Microsoft, Lumen expand partnership on enterprise AI networks

Microsoft and Dell Technologies have formed a strategic partnership to integrate their hybrid AI capabilities, creating a more cohesive go-to-market approach for enterprise customers. At Dell Technologies World, Dell expanded its private cloud offering to deploy Microsoft software implementations, enabling a disaggregated architecture that simplifies operations across Dell PowerEdge compute, Dell PowerStore storage, and Azure Local.

This partnership aims to address the challenges of data fragmentation and operationalizing AI applications, which are significant barriers to scaling AI beyond pilot projects. Dell Automation Platform, Dell Private Cloud, and Azure Arc provide an operational backbone for deploying Azure Local on-premises and managing the hardware lifecycle.

SQL Server can run in virtual machines or Kubernetes containers without requiring separate skill sets for cloud and on-premises environments. Azure Arc offers consistent management across environments, and Dell's Deskside Agentic AI solution provides a local environment for building and testing AI agents, addressing the high cost of tokens required for large language models.