Dell moves towards a ‘one IT box for all’ model

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Dell is moving towards offering customers a “data centre in a box,” rather than making them buy separate solutions.

During a discussion about small and medium businesses (SMBs) with two of Dell’s executives, it emerged that the company is working on offering all the pieces an SMB would need in a data centre as a bundled solution.

“The direction we are going [is] verticals,” said Gerry Kenny, medium enterprise marketing manager at Dell. “Companies can come to us with their problems and we can work out the solution for them… [then] present it in one box.”

The company already has a number of demo racks it is taking round Europe to show people the idea and Kenny is confident it will prove popular.

“We found that prescribing to a configured solution [can be] too generic… or too specific to sell,” he said. This way we can offer the [benefits] of an out-of-the-box solution [but] with customisation for a small business.”

But with the current economic climate, would smaller companies be willing to invest? Mark Smith, medium enterprise product manager at Dell, thinks they will but with a different attitude than during the boom.

“There is the feeling [with SMBs] that the market is tentatively going up,” he said. “But there is now caution with a [focus] on faster return of investment than ever before, [and] without the gung-ho attitude that ‘we are through it’ yet.”

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