Guild Companies

Dell could have a new disk array based on EMC's Clariion array to sell to its customers. At an EMC analyst meeting last week, the Hopkinton, Massachusetts, company said that it is working with its alliance partner Dell to develop new low-cost versions of EMC's Clariion array that Dell can manufacture and sell. Although details have not yet been finalized and the deal has not been signed by both parties, the pact fits in well with EMC's plan to pursue new markets.

Situated beneath its top-of-the-line Symmetrix disk array, EMC positions its Clariion line of disk arrays as something of a midrange jack-of-all-trades. The Clariion line scales from 2.1 TB to 21.7 TB of external storage for direct attached, network-attached (NAS), or storage area network (SAN) environments. As part of the alliance agreement that Dell signed with EMC last year, Dell already resells the Clariion line under the Dell/EMC brand.

Under the new deal, Dell would manufacture a new scaled-down Clariion that would be as big as or slightly smaller than current Clariions, EMC company executives told analysts at the meeting. The new storage boxes would be significantly less expensive than the existing Clariion line, thus making it more attractive to smaller businesses, a segment of the market that EMC sees having tremendous growth potential.

While EMC has historically focused on selling high-end storage hardware, its growth has waned in the wake of the Year 2000 slowdown, and the company has since begun seeking new business opportunities. One of the most lucrative new business opportunities is selling high-margin storage management software. OEM deals for entry-level hardware, such as the one it is the midst of developing with Dell, won't yield for EMC the same high rates of return as upper-end hardware or software will. But the hope is that Dell's formidable direct-sales method will provide considerable sales volume.

Dell is also planning to integrate its two core storage lines, including PowerVault, the Dell house line, and its Dell/EMC devices, the Round Rock, Texas, company announced yesterday. The decision to increase the compatibility between the product lines will allow companies to migrate from the lower-end PowerVault architecture to the higher-powered Dell/EMC devices as their storage needs grow. It is not known how this new compatibility will effect the planned low-end Clariion offering Dell and EMC are working on, but it will likely fill a void between the two soon-to-be-linked product lines.