At Davenport Group, we work hard to stay current with the latest technology innovations. Our partners Dell Technologies and VMware are leading the way in IT transformation, and we love to talk about their success. Below, we share important news stories and press releases discussing the ever-evolving IT industry.
Clifford said Davenport Group wouldn’t let EMC’s sales team wedge them out of the deal and stayed close to IOMax. After about two weeks of discussions, IOMax made its decision.
In the end, it was support that swayed IOMax’s decision. Although the products and pricing did play an important role in IOMax’s decision-making process, Dell’s technology combined with a Dell channel partner’s level of support led IOMax to uproot its storage infrastructure and start fresh, Bennet said.
The SCv2000 provides a new lower entry point to the Compellent technology, which is a good move to help Dell’s channel, said Paul Clifford, president of Davenport Group, a St. Paul, Minn.-based solution provider and Dell channel partner.
“We can now drop [off] a Compellent solution to a customer for under $20,000,” Clifford told CRN. “That becomes a remote branch office. You can now put SANs in places where they couldn’t be put before.”
The new lower-priced SAN now gives remote-office and branch-office users an alternative to higher-priced hyper-converged infrastructure offerings, Clifford said. “We now have multiple ways to reach such customers.”
Skelley is an “immensely talented person” who will be missed in the Dell channel, said Paul Clifford, president of Davenport Group, a St. Paul, Minn.-based solution provider and Dell channel partner.
“If he has found a great opportunity to build something for someone new, good for him,” Clifford told CRN. Skelley also is a channel advocate, Clifford said, adding that he “balances partner and vendor needs.”
Davenport Group has been looking at working with another developer of storage performance technology that is competitive with Infinio’s and is sold via Dell, Clifford said. “Now we’ll consider looking at Infinio because of Bob,” he said. “Where smart people go, we want to see what’s happening.”
“Within the last 12 to 18 months, regardless of KACE, we are seeing more understanding and acceptance of the cloud,” said Brandon Jackson, CTO for the Davenport Group, a Dell partner in St. Paul, Minn.
“Dell will add feature sets that will work with Compellent storage,” Clifford said. “There are 65,000 EqualLogic customers. Dell will not walk away from that base. Dell will combine EqualLogic and Compellent, but those who want EqualLogic can still get EqualLogic.”
“We call it ‘Operation Gold Rush’,” Sonia St. Charles, CEO and co-founder of the Davenport Group, told CRN in a recent interview.
St. Charles said that Dell, after being born again as a private company, has a new fighting spirit backed up with the right product mix, vision for future growth, and more importantly, a commitment to work with its channel partners.