On April 5, Dell announced a new comprehensive business strategy aimed at Internet specialization. The announcement included new business partnerships, Internet access pledges and initiatives, and Internet business services. The most substantive part of the announcement, however, was Dell’s new line of appliance servers, the PowerApp line. Appliance servers are optimized servers dedicated to one task. Dell announced a line of dedicated Web-hosting servers, PowerApp.web, and a line of dedicated caching servers, PowerApp.cache. The PowerApp servers come loaded with Microsoft, Red Hat, or Novell software packages. The PowerApp.web servers are available with one of two OS choices: a special flavor of Windows server, which Microsoft and Dell co-developed, made especially for Web hosting with Internet Information Server (IIS) and Microsoft Load Balancing Service; or Red Hat Linux and Red Hat Apache Web with Piranha load balancer. PowerApp.cache comes loaded with Novell Internet Caching System. Pricing for PowerApp.web servers will start about $1900 and PowerApp.cache servers about $4400. Both server lines will ship in May. Dell also announced a deal with F5 Networks to bring F5’s BIG-IP Controller load balancer to the PowerApp servers. Other developments in the comprehensive business strategy include partnerships with Arthur Andersen and Gen3 Partners for Internet consulting and a new set of services specifically tailored for application service providers (ASPs), ISPs, and Web hosters. Dell also kicked off Dell Ventures, an in-house venture-capital firm that provides “equity investments and incubation services for selected early-stage private companies to accelerate development.”
