6. Sale Of Dell Software

The sale of the Dell Software business – including Quest and SonicWall – allowed the company to offset the cost of the merger with EMC, and it also cleared out some of the Dell solutions that would overlap with those sold by EMC.

SonicWall partners were highly enthusiastic about the move, saying the firm's best days were when it was an independent, 100 percent channel-focused company.

Partners who did business with Quest said they expected the divestiture, and that it's easy to sign up for Quest's partner program.

However, partners worry that because Dell EMC direct sales execs will sell Quest, solution providers working with Quest will find themselves battling for deals with Dell EMC, their largest vendor partner.