Dell to announce partner in expanding storage strategy
From InfoWorld.com
Published at: Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2000 8:26 am PT
Dell to announce partner in expanding storage strategy
By Dan Neel
INTENT ON VENTURING even further into the lucrative enterprise storage market, Dell will announce a significant expansion of its Storage Systems business unit at a conference of senior-level executives next Tuesday in New York.
The expansion will include new storage devices and storage servers, a re-tuned enterprise storage business strategy, and the addition of a still unnamed storage partner, according to Dell sources.
Dell has had recent storage manufacturing agreements with several prominent companies, including Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Network Appliance and Milpitas, Calif.-based Quantum.
For Dell, choosing the right storage partner will enable it to better drive toward storage standards, sources said.
Earlier this year, Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM and Houston-based Compaq combined their storage portfolios into one catalog. The move was part of an effort to expand each company's storage offerings and drive toward more standardized storage protocols, according to officials for the two companies.
Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, the originator of the built-to-order PC business model, has been steadily ramping up its storage offerings since it spun off its PowerVault storage division from the Enterprise Systems Group in 1998.
As of last September, Dell officially launched a separate Storage Systems business unit headed by a new vice president and general manager, Russ Holt.
According to estimates by Framingham, Mass.-based International Data Corp., Dell has yet to break into the top five list (by revenue) of worldwide suppliers of externally located disk storage systems. That lineup currently consists of -- in descending order -- EMC, Compaq, IBM, Sun, and Hewlett-Packard.
Dan Neel is an InfoWorld senior writer.
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