Dell pushes beyond PCs

Colin Barker ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 01 Jun 2007 11:39 BST

For some years, Dell has been going to great efforts to convince data-centre managers that it is more than just a PC supplier.

But now it is tweaking the argument and trying to make organisations believe it can supply all their IT requirements with Project Hybrid.

According to Eric Velfre, Dell's director of enterprise for Europe, Hybrid is all about "re-approaching the way we are approaching solutions".

For the past few weeks, the company has been travelling the world, from the US to the Far East, to convince corporate buyers. On Wednesday it came to London.

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Central to the roadshow were details of a new blade server that the company said it will launch later this year. The server is bigger than previous efforts — 10U rather than 7U — and the number of blades will increase from seven to 16 two-socket blades. The chassis will include LCD controls, according to Dell's director of enterprise marketing EMEA, Mark Boulton.

To enforce the message, the Dell executives on hand took swipes at HP's blade strategy by arguing that, while blades had become very popular, "they are not for everybody, or every situation".

Last year, HP stated that "one day everything will be on blades". Dell disagrees fundamentally with that, according to its senior manager of business products, Jon Weisblatt. "Our view is that it doesn't have to be like that," he said. "It's really about energy costs."

Dell's view is that it can make good sense to use regular servers, and the company already has another line of servers in development. But blades will have their place, and not least because Project Hybrid has three main strands: energy efficiency, virtualisation and density.

"The new blade chassis is designed for density," said Boulton. Dell added that its upcoming non-blade servers will also be designed for density.