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  5. Dell's Storage Strategy To Wean Itself Off Of EMC: Page 2 of 2
Data Centers

Dell's Storage Strategy To Wean Itself Off Of EMC: Page 2 of 2

Dell is laying out its storage strategy to: exploit the value of several recent acquisitions, expand its product lines and gradually (though not completely) wind down its reseller relationship with storage hardware vendor EMC. Dell's $960 million acquisition of Compellent, completed in February, gives it a multiprotocol tiered storage area network (SAN) product line that's a direct competitor to EMC offerings. Also, the data compression and deduplication software Dell gained with the acquisition
March 21, 2011

Dell's strategy of developing its own storage technology instead of just reselling EMC's is impressive, notes Natalya Yezhkova, research director for storage systems at IDC. "In the storage area, Dell is remarkably becoming a more dynamic player, offering solutions that are just emerging on the market like the object-based DX6000 line. That's not typical for Dell, which is known for its "wait and see, then come and conquer" approach," Yezhova said in an e-mail exchange.

Dell probably still needs EMC, she says, because while Compellent is a product similar to EMC's, "Compellent doesn't have a strong reputation of storage for mission-critical applications." Dell's George acknowledges that if a Dell customer asks for EMC storage, Dell will sell the customer EMC, but if the customer is open to suggestions, Dell will push Compellent.

"If a customer has 12 EMC boxes and the sale being discussed is to sell them box No. 13, maybe that would be a Compellent, but it's pretty likely it'll be an EMC," he said. "But if the customer is saying, 'I'm open to alternatives,' I think you're going to see us be zealous about Compellent because we do think it's a better product."

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