Dell Dives Into Systems Managment

Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) is going after IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) by jumping into the systems management bed with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and launching a new low-cost blade (see Dell, Microsoft Partner Up and Dell Releases Blade Server).

Necessity, so they say, is the mother of invention. Hence Dells decision to snuggle up with the giant of Redmond. The Round Rock, Texas-based vendor is without a big-name software product such as IBM’s Tivoli or HP’s OpenView in the lucrative systems management space. It is also playing catchup in the growing blade server market.

Ever keen to address the balance of power, Dell will now integrate its OpenManage 4 systems management software with Microsoft’s System Management Server 2003. With data centers becoming increasingly complex, the joint offering will be used to quickly update software, operating systems, and applications, according to Microsoft and Sun execs on a conference call today.

This spells good news for users, particularly those struggling to update their security patches, says Daniel Fleischer, senior research analyst at IDC. “Microsoft has done a lot of good work on patch management,” he says. “The key to containing any security threat is speed and reaction time.”

It is not surprising, then, that speed of deployment featured so prominently in today’s conference call. Using his own company’s IT infrastructure as an example, Dell CEO Kevin Rollins predicted that, with the new joint offering, Dell will be able to run a systems upgrade on the firm’s “thousands of servers” in just an hour.This is all well and good, but will it be enough to make waves in the systems management market? Laura DiDio, senior analyst at The Yankee Group believes that Dell may have a chance:

”The trend in systems management is away from OpenView and Tivoli -- they are large and complex, and it takes some time to roll them out." In contrast, she adds, Microsoft’s system management server is much less cumbersome.

However, DiDio warns that Dell should not get too excited about the prospect of selling into Microsoft’s gigantic installed base. Systems Management Server is primarily used by the software giant’s “upper echelon” customers that have between 5,000 and 10,000 servers and 100,000 users, she says.

But it is not just systems management where Dell wants to break the IBM/HP stranglehold. The firm has also got its eye on the emerging blade server market. Whereas partnerships are its key systems management weapon, Dell is slashing prices on blades.

Last month, for example IBM launched its own low-cost BladeCenter offerings: the HS20 and JS20. Pricing starts at $2,039 for the HS20 and $2,699 for the JS20 (see IBM Debuts Unix BladeCenter).The PowerEdge 1855, however, starts at $1,699. DiDio believes that Dell has little choice but to fight on price. “This is what they have to do, because IBM & HP have huge global services divisions behind them, and they both have big iron." This, she feels, helps them sell blade servers into established customer accounts.

Over at IDC, Fleischer warned that running complex applications on blades is harder than people think, hence the importance of a strong services operation. ”It’s not too difficult to get a rack of blades turned on, but getting them to do something constructive is very difficult,” he says.

Nonetheless, Fleischer expects Dell to have some success with the PowerEdge 1855, particularly in education and research.

— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-gen Data Center Forum