Dell will be expanding their currently limited presence in the SAN market by acquiring a company known as EqualLogic. For $1.4 billion, Dell will be getting a jump start in this market by acquiring the company , whose products focuses around iSCSI, a fairly popular standard in enterprise environments.

Particularly with the explosive growth in virtualization this year and promises of continued growth, along with increased storage demand, SANs are likely to grow and this deal is probably a good investment for Dell. As they face increasing competition from HP in both the desktop and enterprise markets, expanding their profile is one way to fight back. This news comes just a few months after Dell began offering their self-branded SAN solutions.