Dell Seeking Container Strategist

Dell is looking for an "enclosures strategist" to run its data center container business, having posted the position on LinkedIn (link via Reuven Cohen). The posting seeks an executive to "develop a strategy around Dell's entry into the Datacenter enclosure market place" and develop "launch strategies such as competitive analysis and collateral production and customers/sales force education."

Dell has yet to publicly admit that it has a container product, but word leaked out in May that the company was developing one for a customer. Any suspense about the identity of the customer ended in June when Microsoft's Debra Chrapaty mentioned that "Dell has a pretty nice container" while discussing the company's infrastructure plans with Om Malik.

While Microsoft is using containers to build a cloud platform for its Live online services, the job posting places the enclosure effort in Dell's Enterprise Product Group, meaning Dell sees a market beyond the clouds.

Dell has big ambitions in cloud computing, as it owns cloudcomputing.com and sought to trademark the term "cloud computing." But while rivals HP, IBM and Rackable (RACK) have rolled out server and container products targeting cloud builders, Dell has thus far focused on developing customized "design-to-order" offerings for its big cloud customers. The job posting suggests a more defined product offering that can be pitched to enterprise customers.