Back to the future for Dell?

Dell's proposed takeover of EMC has a Groundhog Day feel to it but partners could stand to benefit in long run, says CRN's Doug Woodburn

One analyst argued that Dell is "going back in time" with its proposed acquisition of EMC, while others have branded it a "defensive move" designed to ward off the threat of cloud and next-generation storage players.

Indeed, anyone reading about the $67bn union could be forgiven for thinking they'd woken up in 2004, when IT one-stop-shops such as IBM and HP ruled the earth and bigger was always regarded as better.

The Groundhog Day feel to the largest merger in tech history is only bolstered by the fact Dell reportedly came close to buying EMC way back in 2002 and was its largest global reseller last decade, before opting go it alone and build its own storage business.

HP boss Meg Whitman was among those to insist Dell is behind the times, arguing HP is "humming" as it prepares to split into two "focused" companies that don't have the $2.5bn in debt she claimed Dell will have to service annually as a result of the acquisition.

But that does not mean the merger of these two old-school tech giants isn't a mouth-watering prospect for partners.

When it comes to loyalty among resellers, scale does still matter. According to Context, a combined Dell-EMC will be the fifth or sixth largest vendor in revenue through European distribution.

Michael Dell will doubtless already have a hit-list of the storage, virtualisation and converged infrastructure products he will can.

Partners we spoke to are fearful the scale of the integration challenge facing Dell will cause disruption but are optimistic it will emerge from that process with a stronger product set capable of serving the needs of even the largest enterprises.

Let's hope it turns out to be more a case of back to the future, than back to the past. Vote in this week's poll to let us know what you think.