Photo courtesy of Dell

Dell held its second annual Dell Storage Forum in Boston last week June 11-13 and attracted over 700 attendees, a larger turnout than last year’s inaugural conference in Orlando. The event featured a long list of announcements, lots of deep-dive sessions and plenty of positioning statements by Dell executives. It was clear that Dell, like IBM at IBM Edge, saw the event as an opportunity to showcase its progress toward evolving from its small and medium business emphasis to successfully competing in the enterprise storage market dominated by vendors like EMC and HP.

Dell spent a lot time focusing on its convergence offerings, announcing the new EqualLogic Blade Array and maybe moving a little closer to a lead position in the storage business it began pursuing in 2004 after it stopped focusing on reselling EMC solutions. According, Darren Thomas, Vice President/General Manager of Dell Enterprise Storage in his interview with the Cube, Dell was able to start with a blank slate with its converged solutions, which allowed the company to develop and acquire best-in-class solutions. The approach delayed Dell’s entry into the converged space, but also allowed it deliver extremely innovative solutions like the new EqualLogic Blade Array because there was no need to accommodate legacy technology.

David Vellante, founder and consulting analyst at Wikibon, says that although Dell is continuing to focus on small and medium business, it can do some serious damage in the enterprise storage space. The company is very focused on integration via acquisition, something it learned from its many years partnering with EMC according to Vellante. In the long term, Dell’s support for integration will become even more important and may propel the company ahead of competitors. George Crump, Storage Switzerland, agrees with Vellante’s view, saying,

“The company transited from being a reseller to offering up its own IP in a relatively port period of time, and it’s suitably geared up for a serious play.”

Convergence will likely play a significant role in Dell’s advancement.

Dell executives also drew attention to Dell’s continuing evolution. Michael Dell discussed Dell’s increased focus on the data center, cutting costs and financial position in an address to analysts. According to the Dell founder, the computer maker is transitioning from being a reseller of other vendor’s technology. Instead, Dell is investing in owning intellectual property by acquiring data storage, networking equipment and business software vendors. The company also announced during the conference that they would pay investors dividends for the first time in over a year, which caused an almost immediate increase in Dell’s stock price.

The EqualLogic Blade Array was not the only product news during the storage conference. Dell also announced several releases that support its Dell Fluid Data architecture. Leading the list was a new version of AppAssure with better support for big data applications, smaller backup sizes and lower bandwidth. The new release, AppAssure 5, comes less than four months after Dell acquired the backup platform. Dell also announced new releases of the Dell Fluid File System with the new Dell Compellent FS8600 NAS, which gives customers a file system that works across all of Dell’s primary storage platforms — Compellent, EqualLogic and PowerVault.

The storage focused conference also included a bit discussion about networking. The company announced it was making the new 16 Gb Brocade 6505 Switch available to customers. Dario Zamarian, General Manager of Dell Networking platforms, spoke with The Cube to discuss Dell’s strategy for networking and why networking components are a natural part of Dell’s portfolio. As with many other areas, Dell will strengthen its position in the sector via partnerships and acquistions.

The conference has concluded. Dell has a year to grow its business and make moves to realize the promises made at the event. It will be interesting to see if all the market has as much confidence in Dell’s ability to execute as the presenters at the Storage Forum.