Introduction
Dell is not a company name normally associated with networking products, but this may change with Dell's new offering of edge connectivity products. Dell plans to offer products that are within the current "sweet spot" of networking products, which are high-density fixed port layer 2, managed and unmanaged switches, as well as fixed port Gigabit Ethernet products. Dell is positioning these offerings as high performance, feature rich and affordable solutions that are targeted to medium to large sized businesses.
Dell realizes that this is a difficult market, currently dominated by companies such as Cisco, 3Com, Nortel and others. These offerings are a good fit with Dell's server, NAS, SAN, and other computer offerings. While Dell does indicate that they might tackle other networking areas at a later time, at least for now they are staying with edge connectivity. Dell's philosophy behind its networking products is to build reliable networking solutions that conform to current standards. Dell is not trying to rewrite the networking standards, but seeks to provide solutions that work within the scope of these current standards.
Dell has been refining and improving its networking products. A clear indication of this is that the majority of Dell's networking products are second-generation offerings. While many might not consider Dell as a potential networking supplier, it is a natural fit for IT shops that are already using Dell products. Dell tells us that they have translated their 'ease of use and performance-oriented heritage' to their networking products division, as well. The only question that remains is how well did they do?