Dell announced that it is acquiring WYSE today. WYSE is known for its dummy terminals, particularly for POS (point-of-sale). WYSE also has gotten into desktop virtualization - not that strong a leap. Wyse has shipped more than 20 million units and has over 180 patents, according to the press release. This acquisition "extends Dell's desktop virtualization capabilities and drives attachment of enterprise solutions, including servers, networking, storage and services."
The other piece is that WYSE has 3000 partners. Too bad a CLEC didn't think to buy it just for that new channel.
Dell is an interesting company because while it is known for hardware - PC's, tablets, gadgets and servers - Dell is making the move to cloud.
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Going back to December 2010 when "Dell announces the acquisition of the cloud-based medical archiving leader InSite One to help healthcare organizations simplify retention of healthcare data." The PR says, "Additionally, like Dell's recent acquisition of Boomi, this acquisition builds on our strategy to help customers take advantage of the economics and scalability of the cloud in the way that best fits the requirements of their industry and the needs of their business." So while Dell chases the Cloud, it seems to be doing it in a hardware-services model. In other words, VAR's are used to selling hardware and wrapping one service around it. Dell is still doing it. InSite One was image archiving for medical - basically, managed storage.
Storage - like InSite One, Compellent and EqualLogic.
Networking: Force10 Networks and SonicWall. Both also spill over into Security in the managed security segment, which falls in with Dell's SecureWorks and KACE divisions. Security is supposed to be a big game to be in. Dell is buying into that space. I wonder how many VAR's it picked up with Force10 and SonicWall... 1000?
Next, AppAssure backup and recovery was an obvious move to become more of a managed services provider -- or to empower its VAR's to become MSP's. That might be the strategy: empower its VAR's to become MSP's all through Dell services (and hardware).
This puts Dell directly in competition with the VAD's - Ingram, Tech Data and SYNNEX. Who will get the attention of the VAR?
And to tie that strategy of a VAR becoming an MSP is the announcement that Dell Offers Partners 'Cloud Services & Solutions Certification'. That ties the MSP bow up.
