Dell’s credentials as a potential single-source of data centre infrastructure were boosted earlier this month when the PC maker announced its pending acquisition of Scalent Systems.

Scalent’s V/OE (virtual operating environment) is a set of standards-based interfaces for automating and remotely managing the provisioning and reconfiguring of data centre resources from a single web-based console. It will now become a core component of AIM, Dell’s advanced infrastructure manager data centre management suite.

The acquisition, likely to be finalised in Dell’s second quarter, is one of series of moves that Dell has made to catch-up with the unified data centre strategies of Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. In February, Dell acquired Kace Networks, a developer of systems management appliance technology, and it is also currently working with Seagate and Microsoft to produce a cloud storage appliance.

All of these are steps in the right direction for Dell, and cast it in a more ‘politically correct’ open systems light when measured against the proprietary strategies of Cisco, but it still has a lot to do to correct the perception that is lagging competitors in the race to be the next generation, unified infrastructure of choice.