M&A continues: Dell snarfs up PDS

This is going to make a few Dell partners (Wipro et al) nervous. Sort of like the HP acquisition of EDS did. Is it possible that the service providers are going to be snapped up now to provide differentiated value in the face of declining revenues for hardware? Does this mean anything for HPC or storage?

Not this particular acquisition. Perot Data Systems wasn’t/isn’t really a player in HPC to any significant degree. This said, having been on the inside of an organization dealing with the creation of a new services group, and watching all the turf battles that went on … it ain’t gonna be pretty in Dell for their pre-sales teams. Been there, done that. This said, PDS is a player to a degree in various outsourced IT operations, though it had been losing ground to Infosys, Tata, Wipro, etc. Dell, HP, and other large vendors had (past tense) partnered closely with the outsourcing providers. I suspect that some of this partnership will continue, but at a restricted pace. The outsourcers will need to add value, do things that the company internal sourcing teams can’t do. Its possible to do, but you need the right teams in place, the right assets on the ground, and the right knowledge in place and able to make a difference. I suspect there will be less generic services acquisitions going forward, and well positioned organizations like CRL/Tata will make more strategic acquisitions to grow service and offering lines of business.