上周一，科技大亨邁克爾?戴爾和他的頂尖副手們在拉斯維加斯齊齊亮相，力圖證明戴爾電腦和存儲設備巨擘EMC的合并絕對物有所值。此項合并價值670億美元，已在8個月前完成。

在Dell EMC World大會的開幕式上，戴爾先生再次表示，合并而成的戴爾科技“能像初創(chuàng)企業(yè)那樣創(chuàng)新，同時具備大型公司的規(guī)?！?。

和往屆一樣，本次大會上也將發(fā)布一系列產(chǎn)品，其中包括面向企業(yè)的高速全閃存存儲硬件，定于今年晚些時候上市的第14代戴爾PowerEdge服務器也將得到初步展示。大會還計劃向消費者提供基于“用多少花多少”定價模式的個人電腦和硬件。

科技行業(yè)分析和咨詢公司Moor Insights & Strategy創(chuàng)始人、首席執(zhí)行官兼分析師帕特里克?摩爾海德覺得最后一條消息最有意思。他在電子郵件中寫道：“這樣的做法讓人們像使用云計算服務那樣購買設備，從而奪走了云計算的一項優(yōu)勢。”

其中的原因在于云計算消費者只需在使用軟硬件時付費，Amazon Web Services就是活生生的例子。只要停止使用，就不再收費。許多大企業(yè)都曾為了每三年左右更新一次服務器和存儲設備而拿出數(shù)十萬美元，而且還要為大企業(yè)軟件授權(quán)花更多的錢，上述消息則意味著如果不愿意這樣做，這些公司就不再需要進行這樣的大規(guī)模前端采購。

這種受到普遍歡迎的模式撼動了傳統(tǒng)科技公司，比如，嗯，戴爾和EMC，以及IBM、惠普和思科。就連并非硬件大公司的微軟也在Amazon Web Services出現(xiàn)后受到重創(chuàng)，并因此趕緊對云計算敞開了懷抱。

如果能在不需要高額前端費用的情況下提供靈活而且可承受的價格，戴爾就有可能止住虧損。但新的戴爾科技能履行戴爾先生像初創(chuàng)公司那樣創(chuàng)新的承諾，而且不受戴爾的龐大體量影響嗎？

摩爾海德的態(tài)度很樂觀。他指出，戴爾捆綁銷售各種產(chǎn)品的能力比以往任何時候都強，但想把戴爾服務器和其他公司的存儲設備放在一起使用的消費者也可以實現(xiàn)自己的目標。

國際數(shù)據(jù)公司分析師兼高級副總裁馬特?伊斯特伍德表示，戴爾科技的非上市公司身份是個重大優(yōu)勢。通過合并，EMC從上市公司變成了一家大型非上市企業(yè)的一部分。

伊斯特伍德說：現(xiàn)在，合并后的公司“可以基于市場成熟度對公司/品牌組合進行不同的運作。它們比競爭對手更靈活。作為正面應對措施，惠普企業(yè)已經(jīng)砍掉了幾個業(yè)務部門。但這也犧牲了知識產(chǎn)權(quán)?！?/p>

其他人的疑問在于新成立的戴爾科技能否比戴爾電腦和EMC做得更好。安迪?帕爾默創(chuàng)立過幾家科技公司，也一直是戴爾和EMC的用戶，他認為這方面還沒有定論。

帕爾默說：“如果說有人能理順這件事，那就是邁克爾?戴爾。但跟EMC合作很困難，而且到目前為止EMC已經(jīng)遠離了普通公司的需求，讓他們調(diào)整方針是個挑戰(zhàn)?！?/p>

科技行業(yè)研究和咨詢機構(gòu)Constellation Research創(chuàng)始人兼首席分析師雷?王未參加本次會議。他說自己甚至不能確定戴爾是否還是一家科技公司。相反，王認為戴爾已經(jīng)為私募投資者所掌控，將遵循私募公司利益最大化的原則行事。他說：“和大多數(shù)私募公司一樣，創(chuàng)新被擱置一旁，因為盈利能力高于熱情。”（財富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：Charlie

審稿：夏林

Tech mogul Michael Dell and his top lieutenants were out in force in Las Vegas on Monday to show that the $67 billion combination of Dell Computer and storage giant EMC, completed eight months ago, was worth every penny.

In his kickoff at the Dell EMC World conference, Mr. Dell reiterated his argument that the combined Dell Technologies "can innovate like a startup but with the scale of a huge company."

The conference had the usual blizzard of product announcements including fast all-flash storage hardware for businesses and a preview of "14th-generation" Dell PowerEdge servers due later this year. There were also plans to offer customers pay-as-you-go pricing for PC and other hardware.

Analyst Patrick Moorhead, founder and CEO of Moor Insights & Strategy, found the last announcement most interesting. "Programs that let you buy equipment as you would pay for it in the cloud, takes one cloud advantage off the table," Moorhead said via email.

The reason is that cloud computing, a model exemplified by Amazon Web Services, lets customers pay for only the hardware and software they use for the time they use it. If they shut it off, the bill stops. That means many big businesses that once paid hundreds of thousands of dollars every three years or so for new servers and storage, as well as more money for big enterprise software licenses, no longer have to make those big up-front purchases if they don't want to.

The popularity of that model has upended traditional tech companies like, well like Dell and EMC, as well as IBM (ibm, -0.60%), HP (hpq, -0.36%), and Cisco. Even Microsoft (msft, +0.20%), which was not a big hardware player, was hit hard by the advent of Amazon Web Services (amzn, +0.40%) and, in response, rushed to embrace cloud computing.

If Dell can offer flexible and affordable hardware pricing without the big up-front commitment, that could help stop its bleeding. But can the new Dell Technologies fulfill Mr. Dell's promise of startup-style innovation, despite Dell's gargantuan size?

Moorhead is bullish. He noted a stronger tie-in between the various Dell products than ever. But customers who want to use Dell servers with some other company's storage can do so.

Matt Eastwood, analyst and senior vice president with research firm IDC, said Dell Technologies' status as a private company is a big advantage. In the merger, EMC morphed from a publicly traded company to part of a privately held giant.

Now, the combined company "can run the portfolio of companies/brands differently based on the maturity of the market," Eastwood said. "They are more nimble than their peer competitors. HPE (hpe, -0.58%) is directly responding by cutting divisions. But it is also sacrificing intellectual property."

Others have their doubts whether this the new Dell Technologies can do better than its predecessor companies. Andy Palmer, who has founded several tech companies, and has also been a customer of Dell and EMC, is uncertain.

"If anyone can sort this out, it's Michael Dell. But EMC was tough to work with and has gotten so far away from the needs of the average business it's challenging for them to move the needle," Palmer said.

Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst of Constellation Research, who did not attend the conference, said he is not sure that Dell is even a tech company anymore. Instead, he views it as a company owned by a private equity investors that will act in the best interests of that private equity firm. "As with most PE firms, innovation is put aside for profitability over passion," he said.