A Little EMC Game

What if EMC buys Legato, a storage management software vendor? There's a rumor circulating that EMC would offer $750 million for Legato and, indeed, some industry observers say it's already a done deal.

The EMC and Legato folks refused to discuss such a deal publicly, but for conspiracy folks like me, it's an intriguing possibility. Let's say the deal goes through. What will we have?

For starters, EMC is already the top storage management software vendor, with Legato at No. 5, according to the most recent industry estimates. That was in 2001, mind you. But, hey, this is just a game.

So the largest vendor plus a smaller vendor equals a "more largest" vendor. Not only that, but EMC also has a major focus on the enterprise, while Legato has products for small to large businesses. So there's rather minimal overlap.

Now let's make things more interesting. EMC has API cross-licensing agreements with its biggest competitor, Hewlett-Packard, and it is working with its second-largest competitor, Hitachi, on a similar agreement. Pretty useful stuff if you're a big software vendor.

Then there's the question of EMC's hardware. Since we are playing a game, let's have EMC get rid of its Clariion and Centera lines. Too far-fetched? Well, think Dell. EMC and Dell have already said Dell will soon produce the Clariion CX200, and there's nothing stopping Dell from producing the CX400 and CX600 as well.

I'm not talking about Dell acquiring the hardware lines; Dell is acquisition-adverse. Anyway, there's no need for Dell to do that. The company just needs the technology license from EMC, and then it becomes a simple matter of assembly, which Dell does better than almost anyone else.

Wait a second . . . EMC licensing Clariion and maybe someday Centera technology to Dell? Hmm, a technology license. What does that sound like? A software company? Bingo! What is a storage array besides a bunch of disks and a RAID controller wrapped around software? (I know that's an oversimplification, so please don't spam me.)

What about Symmetrix? Easy. Since this is just a game, let's have EMC spin it off as a separate company. Another option: Keep Symmetrix and spin off the software business. EMC would already have a structure in place thanks to the Legato acquisition--in our game, at least.

Preposterous? Maybe. Possible? Yeah. And if I'm wrong? So what, it's just a game.

Still reading and writing,
Joseph F. Kovar

JOE KOVAR is the storage editor for CRN .