Dell announced today its intention to buy MSSP SecureWorks for an undisclosed amount of money. Apart from the M&A angle, another question is why is Dell doing this and what does it mean to the average MSP out there.
Dell is no stranger to acquisitions in the managed services arena. Most notably, they acquired SilverBack Technologies several years ago. While there are mixed feelings about that deal and how Dell has managed the MSP channel partners they inherited from that deal, the SecureWorks acquisition begs the question “are we going to see more of the same?”
Obviously, it’s too early to tell. The natural conclusion is Dell wants to be relevant in the managed security space and the SecureWorks deal definitely will accomplish that goal. If I was the average MSP on the street, I’d be asking myself if Dell will treat the SecureWorks acquisition similar to how they treated SilverBack. Many MSPs were not happy with the perceived threat of Dell going direct to end-users, circumventing the MSP partners. While things seem to have quited down since then, SecureWorks again raises key issues of channel behavior and competition.
If I had to guess, I’d say Dell simply wants to maintain its security credentials in order to sell to larger enterprise clients. Only time will tell if SecureWorks offerings start getting marketed and sold to SMB clients.