Dell confirms there will be no EMC sell-off

As a private company Dell is well positioned to defy the industry norm, according to its CEO Michael Dell.

The acquisition of EMC puts Dell at odds with the rest of the industry. $67bn is a big punt and its CEO cannot afford to fail.

At a recent briefing prior to his visit to the company’s Emea Solutions Conference in Vienna, Dell said: “We have had 11 quarters gaining share in the client business and we are gaining share in the server business.”

According to Dell, customer loyalty is at record levels. He claimed the company filed 27% more patents this year than in 2014.

IBM sold off its PC server business to Lenovo in 2014, and Hewlett-Packard recently split into HP Inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). At the same time, businesses have less of an appetite for large-scale IT contracts, with contracts split across multiple suppliers now popular. The challenge for Dell is to convince such organisations that buying from a single source is the better option, compared with multi-supplier contracts.

“We have never been afraid to do things in a different way. We believe that scale matters. The software-defined datacentre (SDDC) is coming and our new company is well positioned. Our customers like to buy these things together,” he said.

According to Dell, converged infrastructure is blurring the lines that separate the silos in the datacentre, which creates an opportunity for the company.

Buying EMC elevates the company to the level where it becomes a premier IT provider for the largest enterprises, breaking free of its heritage as a supplier of PCs and servers for small and mid-sized organisations.

Dell wants the company to be a leader in the IT of tomorrow, supporting digital transformation through hybrid clouds, mobility and security.

Digitisation is among the top areas the big IT firms are trying to address – it is where IBM, HPE and Dell want to be.

Given that the cost of sensors, bandwidth and computing keeps decreasing, Dell said it becomes possible to re-invent a business with digital technology. Those that do not re-invent inevitably fail, he warned.

“Whether they are making products or services, businesses are realising they have to use information to improve,” said Dell.

Michael Dell“Whether they are making products or services, businesses are realising they have to use information to improve”
Michael Dell, Dell

Source: Computerweekly.com