3Par Saga Continues

Well after posting my previous blog and saying that HP had lost out, they go and make a higher bid for 3Par but the story doesn’t end there as now Dell are looking at sweetening their offer for the Storage Company. So what next……….

If I was a 3Par board member I think I would still be in favour of the Dell offer even though the HP offer is more, the benefit from Dell will be higher I feel for the company and its values. I can only see a HP win meaning the end of 3Par as we know it and HP using it to replace their EVA which has been due for a refresh for some time.

I did consider an off the wall idea of maybe EMC making a late bid for 3Par but there is really no merit to be gained by them doing this, as they already have a very good product set in that space and the 3Par technology wouldn’t add anything to their portfolio.

Acquisitions seem to be the hot topic at the moment, I can see at least 1 big acquisition within the next 12 months, who that will involve remains to be seen. But rumours are starting around and EMC/Cisco merger, this really would be a huge beast of a company if that happened. With EMC and its huge array of technology offerings but a gap in the Network/Server space this would be filled by Cisco’s offerings in those markets. I could see a company of that proportion challenging the old crew of HP/IBM potentially and really being a force to be reckoned with.

Time will tell who will win the 3Par war, but I hope it will be Dell to triumph in this fight as at least the 3Par values will have a chance of survival…

Dell & 3Par

It never ceases to amaze me that rumours around the storage industry always tend to be correct from 1 angle but wrong on another. For quite some time now HP have been widely tipped to buy 3Par, disgruntled rumours around the whole Hitachi & HP relationship have only helped fuel the rumour mill.

But then out of the blue, Dell appear and says thanks very much we will take it; I can only see this as a good move for Dell to bolster their own storage offering and give them that bit extra above what Equallogic has given them in the past.

There are of course some problems that I can see on the horizon and only time will tell how this will all play out but at the moment the immediate questions I have are:

• Does 3Par get swallowed into Dell and lose its direct sell approach?
• Will 3Par development continue on trying to build a best of breed storage platform in its own right or will it be ripped apart to bolster Equallogic short comings?
• How will this affect the whole EMC/Dell relationship?

I think in short I hope 3Par still continues to use its direct approach and only happens to be part of the wider Dell Company as I think this will be of benefit to customers and Dell alike.

The worry I do have is that the technology could be stripped down to bolster the Equallogic offering whereas keeping the 2 products separate gives Dell a better portfolio with regards to Storage I am not sure they will be willing to do this.

The Dell/EMC relationship will continue and Dell will offer Equallogic & 3Par where they can but were they see a customer being solely interested in EMC and then they are not going to lose a sale just because they want to push their own technology. Dell at the end of the day are here to make money and if that involves selling EMC instead of their own Storage and making money on services and other hardware then they are not going to turn opportunities down.

The big question is what did happen to the whole HP/3Par rumour was there every anything in it, I honestly believe there was and that HP were interested but either didn’t offer enough or 3Par felt this was a mistake being swallowed by the beast that is HP? At the end of the day HP have the EVA and it needed a refresh and an update which they have been promising for some time and 3Par would have helped them in that respect. Now however I can see HP losing some market share in this space to the new Dell/3Par entity when people consider them alongside an EVA, I know I would take the 3Par option based on no real update news from HP on the roadmap of EVA.

Let’s just hope 3Par haven’t sold themselves and their technology to someone who is not going to allow the development to continue!