DellSF 2012: Dell fires opening salvo at rival EMC

Dell has kicked off its global Storage Forum in Boston by firing a number of shots across the bow at market leader EMC.

During vendor's channel partner keynote this morning, the vice president of Dell's enterprise solutions division, Cheryl Cook, made a point of citing a number of customer wins against its ex-partner and rival.

The two firms had previously enjoyed a friendly rivalry as OEM partners until the decade-long agreement was canned last October.

"I love stories where we displace EMC," said Cook. She then pointedly referred to a win by a Dell reseller in a storage engagement on a VMware implementation, stating: "Our EqualLogic offering from a [total cost of ownership] perspective has far and away exceeded anything that both NetApp and EMC could provide.

"We have unique differentiation and capabilities to more tightly interface with VMware," she added.

Dell also said it had extended its Storage Swap programme to include channel partners, as well as customers.

The financing programme encourages customers to swap their EMC and NetApp legacy storage products for new Compellent and EqualLogic storage arrays with cash credits and attractive lease terms.

For its part, EMC has chosen this week to run a high profile billboard campaign around the city, reinforcing its number one position in the market.