Dell Moves Into Storage Services

For the storage industry, 2007 may be looked back on as the year Dell got serious about storage.

After years of heavy reliance on partner EMC, Dell branched out in dramatic fashion this year when it announced plans to acquire iSCSI specialist EqualLogic for $1.4 billion.

Dell added to its storage story today with the purchase of UK-based storage consultancy The Networked Storage Company (TNWSC). Terms of the deal were not disclosed and the acquisition will not be final until closing conditions are met.

Dell said TNWSC’s “Point of Proof” methodology “provides an auditable end-to-end process to evaluate, select and implement proven solutions that deliver robust, simplified and cost-effective IT infrastructures.” The approach, primarily implemented with storage networks, can be extended across the IT environment, helping to reduce overall IT cost and complexity. TNWSC’s customer base includes several of Europe’s top financial institutions.

“We plan to incorporate their expertise and world-class methodologies as part of our consulting offerings and scale globally,” Stephen Murdoch, Dell’s vice president of Global Infrastructure Consulting Services, said in a statement.

Dell spokesman James Gibb said the acquisition “is a significant step in expanding the assessment and consultancy capabilities of Dell’s Global Infrastructure Consulting Services (GICS) business.”

“The purchase of TNWSC adds further depth to our storage capabilities and can be exploited by customers to make better decisions on IT infrastructure, whether IP, SAN or Fibre Channel,” he said.

Not to be outdone, EMC added to its services offerings this week with a new program called Managed Availability Services that helps users create and manage business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

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