Business Services Industry

Dell Positioned in Leaders Quadrant for Midrange Enterprise Disk Arrays

Business Wire, Feb 8, 2007

Leading Analyst Firm's Evaluation Based on Completeness of Vision, Ability to Execute

ROUND ROCK, Texas -- Gartner Inc. positioned Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) in the "Leaders Quadrant" of its Magic Quadrant for Midrange Enterprise Disk Arrays, 2H061 report, Dell announced today.

"Customers recognize the exceptional value received when choosing a Dell storage solution," said Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Dell product group. "Dell will continue to change the economics of storage through its PowerVault(TM)product line and its highly successful partnership with EMC."

Dell takes a solutions-oriented approach to designing and delivering storage systems. Systems are shipped with factory installed SAN components including host bus adapters and Dell-EMC software that simplify deployment and save customers time. Dell also ships systems with Dell and EMC management software designed to reduce the complexities of operations and deliver a complete server and storage package.

Gartner defines midrange disk array products as external controller-based redundant array of independent disks that:

* Use a dual controller or cluster architecture

* Support Unix, Linux, Windows and NetWare environments

* Offer no mainframe support

* Have an average selling price of more than $24,999

According to Gartner, "A midrange enterprise disk array vendor in the Leaders Quadrant has the market share, credibility and marketing and sales capabilities needed to drive the acceptance of new technologies. It demonstrates understanding of market needs, is an innovator and thought leader, and has well-articulated plans that customers and prospects can use in designing their storage infrastructures and strategies."

Gartner's "ability to execute" evaluation criteria include a vendor's product, services, overall viability, market responsiveness, sales execution, pricing and customer experience. Its "completeness of vision" criteria evaluate market understanding, marketing and sales strategy, product strategy, business model, innovation and geographic strategy.

For more information on Dell's complete line of storage solutions, please visit www.dell.com/storage.> About the Gartner Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted Dec.13, 2006 by Gartner Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell sells more systems globally than any computer company, placing it No. 25 on the Fortune 500. For more information, visit www.dell.com. To get Dell news direct, visit www.dell.com/RSS.> 1 Gartner Research "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Midrange Disk Arrays, 2H06" by Stanley Zaffos, Roger W. Cox and April Adams. Dec. 13, 2006