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Note: In February 2011, Dell acquired Compellent Technologies, Inc., a pioneer in virtualized storage. Looking back nine months later, are Dell customers better off? And are Dell shareholders getting their money's worth? The following are my 3rd quarter grades for the acquisition.
In February 2011, Dell acquired Compellent Technologies, Inc., a pioneer in virtualized storage. Looking back nine months later, are Dell customers better off? And are Dell shareholders getting their money's worth? The following are my 3rd quarter grades for the acquisition.
Strategic Importance: A
If Dell shareholders are to get the return they want on their investment, the Compellent acquisition must play an important role in Dell's strategic direction.
During Dell's recent Q3 earnings call, Michael Dell led-off by saying, "This is a new Dell...in Q3, our enterprise solutions and service business grew 8% to a record high $4.7 billion, and increased 13%, excluding third-party storage hardware. Enterprise solutions and storage now account for 46% of our gross margin dollars". Additionally, Dell-owned IP storage increased 23%, led by a new EqualLogic solution suite and Compellent Fibre Channel SANs.
Clearly, the reshaping of Dell's enterprise capabilities is critical to profitable growth, and nine months after the acquisition closed, Dell Compellent remains at the heart of this strategy from a storage perspective. I give Dell Compellent an "A" grade for strategic importance.
Architecture: A
Dell...