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Dell, EMC Team on Midrange Storage

Dell Computer Corp. reached an agreement with storage giant EMC Corp. to resell EMC's Clariion midrange storage systems as a co-branded offering.

The agreement, announced Monday, is a five-year alliance.

It gives Dell, which entered the storage market a few years ago, a way to make storage sales in the midrange market without making significant investments in the technology behind its PowerVault line.

EMC, with its high-end reputation, gets a partner that can move the lower end Clariion storage system line it acquired when it bought Data General and a way to draw more revenues from the Windows server storage market.

Meanwhile, Dell can also point its enterprise customers to EMC when EMC's flagship Symmetrix line of storage systems is appropriate.

The companies will co-brand the Clariion systems. Clariion will become Dell's standard offering for storage area networks and higher end network-attached storage installations, the companies said. Dell plans to continue to offer PowerVault direct- and network-attached storage systems.

"We expect Dell's direct sales model will increase EMC's reach and capability to better service enterprise-class Clariion customers, including a much broader set of small and medium-sized businesses," Joseph Tucci, EMC's president and CEO, said in a statement.

Kevin Rollins, Dell's president and COO, said the agreement doubles Dell's market opportunity in the data storage business.

Dell plans to offer EMC's FC4500, FC5300, FC4700 and IP4700 in November.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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