The annual recurring revenue for Dell Technologies Inc.’s APEX offering is now over $1 billion, two years after its unveiling. That signals a real business opportunity, so it is no surprise that Dell has been steadily enhancing APEX since then.

APEX, Dell’s portfolio of as-a-service offerings, has emerged as a focal point of the company’s multicloud strategy. During the “Future of Cloud-Native Infrastructure Is Now – Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift” virtual event on October 26, theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, will take a closer look at how containerized applications are going places that cloud-native has never been before.

This special event will include interviews with key Dell executives and insight from theCUBE’s analyst team, as the discussion will focus on the continued shift to hybrid models. (* Disclosure below.)

Taming complexity

The rise of cloud-native has fostered a need for cloud enablement, offering new capabilities for more agile development and deployment of applications in the enterprise. The dilemma has been that use of multiple clouds, which a majority of organizations desire, has led to complexity generated by variances in operating environments, tools and processes.

“By 2026 … only 11% of Global 2000 customers expect to be all-in on the public cloud,” said Dave Vellante, industry analyst for the theCUBE, during a discussion of recent Dell announcements. “So, nearly 90% of Global 2000 customers think they are going to remain hybrid by the 2026 timeframe.”

Dell’s approach has been to create a more consistent operational layer through APEX that will function effectively across multiple clouds. At the start of 2022, the company unveiled APEX Multi-Cloud Data Services to deliver storage and data protection offerings with access to all major public clouds through a single console.

Since then, Dell has pursued a deliberate strategy to enhance APEX through a series of collaborations. These include a partnership with Snowflake to connect Dell storage with Snowflake Data Cloud, and an agreement with Red Hat Inc. to accelerate DevOps in multicloud environments.

Dell also recently announced a partnership to provide a native VMware Inc. management experience and an expansion of the APEX portfolio to extend Microsoft Azure Cloud to the edge.

“Companies are not all-in on cloud anymore,” said Rob Strechay, industry analyst for theCUBE, in a recent briefing. “Cloud-native apps are being developed on-premises. They are not necessarily repatriating from cloud, but they are taking a balanced look at where they deploy, how they deploy.”

Evolving role for containers

In addition to development in the cloud and on-premises, modern applications are also being generated in Kubernetes or containerized environments. Dell has been developing a role for APEX in containers as well.

The company’s collaboration with Red Hat in 2022 included an on-premises cloud experience for developers using OpenShift and Dell-managed-container-as-a-service products. Dell also launched APEX Navigator for Kubernetes as a SaaS solution to simplify container storage management while integrating advanced data services.

Dell provides enterprise users with the capability for deploying a modern applications platform-as-a-service with VMware Tanzu and VxRail, along with reference architectures for implementing Microsoft SQL Server Big Data Clusters on VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid. By focusing on APEX at the center of its multicloud strategy, Dell is providing enterprise users with the flexibility to build applications in a variety of platform environments.

“Applications are going to be in places that cloud-native really hasn’t been before,” Strechay said. “We’re talking about edge; we’re talking about smaller footprints. It makes sense to be developing for those apps in those places or off the cloud.”

TheCUBE event livestream

Don’t miss theCUBE’s coverage of the “Future of Cloud-Native Infrastructure Is Now – Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift” virtual event on Oct. 26. Plus, you can watch theCUBE’s event coverage on-demand after the live event.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch theCUBE’s coverage of the “Future of Cloud-Native Infrastructure Is Now – Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift” virtual event, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher and Spotify, which you can enjoy while on the go.

SiliconANGLE also has analyst deep dives in our Breaking Analysis podcast, available on iTunes, Stitcher and Spotify.

Guests

During the “Future of Cloud-Native Infrastructure Is Now – Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift” virtual event, theCUBE analysts will talk with Sudhir Srinivasan, senior vice president of multicloud and data solutions at Dell; Chris Morgan, senior director of hybrid platforms customer and field engagement at Red Hat; and Caitlin Gordon, VP of product management at Dell.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the “Future of Cloud-Native Infrastructure Is Now – Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift” virtual event. Neither Dell Technologies Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Image: SiliconANGLE