The Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC), which offers cost-savings initiatives to colleges and universities, announced a competitively awarded contract for virtualization and data center modernization solutions to Dell Technologies. The new Dell Technologies contract offers innovative and cost-effective virtualization solutions to assist higher education institutions to transition their infrastructure to the modern data center and networks across varied public and private cloud providers. The contract is designed to meet the demands and needs of institutions of all sizes.

“The boundaries of the modern data center have expanded to include a variety of operating models, including cloud, hybrid and on-premise options. Dell’s Data Center Virtualization and Modernization contract provides entities in MHEC and its sister compact states the flexibility to choose which model best fits their needs,” said Leslie Harlien, Vice President, Public Sector sales at Dell Technologies. “The inclusion of additional solutions from VMware, Boomi and Dell’s Cyber-Recovery portfolio help to address many of the opportunities and challenges facing customers today. We are excited about the possibilities of serving the compact members and delivering outcomes that help drive innovation and student success.”

This nationally available cooperative master agreement provides access to a wide range of tiered discounts for hardware, services, managed services, training and financing solutions from Dell Financial Services. The contract offers comprehensive end-to-end solutions with the flexibility to choose from the full line of hardware, software, and as-a-service offerings related to networks, wireless, server and storage options. These competitive discounts are available to colleges, universities, K-12 districts as well as cities, states and local governments located throughout 47 states.

“Institutions of all sizes are seeing a shift in the balance of IT infrastructure spending from capital to operational expenditures with our data centers blended between on-premise equipment and the cloud,” said Aric Kirkland, Director of Desktop and Classroom Technology & Interim Director of Enterprise Support, at Eastern Michigan University. Kirkland who chaired the working committee that helped select Dell Technologies continued, “Having vendors that can provide total solutions, managing and providing training, support, maintenance, and professional services to our campuses is crucial.”

“It is important to our states to have competitive and cost-effective options for their technology purchases and services,” stated Susan Heegaard, MHEC President. “Think about the digital demands we never imagined before the pandemic and how the use of technology has changed. We are pleased to be able to offer this contract broadly, for so many different entities within our Midwest region but also to the other regional compacts during such a period of transition in higher education.”

The initial term of the Dell Technologies contract runs through February 2024 with options to renew for an additional four years.