The new PowerEdge C servers are aimed at service providers running busy Web sites and public cloud computing services, as well as enterprises building "private clouds" to deliver on-demand application services internally.

Dell said it would "take the guesswork" out of building public and private clouds by selling the servers in "turnkey cloud solutions" that include packages of hardware, software and implementation services.

The servers are an outgrowth of Dell's Data Center Solutions division, which works closely with Web giants like Microsoft and Facebook to build custom servers for their online operations.

The DCS group works only with very large customers that buy tens of thousands of servers. To reach a wider audience, Dell created a few servers similar to the designs it built for those customers and is offering them for the first time as standard, listed products in the form of the C servers launched Wednesday.

It announced three PowerEdge C servers initially: the C1100, for high-memory configurations, the C2100, for data analytics and storage, and the C6100, a "four-node cloud and cluster optimized shared infrastructure server."