Dell will get lots of help, in the form of the new CX600 and EMC's large base of customers and its software. The introduction of the CX600 signifies a bond between Dell and EMC that is tighter than Dell's relationships with other hardware partners. The companies are on a much more equal footing than other Dell partners, which simply supply products with Dell badges. While EMC manufactures the CX600 for Dell, it also gets equal billing on the new product, something Dell's other partners don't get. EMC will also sell the SAN device under its own brand as the EMC Clarion CX600. In return, Dell gives EMC a new distribution channel, direct to the small and medium business and government markets. EMC has agreed not to pursue these companies outside of Dell. Meanwhile, Dell has put together product bundles for the two markets that include Dell-EMC hardware, software and services. Dell will also manufacture products for EMC, helping the storage maker to cut costs. Sources expect that Dell will manufacture EMC's Clarion CX400 and CX200 products soon and will also sell them under its Dell-EMC brand. Dell representatives declined to comment on specifics. Partnerships like this may become more common in the future as companies look to plug holes in their own product offerings, Bear Stearns analyst Andy Neff said in a report last week. These alliances are far less costly than acquisitions. On the other hand, divorce is a more likely possibility. Sun, he added, may even join the Dell-EMC pact some day. Also, both companies have always been loners to a certain degree. Dell has acquired only two companies in its history, and the operations from the first acquisition -- a storage company called ConvergeNet -- were wound down a few years after the purchase. EMC, meanwhile, has never had a lasting relationship with a server maker, though servers are often sold at the same time as storage systems. IBM and Sun have been longtime antagonists. EMC and HP used to work together, but are now rivals. "The collaboration on reaching (new) markets is going extremely well," Dell's Russell said. "We will work with EMC on collaborating on future products, and in the future we will focus on manufacturing some of these products. We can teach EMC that we can build and manufacture the products at a lower cost." News.com's Michael Kanellos contributed to this report.
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