Dell to buy EqualLogic

[fitz]

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2212258,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

What I wonder is what this means for Dell's relationship with EMC. For a long time now, Dell has been reselling the Clariion line from EMC (often significantly cheaper than EMC Direct). With the purchase of EqualLogic, it makes an interesting relationship. Granted, EMC/Dell Clariion will still be the choice in the fiber world when purchasing a fiber san, but EMC has been pushing the iSCSI capabilities in the CX3 series where EqualLogic has made it's name (in the iSCSI world).

In a move that will help it expand its storage and virtualization offerings, Dell announced Nov. 5 that it will acquire storage startup EqualLogic for $1.4 billion.

The acquisition, which is expected to close either by the end of 2007 or the first quarter of 2008, is also expected to strengthen the Round Rock, Texas, company's channel program after it begins incorporating EqualLogic's technology into its PowerVault storage portfolio.

EqualLogic, which earlier this year announced that it would pursue an initial public offering in the wake of VMware's successful stock announcement, incorporates iSCSI storage protocol into its products.

Storage remains one of the most talked about areas of IT management, and Dell is jumping into the market as more and more storage capacity is being shifted to IP SANs (storage area networks). The iSCSI SAN market is expected to grow from about $600 million in 2006 to $6 billion in the next five years, according to IDC.

One of EqualLogic's products is PS Series SANs, a combination of storage disk arrays and storage management software that use iSCSI, or storage over IP, which is designed to be more cost-effective than traditional Fibre Channel storage systems. EqualLogic employs a virtualized architecture that lifts stored data from disks and allows the storage arrays to share resources and balance workloads.