Spiceworks, a free networking monitoring and management tool, has caught Dell’s attention. Spiceworks, which claims to have 750,000 users, increasingly targets the managed services market. And Dell has taken notice. Here are some quick observations.
Spiceworks will host a SpiceWorld conference in Austin, Texas on Oct. 22 and 23. Take a look at the agenda and you’ll notice that Dell is listed as the event’s top sponsor.
Launched in 2006, Spiceworks develops IT Desktop, which is a free, ad-supported business application. (There’s also a forthcoming ad-free version, called MyWay, that costs US$20 per month.) I criticized Spiceworks in August 2009 for claiming its customer base included 65,000 MSPs and IT service providers. The number seemed inflated to me, since I don’t believe there are 65,000 MSPs worldwide.
Growth Mode
Still, Spiceworks’ installed base appears to be growing rapidly, surging from 30,000 IT pros (January 2007) to 200,000 IT pros (December 2007) to roughly 750,000 IT pros today, according to the company’s Web site. Early advertisers on the system, according to Spiceworks, include Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Microsoft. Now, Dell is sponsoring the SpiceWorld conference in Austin, Texas — home of Dell’s worldwide headquarters.
Dell’s move caught my attention for several reasons. Former Dell senior executive John Hamlin serves on Spiceworks’ Board of Directors. And early Spiceworks investors include Austin Ventures, a venture capital firm that employs Dell veteran Joe Marengi.
In addition to Dell’s Silverback and Everdream acquisitions, I wonder if the PC giant is taking a look at working more closely with Spiceworks. And if so, what the relationship involves…
I’ll be reaching out to Spiceworks and Dell this week for more perspectives.
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Posted In: RMM | Software as a Service and Hardware as a Service
Tags: Dell Everdream | Dell managed services | Dell Silverback Technology | Remote monitoring and management | RMM | Spiceworks IT Desktop | Spiceworks MyWay | Spiceworks SpiceWorld
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Joe, anything further on this?
There’s a lot of overlap between the Silverback, Everdream, and Spiceworks products (frankly, I’m surprised that Dell hadn’t already collapsed Silverback and Everdream together after their acquisitions two years ago, but they still appear to be selling them separately [www.dell.com/modularservices])
By adding Spiceworks, it takes another potential competitor out of the market, but presents yet another need to consolidate features and functions.
Hi Ollie, Your timing is impeccable. MSPmentor spoke with Spiceworks today. They told us to not read too much into Dell’s sponsorship and the event location (a coincidence that it’s right by Dell’s headquarters). Apparently, Dell has sponsored the event before and Spiceworks has relationships with most of the major PC makers.
So to be crystal clear: It looks like Dell is showing Spiceworks some sponsorships love… but don’t look into it beyond that. We’ll have more Spiceworks coverage, including a look at their SpiceWorld conference, this week.
I can’t wait till Spiceworld London to meet the team, Spiceworld Austin looked great on the live stream. http://www.spiceworld2009.com/london/
Also dells involment with Spiceworks could be great, Intel have just sponsered the power manager plugin to help turn your machines off over night. http://www.spiceworks.com/free-pc-power-management-tool/
Cant wait to see what happens with Spiceworks over the coming years.