Dell has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Force10 Networks (News - Alert), Inc., a leader in high-performance datacenter networking. Force10's networking capabilities will complement Dell's (News - Alert) datacenter solutions portfolio, enabling it to offer customers a broader range of offerings.

“We are excited to work with Dell. Combining Dell's global scale, reach and enterprise portfolio with our innovation in high-performance networking provides our customers the best end-to-end solution for today's and tomorrow's data centers,” said Henry Wasik (News - Alert), chief executive officer, Force10, in a release.

Fueled by an innovative line of open, standards-based networking hardware and software, Force10 develops high-performance datacenter solutions. Its Open Cloud Networking framework grants Web 2.0/portal operators, cloud and hosting providers, enterprise and special-purpose datacenter customers new levels of flexibility, performance, scale and automation – fundamentally changing the economics of datacenter networking.

Dell has taken major steps over the past several years to expand its enterprise portfolio to offer customers a complete range of datacenter products and solutions, according to the release, including developing an integrated stack of leading server, storage, networking and services resources to help customers streamline operations, reduce IT costs, manage data growth and simplify management. Dell feels the acquisition of Force10 and investment in networking is a natural complement to its server strength.

Force10's customers include leading Web 2.0 and Fortune 100 companies, Internet portals, global carriers, leading research laboratories and government organizations with some of the world's most demanding network environments. Dell has expressed its commitment to maintaining and growing Force10's channel program.

“Today's datacenter networks are too complex and require too much manual intervention. What worked in the past is no longer viable in the virtual era,” said Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Enterprise Solutions Group, Dell. “Dell's approach of offering customers open, capable and affordable solutions aligns with Force10's approach to offering customers new levels of flexibility, performance, scale and automation which is fundamental to changing the economics of datacenter networking.”

Force10 was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. Dell also plans to keep Force10's existing operations in Chennai, India, as it continues to invest in additional engineering and sales capability to grow this business.

The deal is subject to customary conditions and is expected to close later this summer.

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