January 15, 2013, 3:10 PM — Dell has released a trial version of public cloud computing services aimed specifically at the retail industry, joining a handful of companies that are attempting to position their products and services to serve specific vertical niches in the cloud computing market.
Dell's Cloud Client Computing for Retail is an end-to-end service that pairs cloud-hosted applications, such as point-of-sale software, with end-point device management. Combined with Dell servers, Dell Wyse thin clients and Dell's public cloud resources, the company is hoping it can make a compelling case for retailers to migrate their in-house hardware and outsourced applications to Dell.
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Dell is not the only company that is attempting to capture business by focusing products and services on a specific vertical industry. Amazon Web Services and Terremark -- Verizon's cloud computing division -- have offerings specifically for federal government agencies. Terremark has an entire division dedicated to government cloud computing. AWS's GovCloud is a separate region that only hosts government clients and is completely isolated form its other regions. Having that logical and physical separation allows organizations, like AWS and Terremark, to receive compliance certifications, such as the federal government's Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).
