The Dimension Data/Apple journey started when Dimension Data globally joined companies like IBM, Deloitte, Cisco, SAP to become an Apple Enterprise Partner. By that Dimension Data became the missing piece of the puzzle for Apple in terms of getting into the enterprise space. Joe Manuele, Dimension Data Group Executive, Customer Experience and Collaboration stated at that time: “We understand our clients need a strategic approach to mobility – one that merges the world’s best user experience through Apple devices with full enterprise capabilities.”

For Dimension Data Luxembourg, the Apple journey started almost a year ago with a thorough onboarding process and it took us until Q2 2018 to finalise this important milestone. Since then we support our clients with advice, implementation and support services for Enterprise Solutions based on Apple iOS and MacOS devices.

Apple just announced the new iPad Pro and when Dimension Data announced the local Apple partnership in springtime, this was somehow the device that we were waiting for.

The new iPad Pro is once again one of these Apple devices that will change everything – but this time not only on the consumer, but on the business market as well.

400 million sold iPads made the old iPad generations by far the most popular tablet in history.

The impact of the iPad became visible to a lot of people last night, when Tim Cook visualised how many iPads have been sold in the last year compared to the entire notebook line-up of all the biggest notebook manufacturers. Tim used that analogy as a proof that iPad is not only the most popular tablet but the most popular computer in the world. This is even more astonishing if we keep in mind that we are talking about a device that did not even have a standard connector to use classical 3^rd party accessories and had further no major innovative updates since the Apple Pencil.

The new iPad Pro really pushes the limits of what can be done on any computer even further. Face ID makes this device the most secure and easy to access Enterprise Device on the planet. The power of that feature becomes more understandable by keeping in mind that it is not only able to unlock the device but also available for Enterprise Applications.

The iPad Pro is no longer a brilliant tablet but almost a PC. The CPU in this device is now faster than the latest Intel Core i7 CPUs. The Graphic performance of iPad Pro is similarly ahead of current PCs. An iPad now goes up to 1TB of storage capacity and finally there is a standard USB-C connector. It allows to connect to an USB-C dock, and behind that the endless world of USB-C devices including even high-end up to 5K displays.

The editing capabilities with the 2^nd generation pencil in combination with a high-end display are beating any current PCs functionality. The new iPad Pro will bring Augmented Reality to the next level and prepares the world for Glasses, which will become the next revolution in IT devices. Seeing what Autodesk or Adobe can do on this device is clearly going beyond classical PCs capacities.

The partnership that we built with Apple at Dimension Data is all about our strategic Customer Experience (CX), Digital Workplace (DW) and Digital Business Solutions (DBS) offering. We strongly believe that Enterprises are open for a new kind of End-user Experience, which is driven by native Apps running on different kind of endpoints, like Watch Apps, Mobile Apps, Web Apps, Desktop Apps, any kind of IOT devices and in the future Glasses. The new iPad is just one of them – but probably the most creative and powerful device the world has seen so far. It will continue to give Enterprises more freedom and will again show the limits of old fashion client server-based Desktop Applications. It has never been easier to empower employees in retail, banking, healthcare or any other industry to provide them with a custom build apps, giving them secure access to their enterprise backend applications.