Barney's Blog

Blog archive

Dell Confronts Consulting Envy

If you're a large IT hardware vendor, you just have to have a large IT consulting arm. IBM built its own over the decades, HP bought its way into consulting with EDS, and now Dell is joining the crowd by buying Perot Systems. (H. Ross Perot is batting two for three here!)

I may not find consulting terribly interesting, but as systems get more complex, it's awfully important.

Dell actually is the easiest hardware vendor to understand. Where IBM and HP have multiple lines, both proprietary and open, Dell pushes a singular Intel-compatible PC and server architecture augmented mostly by standard third-party products. This should make the work of Perot consultants relatively simple and straightforward.

What do you look for in a consulting company? Any success or horror stories? Send 'em my way at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on September 23, 2009


Featured

  • Microsoft Dismantles RedVDS Cybercrime Marketplace Linked to $40M in Phishing Fraud

    In a coordinated action spanning the United States and the United Kingdom, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) and international law enforcement collaborators have taken down RedVDS, a subscription based cybercrime platform tied to an estimated $40 million in fraud losses in the U.S. since March 2025.

  • Sound Wave Illustration

    CrowdStrike's Acquisition of SGNL Aims to Strengthen Identity Security

    CrowdStrike signs definitive agreement to purchase SGNL, an identity security specialist, in a deal valued at about $740 million.

  • Microsoft Acquires Osmos, Automating Data Engineering inside Fabric

    In a strategic move to reduce time-consuming manual data preparation, Microsoft has acquired Seattle-based startup Osmos, specializing in agentic AI for data engineering.

  • Linux Foundation Unites Major Tech Firms to Launch Agentic AI Foundation

    The Linux Foundation today announced the creation of a new collaborative initiative — the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) — bringing together major AI and cloud players such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and other major tech companies.