Gartner Vendor rating: Dell - Positive

http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-2C6IMXJ&ct=150324&st=sb

http://onedellway.us.dell.com/blogs/odw/archive/2015/04/17/and-gartner-s-rating-on-dell-is-in.aspx

Networking: Positive

Dell has emerged as a top four player in the data center networking space when measured by port shipments. It has also been the most-innovative and most-disruptive mainstream data center networking vendor in the market over the past 12 months. In January 2014, Dell announced support for a disaggregated new switching paradigm allowing organizations to run third-party networking OS software on select Dell hardware. Combined with continued advances in the data center portfolio (high-performance, fixed form factor switches and integrated blade switches), Dell now offers a compelling alternative for many data center use cases. On the campus front, Dell has enhanced its switch offerings, and continues to offer an OEM wireless offering to complete the portfolio.

Network Security: Positive

Dell entered the network security market with the acquisition of SonicWALL in May 2012. SonicWALL is well-known in the unified threat management market, and is a current market leader in our most-recent iteration of "Magic Quadrant for Unified Threat Management." Dell has continued to invest in its research and development of the SonicWALL technology, with emphasis on intrusion prevention signature development. The company has shifted its emphasis to add enterprise sales to the traditional SonicWALL small or midsize business (SMB) customer base during the last two years, and this has created some challenges with execution. Recent product announcements have been viewed as positive for its network security product lines, and demonstrated that the company is getting back on track after the disruptions caused by the SonicWALL acquisition and business integration process.