The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Dell fending off EMC's maintenance push

Will wheel ex-partner's kit into new solutions centres if asked

SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had

Customers who bought EMC kit from Dell before the pair dissolved their relationship are not flooding back to the storage specialist for their support needs, according to Steve Schuckenbrock, President of Dell's services operation.

Speaking at the launch of a new solutions centre in Sydney, Australia, Schuckenbrock said Dell is pleased that not many of its EMC-buying customers have defected, despite what he called a “big push” from EMC to secure maintenance and support deals. Dell resold EMC's midrange SANs for several years, but discontinued the deal after it acquired Compellent. Dell retains maintenance and support obligations for many customers who acquired EMC kit under the now-elapsed resales deal.

“I think that shows where our customers see value,” Schuckenbrock said.

Schuckenbrock made the brief remarks at the opening of a new solution centre in Sydney. The centre is packed full of Dell kit, all humming along in an operational data centre where it awaits customer experimentation. One of eleven around the globe, the Sydney centre is also a centre of excellence for Microsoft's Lync unified communications product.

While Dell kit dominates the solutions centre, the Sydney installation also houses a few HP servers that are intended to help customers understand what it takes to migrate away from them to Dell's rival products.

Schuckenbrock said none of the solution centres house EMC kit, but that Dell has some ready to wheel in if customers want to give it a whirl. Or see what it takes to move from EMC to Compellent. And if customers really, really, want to see how the EMC SANs they bought Dell play with Dell's other hardware, the solution centres will make that possible. ®

Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner

Latest Comments
Anonymous Coward

Please....

They are just holding on to Dellapart maintenance because they have a multi-year contract. After the contract, they will dump Dell and Clariion. Dell's service support doesn't exactly have a sterling reputation.

0
0

More from The Register

SCO vs. IBM battle resumes over ownership of Unix
Zombie lawsuit back and wants to suck the brains out of Linux
 breaking news
You don't need phone lines or cable for ANYTHING, says Dish
The satellite-dish man can sort you out with phone and broadband over the air too
 breaking news
What's HP got under wraps? Looks awfully flash and tape shaped
What happens in Vegas won't stay there - we've got the details
Microsoft borks botnet takedown in Citadel snafu
Stupid Redmond kicked over our honeypots, wail white hats
IBM's $1bn layoffs latest: Now axe swings in US, Canada - reports
Union claims 121 storage bods canned after dismal sales
NetApp musters muscular cluster bluster for ONTAP busters
Storage array OS overhauled to juggle more nodes, go down on you, er, less
HP adds 'Haswell' Xeon E3s to entry ProLiant servers
Gussies up MicroServer for SMBs, adds baby switches