Dell is expanding its data-center portfolio with the announcement Monday that it will buy Compellent Technologies, a provider of virtualized storage solutions. The price is $820 million.
Dell said the purchase is the latest in its strategy to offer more enterprise-class storage solutions to “help customers better manage data growth, reduce storage costs, and dramatically simplify the management of IT infrastructure.”
‘Fluid Data’
Compellent’s offerings feature automated data management, such as tiering and thin provisioning, for on-site and cloud-based environments. Other lines in Dell’s growing storage portfolio include PowerVault, EqualLogic, and Dell/EMC.
Fluid Data is Compellent’s name for its approach to automated data storage, which it claims can slash the time and cost of storage up to 80 percent.
Compellent, which sells exclusively through channel partners, will maintain its current operations in Eden Prairie, Minn. Dell said it expects to expand Compellent’s channel program, including offering other storage options for data centers.
Data-center products and services can help Dell grow beyond its traditional desktop and notebook market, which has lower profit margins due to a highly competitive pricing environment. The Round Rock, Texas-based computer giant has projected sales of $30 billion by 2014 for servers, storage and networking for data centers. This would be nearly double Dell’s sales to that market in the last fiscal year.
Dell’s move follows the purchase of Netezza last month by IBM, an agreement by EMC to buy Isilon Systems, and Hewlett-Packard’s purchase of 3PAR. The 3PAR deal came after a bidding war between HP and Dell in September.
Storage requirements in data centers are booming, with needs changing and increasing because of virtualization and cloud computing, media storage, security and backup, data-based business intelligence, and other growth areas.
CommVault, NetApp Next?
Some industry observers are suggesting that Compellent’s products compete with Dell’s own EqualLogic offerings, but Dell said the two companies complement each other….