Less than two years into a five-year manufacturing and resale partnership, Dell Computer Corp. and EMC Corp. have decided to stay together for another two, officials said Tuesday.
The deal, which originally began in Oct. 2001, gives Dell manufacturing rights for EMCs midrange Clariion storage arrays. Dells resale priveleges apply more widely to EMCs whole product lineup.
It has worked out well for both companies, and especially for customers. Midrange customers report seeing the promised tangible benefit of lower prices, while entry-level customers previously considered too small for EMC Corp.s product lineup and sales force have begun considering storage area networks as a viable solution.
However, buying through Dell also means sacrificing EMCs highly touted customer support, some users have said.
For EMC, which has had layoffs since the deal began, there are improved supply chain efficiencies, while direct sales employees are now free to target large customers exclusively, officials have previously said.
Officials of both companies were not immediately available for comment.
Seperately, EMC next week will announce a new OEM partnership with Lowell, Mass., startup Storigen Systems Inc., officials said today. The deal affects EMCs Centera systems, which are storage managed by object-based data, intended for information thats frequently accessed but which rarely changes.
EMC will sell a new product called Centera Application Gateway, which translates their programming interface into the Windows Common Internet File System and the Unix Network File System, explained Dennis Hoffman, Storigen CEO.
The product is based on the head-end technology in Storigens existing Distributed Storage Network appliance, which has “just under 10” customers, he said. Storigen will upgrade that for better file retention, object counts and failover this summer, he said.
