Dell’s $1.15 billion purchase of 3Par gives the company the assets to tackle the lucrative high-end data center storage market.
On Monday, Dell said it would pay $18 a share for 3Par in its latest acquisition. CEO Michael Dell has made it clear that the company will go shopping to diversify from being a PC and server provider. Dell has branched into services with Perot Systems and its most successful acquisition to date was its purchase of EqualLogic, another storage provider. Dell’s goal: Target all the hot markets via acquisition to change the company’s growth profile and diversify. Here’s a look at Dell’s recent purchases:
- Dell to acquire Ocarina Networks to boost data management offerings (data management)
- Dell’s acquisition of KACE: A smart move (systems management appliances)
- Dell: Perot Systems purchase an ‘anchor’ acquisition; More deals likely (services)
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Dell gets more channel religion; Buys EqualLogic for $1.4B (storage)
Dell’s plan for 3Par is relatively simple. Take 3Par’s storage virtualization systems that are designed to allow customers to deliver IT as a service internally and add Dell’s distribution heft. 3Par specializes in thin provisioning, storage virtualization and efficient storage arrays.
Perhaps more importantly, Dell can address the top end of the data center storage stack. Before 3Par, a partnership with EMC was Dell’s primary means to address the high-end storage market.
On an analyst conference call, Dell executives outlined where 3Par fits.
As you can see, Dell’s storage products for the mid-range and high-end of the storage market were addressed either through acquisition or a partnership with EMC.
Dell’s plan is to take its various parts the storage line-up and provide innovative arrays and virtualization capabilities. It’s not an original vision as NetApp and EMC are also doing storage virtualization, but 3Par makes Dell a player in the market.
Among the other key slides from Dell’s conference call:
