Dell has finalised its $1.4bn acquisition of storage vendor EqualLogic.

The purchase, announced in November, is the largest in Dell's history and is designed to boost its storage offerings for small and medium-sized businesses.

Dell said that the deal would give it a leg-up in the iSCSI and virtualisation markets, and chief executive Michael Dell stayed true to that theme in announcing the close.
"What we did for PCs and servers we are now going to do for storage," he said. "With our PartnerDirect channel, we will unleash the power of iSCSI and virtualisation to make storing and processing data easier and more affordable."

Dell plans to keep many of EqualLogic's operations intact, including its partner channel which will be integrated into Dell's PartnerDirect.

The company plans to continue EqualLogic's pricing structure and offer partner training programmes for both companies' products.