Dell Computer confirmed that they are buying Quest Software, IT management software provider, for $2.4 billion.

According to Dell release

Dell recently announced the formation of its Software Group to build upon its existing software expertise. The Dell Software Group will add to Dell’s enterprise solutions capability, accelerate strategic growth and further differentiate the company from competitors by increasing its solutions portfolio with Dell-owned intellectual property.

Quest’s family of software solutions and key technologies are strongly aligned with Dell’s software strategy. The acquisition provides critical components to expand Dell’s software capabilities in systems management, security, data protection and workspace management. In addition, Quest’s software portfolio is highly complementary to Dell’s scalable design approach to develop solutions that scale with customer needs. Some examples include:

The Quest One Identity and Access Management solution family adds to Dell’s very strong set of security assets with SonicWALL and Secureworks, creating a comprehensive set of security solutions to address important customer needs.
Quest’s Performance Monitoring solutions for applications, networks and databases address a rapidly growing need for our customers. Industry analysts have consistently ranked Quest Foglight as a leading application performance monitoring solution. Businesses of all sizes are looking to reduce their IT complexity and automate workloads for their IT departments. Customers worldwide leverage Foglight to continually monitor their IT environments, proactively identifying and remedying performance issues before they become bigger problems.
Quest’s Windows Server Management solutions complement Dell Services’ rapidly growing application modernization practice with recently acquired Clerity Solutions and Make Technologies.
Effective database management is critical to the successful operation of most organizations. Quest’s Database Management capabilities offer a strong complement to Dell’s enterprise offering. Today, millions of DBAs, developers, and analysts around the world rely on Quest’s database management tools to simplify their work.

Dell gets access to 100,000 customers and a presence in the IT delivery of software.  This will augment Dell’s transformation to a full blown services company.  Dell’s playbook is consistent with their formula.  Take a position in the lower end of the market then innovate up to the Tier 1 providers.  In this case the Tier 1 providers are HP, IBM, EMC, Microsoft, ..etc.

It’s About The Future Of The DataCenter

The datacenter and Information Technology (IT) is going through massive transformation due to the acceleration of cloud computing, big data, mobile usage, and new applications at the edge – aka consumerization of IT.

For more indepth datacenter convergence coverage check out the videos that I just published last Friday from the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) event where Intel held its’ Forecast 2012 event at the Cloud Computing Expo in NYC.  You’ll find some candid conversations about the Future of the Datacenter.

Introducing #theCUBE Conversations – Video Interviews with Though-leaders

Topic: Future of the Datacenter

Jason Waxman – Intel Senior Executive – GM Cloud Infrastructure Group

Marvin Wheeler, Chairman and Secretary, Open Data Center Alliance

Ben Kepes, Ben Kepes – Analyst, Diversity Analysis

Jonathan Mormile, HP Datacenter POD Team

Krishnan (Krish) Subramanian, Principal Analyst, Rishidot Research

Gordon Haff, Gordon Haff – Cloud Evangelist, Red Hat

Curt Aubley – VP & CTO Cyber Security & NexGen Innovation, Lockheed Martin

Petteri Uljas, CEO Finland, Unit Head Eastern Europe and India