Dell commits a blogging no-no

When Dell launched its Direct 2 Dell blog, the server vendor said that the site aimed to foster a one-on-one conversation with its customers.

On Tuesday however, the ailing computer and server maker suffered a relapse, falling prey to its old habit of the one to many rhetoric. The culprit was Glenn Keels, senior manager of the commercial server team. The weapon was a flame war against HP over its power and cooling strategy.

01 Aug 2007

Even Dell's own suppliers say that the company is behind the rest of the industry when it comes to its power and cooling initiatives. HP apparently has made it one of its talking points to its (prospective) customers.

That in turn prompted Dell's childish jab at HP's "Dynamic Smart Cooling" initiative: "I can't tell you if it's "Dynamic" or "Smart" because the product isn't slated to be released until later this year".

Both HP and Dell rely on Emerson Network Power for their advanced cooling solutions. Dell has a more intimate relationship with the vendor because the firm lacks a large consultancy group that helps firms with the design of their data center. In other words, if customers ask Dell to solve their cooling problems, Dell will point to Emerson. If they ask HP, the printer maker will dish up its own batch of consultants, who will likely recommend Emerson technology.

Dell's Keels has every right to badmouth the competition. But such petty fights have no place on a blog that pretends to foster one-on-one conversations. That's no place to erect your soap box.

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RE: Richard Other than your comment that the war of words between Dell and HP isn't a "petty fight", I'm just seeing a repeat of Keely's original marketing pitch that amounts to "Dell is great" and "cooling and power consumption is important." We've been hearing that pitch for years now, and Dell was one of the last to chime in (and one of the last to adopt more energy efficient AMD processors). Actions speak, words just make noise. If you want to proof your commitment to this space, show real leadership. Don't sling mud at the competition.

Posted by: SV Sleuth 02 Aug 2007

Hi, Glenn Keels is not able to post today but he has provided me with his response and asked me to post on his behalf. "Hi, Please don’t take the intent of my posts wrong. This is no “petty fight” in my opinion. Every time I’m in front of customers and account teams, power/cooling/space constraints are a key topic. They want to know what our point of view is and what we’re doing to help them. Direct2Dell is a great way to share my point-of-view and create a wider dialogue on this important topic. (which, obviously it has) To some of your points, both HP and Dell partner with Emerson as well as others in addressing the datacenter environment holistically. However, you might be surprised at our level of “Dell” services and tools in this area. Also, where datacenters are the servers, we call this “cloud computing” you might like to look at our Datacenter Solutions. The real point behind my blog was to focus the dialogue on what we believe should be the foundation of addressing power, cooling, and space constraints. That is, to focus on optimizing the devices that consume the power, that create the heat, that customers have to cool. By focusing here (while not sacrificing performance or ignoring the holistic datacenter environment) we can have a cascading effect throughout customers’ datacenter. Here’s where it seems like HP and Dell have a different viewpoint and approach to customers’ pain points. And, where I think we should focus on relevant facts as we continue the dialogue. I look forward to future one-on-one conversations with you on this topic. Maybe we should discuss the power and cooling debate via phone? Can you please sign your posts so we could get in touch....or alternatively since I was not able to post personally today, email richardatdell and he will get us together My best, Glenn"

Posted by: RichardatDELL 02 Aug 2007

"Dell's Keels has every right to badmouth the competition." Are you serious? That's like saying two kids have "every right" to fight on the playground. There's a BIG difference between pointing out your strengths over competitors and "badmouthing" them. The latter has no place ANYWHERE--at least not for a civilized company in today's transparent marketplace.

Posted by: anonymous 02 Aug 2007

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