delivering for your customers, for your patients, your students and your citizens.

"Together, we prevented a complete societal economic meltdown. That isn't hyperbole, it's what we as technologists did for the world. Technology has kept the world running."

Dell is using the conference to launch its new as-a-service platform APEX, which was originally introduced as a project at last year's event, as well as advancements in its edge computing offering.

It signals a shift in priority for Dell, having recently sold off both software manufacturer VMWare and cloud platform Boomi, which was announced on Monday.

But Dell was keen to stress the importance of a continued partnership with VMware and of technology's position in a post-pandemic world.

"Together, Dell Technologies and VMware are the multi-cloud platform for digital transformation," he added.

"I am excited for technology that is easier to operate and easier to consume, that's outcome oriented, that's built intelligently to move your data, compute and workloads where you need them which, increasingly, will be at the Edge.

"We used to go to school, to work, to entertainment, to shop and to interact. Now, things come to us, wherever we are. This is how we'll move forward, pulling through the silver linings of 2020 to shape how we live, work and learn in 2021 and beyond. And technology is at the centre of everything.

"One thing is clear; we have more power to do more good and create more human progress than at any time in our lives. And as the age expands across industries and cities with the rollout of 5G, the possibilities are limitless."