What's Changing at Dell? Not the Server Partner Program

Analysts are declaring that Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) is "moving toward a services company and taking a hardware-agnostic view of the post-PC era." That may be a fair assessment, by and large. But in a sign of the company's commitment to the tried-and-true server OEM business, it continues to build partnerships in this area. The most recent is a deal with data center and cloud management software vendor ScienceLogic.

The agreement makes ScienceLogic a certified technology partner in Dell's Technology Partner Program, where it will help provide support and services related to the PowerEdge 12th Generation Server line. ScienceLogic will focus on delivering monitoring and out-of-band management for the servers in enterprise data centers.

Dell already offers monitoring services for its servers through the iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller, but the ScienceLogic deal tightens channel support for these technologies. It makes it easier to integrate monitoring and management tools for the servers into ScienceLogic's comprehensive management platform, which the company describes as an alternative to "tools that are costly and complex."

Founded in 2003, ScienceLogic remains a relatively small company. It has, however, received recognition for its rapid growth and outsize channel presence from several organizations, including The VAR Guy's sister site MSPMentor. And its engagement with Dell seems to be a signal of both the channel's continuing faith in the hardware manufacturing giant as it reinvents itself, as well as Dell's own commitment to the server market.

It's hard to say where Dell will end up when it reaches the end of the turbulent path it has been following lately, which has been fraght with financial upheavals and uncertainty over the future of Dell's core PC business. But it's a likely bet that servers—and partnerships that leverage support for monitoring and managing them within enterprise data centers—will remain an important part of Dell's agenda, whatever the rest of the company may become.