With price points aimed at attracting small and midsized businesses that buy
through reseller channel partners, Dell has introduced a series of PowerEdge
servers and PowerVault storage systems featuring a new series of Intel’s "Nehalem"
processor also aimed at systems for SMBs.
The question is whether Dell’s new PowerEdge servers, which start at $599 and
are available this month, have hit the price points that are palatable to SMBs
during economic hard times when IT budgets have been pared down to bare necessities.
“This is a value-oriented market, and that means price often rules most
everything else,” says Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group.
“They don’t fix the problem that most businesses just can’t afford new hardware
at the moment but for those that can, an aggressively priced product in this
market will always be attractive.”
Enderle adds that Intel’s Nehalem offers a higher performance at a given price
and energy utilization level, which means it fits with the credo IT organizations
are living by these days—do more with less.
“The pricing on these is absolutely competitive, and they will have a feature
set appealing to SMBs,” says Sean Phelan, director of the advanced solution
group for the channel at Dell. “These are aggressive entry points on these
servers.”
Dell CEO Michael Dell and a handful of other
industry executives have made statements recently predicting a coming refresh
cycle for PCs as businesses take advantage of the release of Microsoft Windows
7 and new chips from Intel as a long-postponed opportunity to refresh their
computer fleets.
Phelan points out that these four new 11th generation PowerEdge servers from
Dell feature a lifecycle management controller embedded on the motherboard as
an option. The chip, which is Dell intellectual property, enables automatic
updates of drivers and applications.
In addition to the servers and the embedded controller, Dell also announced a
PowerVault NX300 network-attached storage (NAS) device starting at $3,000; Dell
Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) and
Dell ProConsult Services.
Dell’s new PowerEdge servers include the T110, T310, R210 and R510. The
PowerVault storage system will be available starting in October, as will the UPS
units with prices starting at $269.
 |
/ 1 
