Will Dell be your friend or foe in the managed services market? Instead of asking me, you can ask Dell representatives directly during the MSP Alliance summit in San Jose on Sept. 24-25. Dell acquired Silverback Technologies (an MSP platform provider) in July. Silverback’s Web site now carries both a Dell and VARBusiness logo. How’s that for Ironic. This event marks one of the first appearances of Silverback since the Dell deal was announced.
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Posted In: Events | MSP | Managed Service Provider | Managed Services | Platforms
Tags: | Dell | MSPAlliance | Silverback | VARbusiness
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I think the match makes a lot of sense from a technical perspective. Dell sells a lot of hardware. Buying a company like SilverBack allows Dell to more effectively manage that hardware and could help Dell really bolster its channel credibility by developing existing Dell resellers into managed service providers. Doing so, at least in theory, will mean more Dell hardware being sold. It will also mean that same hardware being managed by professional (we can only hope) MSPs translating into greater customer satisfaction and security.
From a marketing perspective, this deal will likely have a very positive and long term effect for the managed service providers. It isn’t everyday that a household name like Dell acquires a company that is so steeped in managed services history as SilverBack. My personal hope is that this deal will bring greater recognition and attention to the MSP community and really solidify the name of MSPs and managed services in the mainstream business community. This is ultimately the biggest weakness of the current marketecture of the Managed Services sphere. A severe lack of Vendor education of the end consumer of managed services leaving MSP’s with stretched resources to do this.
Read my post regarding this here.