Jason Shepherd, CTO of IoT and Edge Computing at Dell: The Future of Advanced Computing

— Jason Shepherd, CTO of IoT and Edge Computing at Dell Technologies, discusses the progression from mechanical engineering to leading Dell's IoT and edge computing strategy, holding 14 granted and 13 pending US patents.

— IoT refers to autonomous devices collecting data from the physical world; edge computing moves computation closer to data sources to solve latency, bandwidth, security, and cost challenges.

— Automation in industrial settings requires real-time visibility and trusted decision-making; most production changes remain human-approved rather than fully autonomous due to risk of production loss or safety issues.

— Trust across heterogeneous systems demands a layered approach: root-of-trust silicon, strong authentication, open APIs (like EdgeX Foundry), immutable storage, and distributed ledger technologies rather than blockchain alone.

— Machine-to-machine payments and autonomous ordering (e.g., machines triggering maintenance or replacement) unlock real business value when underpinned by decentralized trust and interoperability.

— Technical challenges include driving interoperability through open standards, extending cloud-native principles to the edge, applying security in usable ways, and enabling collaboration on open plumbing rather than proprietary lock-in.

— Focus on outcomes first, then select technologies—avoid adopting blockchain, AI, IoT or other tools as solutions looking for problems; this reduces hype-driven failures and aligns investment with real use cases.

— Interoperability and open APIs (exemplified by EdgeX Foundry) are prerequisites for scaling automation; proprietary platforms and data silos limit the efficiency gains and new revenue opportunities that distributed trust can enable.