After a years’ worth of rumors and speculation, Dell announced yesterday a deal with EMC. This mega deal demonstrates that consolidation is still underway within the industry. As both an EMC and Dell partner this acquisition represents a great opportunity for Focus. Now more than ever customers need Reseller partners to help navigate the consolidation and changes within the industry. I’ve personally seen how resellers can help living through the Compaq / Digital acquisition, then the HP / Compaq acquisition. Focus Technology is in a perfect position to help our clients with the recent additions of two longtime EMC veterans Doug Alexander and Matt Stapleton.

Integration Puzzle

A concern some customers may have as well as some financial analyst concerns is the integration between these two technology giants. As many have mentioned there isn’t a ton of overlap between the two companies and integration needs to be well executed. After working with EMC for more than 8 years there is one thing I know and have experienced firsthand, EMC knows how to acquire and integrate! I’ve watched EMC successfully acquire and integrate RSA, Data Domain, VMware, along with many other companies. Dell stands to benefit greatly from the people and experience EMC has with acquisitions and if anyone can pull off this integration, it is EMC.

Questions Remain

This marks an exciting time in our industry and I would expect to see more consolidation over the next 12 months. While there are still many unanswered questions and many of these we will have to “wait and see” to get answers to, I remain extremely optimistic. This partnership creates a tremendous opportunity for both customers and business partners.

-Bill Smeltzer | CTO