Dell plan to rebrand as Dell Technologies after EMC deal closes

Dell to reorganise and rebrand after closure of EMC mega-deal

Dell has revealed plans for a major rebrand that will see the company renamed as Dell Technologies after its acquisition of storage giant EMC closes.

However, the enterprise division will trade as Dell EMC, while PCs for consumers and businesses will continue to carry the Dell brand.

The plans were unveiled at the EMC World event in Las Vegas in a keynote by Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell. The move will create an umbrella "family" brand for the group of companies once Dell's acquisition of EMC is completed. There had been rumours earlier in the year that the company was struggling to raise the finance to underpin the deal, but any issues seem to have been overcome.

"Our vision is a strategically aligned family of businesses that brings together customers' entire infrastructure, from hardware to software to services, from the edge to the core to the cloud," said Dell.

He continued: "Dell Technologies will create more value for customers and partners than any other technology solutions provider today. We will be more nimble and innovative, and we will deliver world-class products and solutions to customers of all shapes and sizes."

Dell Technologies will comprise the combined businesses of Dell and EMC, the PC business and affiliated businesses including VMware, SecureWorks, Pivotal, Virtustream and RSA.

However, it appears that products and services will be marketed under two sub-brands, with Dell EMC for enterprise products and solutions sold directly and via the channel to large organisations, while Dell will continue to be the branding for client systems aimed at consumers, business and institutional customers.

Dell claimed that the acquisition remains on schedule under its original timetable and terms, although it is still subject to approval by EMC's shareholders, regulatory clearance in some jurisdictions, and other customary closing conditions.

The acquisition, which was announced last October, was given approval to proceed by both the EU and US regulatory authorities earlier this year.

Meanwhile, EMC World has also seen a number of new product and services announcements.

Virtustream unveiled Virtustream Storage Cloud, a global cloud storage platform aimed at large enterprises, service providers, and public-sector organisations that need to secure, manage, and store mission-critical data in the cloud. The company claims that it will offer enterprise levels of resiliency and performance, combined with true web scale when available later this month.

EMC itself released a new family of affordable storage systems intended for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as departmental enterprise requirements. The EMC Unity portfolio is available in all-flash or hybrid array, versions plus software-defined and converged configurations. Features include support for file, block and virtual volumes, snapshots and remote replication and integrated copy data management. Prices start below $10,000 (£6,800).

EMC also announced MyService360, a new service-oriented cloud-based dashboard intended to provide more oversight into the status and health of a customer's entire EMC data centre environment. It will consolidate proactive monitoring of EMC systems deployed across a customer's global enterprise, and is available at no additional cost to customers with an EMC warranty or maintenance agreement, the firm said.