So, who's developing remote access gear with DELL?
nwfusion.com
Plucky Dell plots new server foray
By Marc Songini
Network World, 08/17/98
Round Rock, Texas - Already riding high in the
server market, Dell Computer plans to increase
its momentum with the rollout of new Gigabit
Ethernet adapters, high-end clustering products
and ISDN cards. The ISDN support will let
Dell's Windows NT servers double as remote
access devices.
The new remote access gear, which Dell is
developing with an unnamed partner, will take
advantage of the routing and remote access
capabilities built into NT to support intranets
and virtual private network (VPN) applications. [Who the heck is it?]
Although a latecomer to the server game, Dell is
shaking up the established players. It recently
surpassed IBM to take over the No. 2 slot -
behind Compaq - in the PC server market. That
rapid increase in server share has helped the
maverick Dell attain 60% overall growth over
the past year.
Dell executives and others attribute the
company's success to its direct sales model and
its build-to-order manufacturing system, which
Dell brought to the server market two years
ago. By selling direct and handling customization
of servers for customers itself, rather than
relying on value-added resellers, Dell says it
enjoys lower costs than competitors such as
HP, Compaq and IBM. Dell can configure
servers with customer-selected software and
hardware at the factory, cutting out middlemen
and their added costs.
In a briefing with Network World last week,
executives with Dell's Enterprise Systems Group
said their goal is to drive down server prices
and profit margins. That will put a crimp in the
strategies of PC rivals who use high server
margins to subsidize desktop operations, says
Tejas Vakil, a former Compaq manager who is
now Dell's vice president of marketing for the
Americas.
Vakil says Dell, with annual revenue of $13.6
billion, intends to make "commodity" a
respectable word in the enterprise market.
"What we want to be is a full-service computer
system provider to the corporate world," adds
Joe Marengi, senior vice president and general
manager of the customer relationship group at
Dell. "We've made big progress and we're just
going to continue."
Dell's offering to America's top companies will
span the gamut - from low-cost workgroup
servers all the way up to the largest SMP boxes
arrayed in clusters. Additionally, Dell is trying to
bolster its service offerings by initiating
partnerships with system integrators such as
Wang and Unisys.
"They believe if they can undersell or cut their
competitors' server margins, they'll take away
their advantage," says Amir Ahari, analyst with
Framingham, Mass.-based consultancy
International Data Corp. (IDC).
Competitors, though, think Dell's strategy can
only take it so far in the enterprise. Compaq
executives say Dell will never succeed in
winning over the biggest enterprise customers
without a better portfolio of service and support
offerings. Compaq's recent acquisition of Digital
was fueled in large part by its desire for Digital's
large service staff, which is accustomed to
supporting complex networks.
Dell contends its partnerships with service
providers are more than adequate for handling
even the biggest customers, and executives say
Compaq is turning to pricey support services to
make up for the margins being lost on desktops
and servers.
Getting remote
During the briefing, Dell executives offered a
peek at some of the products the company is
about to roll out. Most significantly, Dell plans
to offer PCI cards co-developed with an
unnamed partner that enable customers to use
its PowerEdge servers as remote access
devices supporting ISDN Basic Rate Interface
and Primary Rate Interface access.
Users can configure the servers with up to two
cards to expand capacity. Two BRI cards will
support up to 16 connections, while two PRIs
will provide up to 46 connections.
Dell is taking advantage of the Routing and
Remote Access Service capabilities offered by
Microsoft in Windows NT. Matt Maupin, a Dell
product manager for servers, says the company
believes Windows NT-based systems will
account for as much as 50% of the remote
access market in the near future.
Dell's remote access offerings will be aimed at
small to mid-size businesses. The company does
not intend to poach in the high-end remote
access market served by companies such as
Compaq's Microcom subsidiary, Cisco and
Shiva.
Maupin says Dell's servers can be used in VPN
configurations but do not have to be dedicated
to remote access functions. Sources said
network managers will be able to remotely
manage and configure the systems.
One Dell customer says the planned remote
access offering wouldn't fit into his sprawling
enterprise network, which supports 43,000 end
users, but might find a receptive audience
among other network professionals. "It would
appeal to small businesses and workgroups
starting small call center applications," says
Lorin Olsen, senior manager of groupware and
e-mail services at Sprint.
Maupin said Dell chose to work with ISDN -
with its tarnished reputation - rather than digital
subscriber line technology because DSL is
aimed more at consumers than businesses.
In addition to new remote access offerings, Dell
officials say the company will support the
eight-way server architecture from Intel and is
also working with Intel to offer the 64-bit
Merced and McKinley chips as they become
available.
To showcase the growing power of its NT
systems, Dell plans in the next month or so to
stage a demonstration of a 16-node server
cluster running high-end database applications.
The company plans to bring some type of
high-end server cluster product to market in the
next year; it currently offers Microsoft Cluster
Server for two-node failover functions.
Recognizing the importance of Gigabit Ethernet
connections in the server arena, Dell later this
year will begin marketing Gigabit Ethernet
adapters for the PowerEdges. The company
declined to discuss which adapter maker will
supply the technology. Dell currently offers
Intel's 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet adapters.
Working with Data General, Dell has also
announced the PowerVault line of Fibre
Channel-attached storage devices for its
servers.
Dell is doing a creditable job trying to address
the shortcomings in its product offering, even if
the company is doing it in its own sweet time,
IDC's Ahari says. "They need to diversify, and
they're addressing this . . . slowly," Ahari says.
"They need to offer a little bit more to get at the
data center accounts."
Contact Staff Writer
Marc Songini
A dollop of Michael
Dell - on servers
and more
Q&A. Network
World, 5/4/98.
Pentium II power for
servers
A review of several
models, including
one from Dell.
Network World,
6/15/98.
Dell servers and
storage systems
From Dell.
Goodbye to Digital,
howdy Compaq
East
How Compaq hopes
to use Digital to
bust into
networking. Network
World, 7/13/98.
Can Compaq
change networking?
Tolly's view.
Network World,
7/27/98.
Compaq fast
forwards with two
Gigabit Ethernet
switches
Network World
Fusion, 3/31/98.
Remote access
1999
Prognosticators
point to the remote
access
technologies that
will best meet your
needs. Network
World, 4/6/98.
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