Dell announced Monday that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Quest Software for approximately $2.4 billion. Quest's management technologies are used by more than 100,000 companies in many industries, including healthcare.

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Quest's products are aimed at a variety of IT challenges, from database management, data protection, identity and access management, monitoring and more. The firm generated $857 million in revenue in 2011.

Dell officials say Quest's suite of technologies is well-aligned with its own software strategy, and that the acquisition provides critical components to expand Dell's software capabilities in systems management, security, data protection and workspace management.

"The addition of Quest will enable Dell to deliver more competitive server, storage, networking and end user computing solutions and services to customers," said John Swainson, president, Dell Software Group. "Quest's suite of industry-leading software products, highly-talented team members and unique intellectual property will position us well in the largest and fastest growing areas of the software industry. We intend to build upon the strong momentum Quest brings to Dell."

In addition, Dell officials note that Quest's software portfolio is highly complementary to Dell's scalable design approach to develop solutions that scale with customer needs. Some examples include:

• The Quest One Identity and Access Management solution family adds to Dell's security assets with SonicWALL and Secureworks, creating a comprehensive set of security tools.
• Quest's performance monitoring tools for applications, networks and databases, such as Quest Foglight, can help reduce complexity and automate workloads for IT departments. Customers can leverage Foglight to proactively identify and remedy performance issues before they become bigger problems.
• Quest's Windows server management solutions complement Dell Services'  growing application modernization practice with recently acquired Clerity Solutions and Make Technologies.
• Quest's database management capabilities complement Dell's enterprise offering. Today, millions of DBAs, developers, and analysts around the world rely on Quest's database management tools to simplify their work.

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"Clearly, Dell's distribution, reach and brand are well recognized in the industry," said Vinny Smith, chairman and CEO of Quest Software. "Combine that with Quest's software expertise and award-winning systems management products and you have a very powerful combination for our customers and partners. With this transaction, Quest's products and employees become the foundation for Dell's critical software business."