Its plan is to target four key areas: security, systems management, business intelligence and applications, said John Swainson, the former chief executive of CA who was hired by Dell in February to run its newly formed software division.

Dell expects security to be "a billion dollar business" for it in the next couple of years, Swainson told reporters during a round-table in San Francisco on Thursday. Systems management will be a billion dollar business "in the near term."

Today, Dell's entire software business is worth roughly $1.4 billion, Swainson said, implying significant growth in the years ahead.

The strategy will take time to implement, however. A cornerstone is Dell's $2.6 billion of Quest Software, which sells a variety of system management tools that Dell hopes to leverage across its other products, in areas like storage management and security.

The Quest deal isn't expected to close for a few months, however, and integrating the companies' products will be "a journey that will take 24 to 36 months," Swainson said, although he said there are "immediate gains" as well.