Last Tuesday, Dell Inc., the number three world producer of PC’s, announced it was leaving the ranks of publicly traded companies with a substantial buyout by Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners. The whopping $24 billion dollar price tag was also partly funded by a $2 billion investment from Microsoft Corporation. For those of us who watch the enterprise systems and server management space, this deal generates some interesting observations.
Is it a Cloudy or Sunny day in Texas? – Dell is widely known for its prior number one ranking in PC sales; however, it’s the growth of cloud and data center markets that have recently driven up infrastructure revenue. Dell provides a myriad of components that make up an Enterprise’s private cloud with network, compute, and storage resources. Public cloud and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) service providers also consume Dell technology for building their own public clouds. With all the focus on Dell’s declining PC market share, we should continue to highlight other areas of their business that are growing in the new cloud era.
The PC is dead, Long live the PC – Most industry analysts are forecasting a steady decline of PC sales due to pressure from the BYOD movement and the rise in corporate organizations provisioning tablets and smartphones to a growing mobile workforce. While Dell would appear un-shackled from the auspices of engaged shareholders and regulators, this recent move by aggressive investors will allow Dell to make some hard and bold moves with their PC division. It’s still unclear if Dell will use this move to shore up growing divisions and trim non-profitable ones similar to IBM’s handling of their ThinkPad line of business. Microsoft’s strategic investment in Dell would also indicate their desire to strengthen the bonds between Windows OS with new Dell devices.
It’s 2013 – Innovate or die – A slow moving Dell could cripple its ability to innovate in the fast moving world of internet and consumer technology. A more agile and invested Dell would be able to be more aggressive with M&A along with strategic investments in growing markets such as Smart internet connected devices and private clouds. Dell is still in the process of integrating recent acquisitions such as Quest Software and Wyse. One area that ScienceLogic has particular interest has been in the newer Dell 12G server line. Dell recently added new instrumentation into their iDRAC out-of-band server management cards. Working with Dell, ScienceLogic has been able to leverage this new API and extend our existing OpenManage server management agent support to the updated iDRAC cards.
A healthy Dell is a good thing for enterprises and service providers alike. Under new guidance from Silver Lake Partners, Microsoft and a reinvigorated Michael Dell could spell success for new technology innovation and the ever evolving Cloud community.