Larry Dignan has compiled a timeline showing Dell's recent acquisitions on the managed services front as the beleagured hardware vendor works to stay at part with arch-rival HP.

HP has been no slouch in acquisitions either, but it's not clear which vendor has a better strategy or integration of services and hardware just yet. Unlike many SaaS offerings, these managed services can represent considerable lock-in, since you are making a hardware purchasing decision at the same time. The degree to which companies will take the services component into account remains to be seen. Cross-checking warranty offerings was always a fairly simple operation, but comparing the pluses and minuses of managed services is a more complicated business.