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Computerworld - Jeff Clarke is responsible for the development and marketing of Dell Inc.'s enterprise products, including its servers, workstations, storage devices and networking equipment. Clarke, one of three senior vice presidents who manage the different segments of Dell's product group, spoke with Computerworld last week about issues such as the company's continuing reliance on Intel Corp.'s chips over Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s Opteron processor.

How much of Dell's revenue comes from the enterprise products, and where do you expect that to go in the future? Enterprise is slightly north of 20% of our revenue. We're going to continue to grow it ahead of the company's average growth, but we don't project it out at any point in time.

What's your response to the view that Dell isn't a big technology innovator? Everybody's entitled to their opinion. Our view of the world is, "Look at these technologies. How can we bundle them together?" We were one of the first companies to put lithium-ion batteries in a system. Did we invent lithium-ion technology? No. Did we think of packaging it in a system? Yes. That's our approach to innovation, and our customers continue to vote with their wallets.

Why are you still holding off on using Opteron chips in servers? Our product plans are Intel-based, and that's what we're shipping today. We're always evaluating new technologies in our labs, and there are points in time where one part is faster than another one. The question is whether that advantage is going to be sustained over time.

What about Intel's Itanium chip vs. its 32-bit x86 processors with 64-bit capabilities? We're very, very strong proponents of the 32-bit chips with 64-bit extensions. We do have an Itanium-based system, because customers have asked for one. But the vast majority of our products are based on the 32-bit chips, and they will continue to be used in the vast majority of our products.

Jeff Clarke of Dell Inc.

We reported last month that server shipments were being delayed by shortages of some disk drives, but Dell said it wasn't being affected by the shortages . Is that still the case? We're not seeing any shortages. We know how to run our business. We have a great understanding of supply and demand, perhaps in advance of our suppliers.

Have you been able to hold the line on pricing, despite the short supply? We did not raise prices, if that was your question.

Does Linux account for a big portion of your overall server shipments? It's significant. Linux ison about 15% of the servers that ship from our factory, and it has about a 23% or 24% share [on our machines] worldwide, if you count operating systems that are installed by customers.
What about Linux on the desktop? We factory-install it on all of our workstations. At the PC level, we don't see a strong demand for it.

What are you doing to try to take advantage of HP's ouster of Carly Fiorina as its CEO? We're focusing on our customers and trying to drive the best value to them. Our strategy remains very consistent.

How do you see HP now? They're a strong competitor.

Less strong than they were before? Sorry. You're not going to get the kind of answer you want from me on that.

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