Dell is to buy EqualLogic in a move that will take the PC giant deeper into storage area networking and virtualisation.

The $1.4bn cash purchase is by far Dell’s largest transaction and gives it a powerful say in the fast-growing iSCSI segment, where EqualLogic has been a pioneer. Dell has alerady identified iSCSI as a technology likelyt to provide a wunning combination of performance and ease of manageability.

In a statement, Dell chief executive Michael Dell said EqualLogic would give customers the opportunity to further simplify storage infrastructure. “Our customers will be dealing with the largest increase in data we have seen in our history over the next few years,” he said. “Leading the iSCSI revolution will help Dell accelerate IT simplification and virtualisation.”

Dell has been attempting to be a big player in storage for several years and has achieved notable success. However, Michael Dell himself has said that the $340m acquisition of storage networking firm ConvergeNet in 1999 had been a failure and he has in the past mocked the merger-and-acquisition strategies of rivals such as HP.

Dell expects to close the deal by the end of this year and plans to keep on the EqualLogic brand and, despite its famous allegiance to direct sales, EqualLogic’s reseller channel. Dell also plans to build in EqualLogic capabilities into its PowerVault storage line.

It is not as yet clear how the purchase will affect Dell’s longstanding relationship with EMC.