Dell acquires another component
Dell has acquired Wyse, global leader in thin client technology. This is a very hot area and one of the many in which virtualization succeeds: instead of buying and managing licensing and applications for tons of expensive computers, thin clients (cheap display/keyboard/mouse) connect to the central server for their desktop. With Wyse, and existing strong relationships with Citrix and VMWare, Dell is suddenly the biggest gorilla in the desktop virtualization game.
Much like it’s previous acquisitions, Dell isn’t just getting some technology and employees with exchange for cash. It gets a huge channel – over 3,000 with over 20 million customers. Notice a pattern here, Dell is getting access to more and more customers with each acquisition.
With each acquisition, it also gets to sell all other technology both on the low and the high end.
At the same time as people are wondering if there is any value left in Dell, these acquisitions make it clear that Dell is very serious about the post-PC era. As much as Dell got it’s start through ultimate efficiency and not stocking PCs at warehouses and retailers like HP and IBM used to, the move past the PC is clearly the move Dell is leading as much as Apple. While Apple leads with devices (that others try to copy), Dell seems to be interested in controlling the backoffice and business side of things that Apple is seemingly leaving behind.
We seem to be writing about Dell on a weekly basis and I can appreciate that it may seem like an obsession. It is. Dell appears to be on track with what most successful MSPs I talk to would be doing if they had money laying around. Unfortunately many of us don’t so we are doing our own R&D and positioning solutions instead of point products.
There is much we can learn from Dell and the components it is putting together. Undoubtedly they will surround them with great marketing that will be pounded into every SMB mailbox – so the agenda is pretty simple: beat them to it. Because there is certainly less and less space to be a value added partner in that equation.
Who is the biggest victim of IT consumerization? Future is Bundled
