Dell Moves to Acquire KACE

As IT organizations struggle with the sheer volume of tasks associated with migrating to Windows 7 and managing systems in general, interest in tools that automate these types of IT processes has been growing steadily.

In fact, a recent IT Business Edge study found that 83 percent of 140 senior midmarket IT executives said they are interested in IT process automation tools in 2010.

KACE appliances, which company CTO Marty Kacin describes in detail during a podcast here, are currently deployed at over 1,400 sites, said KACE CEO Rob Meinhardt.

For Dell, KACE adds to its systems management portfolio that currently includes managed services technology that it acquired when it purchased Evergreen in 2007. The KACE systems should help Dell compete more effectively as customers increasingly demand  that PC vendors handle much of the Windows 7 migration process as part of the cost of acquiring a new fleet of systems.