EMC has been positioning the company as "the world leader in information infrastructure solutions" in press releases since February 2007. Now with blogger Chuck Hollis poking around the topic, I'm wondering if they are getting Netapp-itis, and are preparing to ditch their "where information lives" tagline. If so, they should copy an existing logo – I suggest this one.
But seriously, (rim shot, cymbal) I think the challenge Chuck poses to Dell and other vendors about information infrastructure is worth responding to.
Successful infrastructures are both flexible and stable. They provide a range of services with corresponding costs and features. I think most people would agree that Dell sells information infrastructure products that allow customers to build low cost infrastructure services and EMC sells information infrastructure products that allow customers to build higher cost infrastructure services. Dell sells servers, PCs, laptops, networking equipment, management applications and storage. EMC sells storage, data/document management and security.
Chuck wants to focus on the data/document management part of it all, which makes sense because EMC has invested heavily in this area and wants to leverage it in the market. I don't have a problem with that, but I think most people would find that to be a fairly narrow interpretation of "information infrastructure."
Dell's Simplify IT strategy is targeted at reducing the costs and complexity of information infrastructures. Across all product groups and across all geographies – and in cloud data centers.