> We are not yet in a world where cloud > local for the top 45% of Dell's most profitable customers (think big, very big). And if we ever get there, I don't thi

> We are not yet in a world where cloud > local for the top 45% of Dell's most profitable customers (think big, very big). And if we ever get there, I don't think they will be looking to Dell/VM for a solution. > Those "whales" are going to want a more integrated solution, so Amazon, Google, and Msft will take their cloud services one step further--further away than Dell/VM will ever be able to take it: dedicated fiber for their largest customers. How? Any of these three can lour their existing client base as bait and cut a deal with the Verizon and ATTs of the world for bulk (dedicated) bandwidth purchases. And if they don't have enough existing clients (Azure) they can post a cash-bond guaranteeing revenues to the telecom (just like msft did with the record companies to sell music in Win8). You're kidding, right? Dell has provided the solutions for two of those three companies. The datacenter segment of their business is both successful and demolishing its only real competitor: a crumbling HP. Dell's able to build and deliver ridiculously energy efficient datacenters at scale, very quickly. And they do, for Microsoft, eBay, and a number of other companies. Their competitive advantage on the hardware side is substantial. Controlling VMWare would catapult the software side of things very, very far forward. If they want to build a new cloud platform, they've got extremely strong fundamentals to launch it from. If not, well, they'll probably power whoever does build it in some way (and profit handsomely).