Dell to acquire Everdream

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Dell has announced plans to acquire software as a service (SaaS) specialist Everdream in a move that will help the company deliver on its promise to customers of simplifying the complexity surrounding IT.

By acquiring Everdream, which specialises in SaaS solutions for remote service management, Dell will be able to build on the investments it has already made in the area of remote management. More specifically, the move will complement the company's recent acquisition of SilverBack Technologies.

"The planned Everdream acquisition is a significant step in Dell's next-generation service offerings and provides Dell an expanded presence in the rapidly growing SaaS-enabled managed services market," said Steve Schuckenbrock, senior vice president at Dell.

"Everdream has an extremely talented team that has developed industry leading technology enabling customers and partners to easily and affordably manage PCs from anywhere in the world."

The financial terms of the deal, including when it is likely to close, have not been disclosed.

When the acquisition is completed, Dell will have beefed up its services line-up as it tries to level the playing field with the competition, but the next big challenge will be how it integrates the two companies together, according to Ian Brown, senior analyst at Ovum.

"Dell's buying spree continues unabated as it tries to fill gaps in its product and services strategies.... This is a good fit for Dell as it moves to improve its desktop managed services offering. The SaaS model complements its direct sales model and should enable Dell and its partners to offer competitively priced managed services for desktops and laptops without the upfront fees of traditional managed services," he said.

"No acquisition slots immediately into place, of course. Dell now has two managed services consoles to integrate, two rather different approaches to monitoring (Everdream uses agents, Silverback doesn't), and offices and development teams to integrate. It's all part of Dell's evolution from box shifter to solutions provider. It has lagged behind other hardware vendors, particularly in terms of managed services. Now it's playing catch-up and so far the choice of acquisitions looks good. The next test is how well it handles the integration."

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