Will Microsoft End Up Buying Someone like Dell?

Most of the commentary about a reported investment by Microsoft into hardware partner Dell has centered on the fact that both companies have missed the consumer, mobile boom and need to make up ground.

But there is a very strong enterprise technology angle here as well. Microsoft needs to entrench Hyper-V and the latest Windows Server in data centers, something a Dell stake could accelerate. "Look, Microsoft needs a phone and a tablet buddy, but it also needs to make sure its core server and virtualization technologies get deployed," said a former Dell executive who requested anonymity. (Spokesmen for Dell and Microsoft would not comment for this story.)

"Dell, by virtue of its Wyse and Quest acquisitions has a robust zero client business and if you see a big flip in IT with people leaving local hardware and software for stuff driven from the data center via terminal services or VDI, Microsoft needs help there," said Dana Gardner, principal analyst with Interarbor Solutions and a GigaOM Pro analyst. "It has to make sure its software is running in the data center whether it's in the cloud or corporate," he added.

And, mobile is also driving corporate IT in a BYOD world where Apple's iPhone and iPad schooled both Microsoft and Dell in part because it offered a tightly integrated hardware/software bundle. Microsoft and Dell together, in theory, could offer more of that integration together.  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and counterpart Michael Dell have both been under fire for failing to keep their stock prices up and the perception that they missed the boat in mobility.