Dell's Cloud Dedicated program intends to reduce the stress of companies hosting servers locally by moving workloads off premises to Dell's data centers. Dell will deliver infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings through the private cloud, which could reduce the costs involved in deploying servers and managing services locally.

The program helps companies move applications into the cloud, and the service levels can meet security and compliance requirements, Dell said. The service bundles storage and networking, and can handle large or small workloads. A number of managed service options are offered with the program.

Dell, which also sells servers to companies, has been expanding its cloud services offerings by opening data centers to host public, private and hybrid clouds. The company last year said it would pour US$1 billion over three years to expand its cloud, services and data storage offerings, with part of the investment going toward opening data centers. Starting last year, the company has opened data centers in the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Gartner earlier this month said spending for worldwide IT outsourcing services would reach $251.7 billion this year, with cloud computing services being the fastest growing segment. Gartner in 2012 is expected to total $5 billion, growing by grow 48.7 percent compared to 2011.

Dell has also acquired many companies over the last few years to expand cloud services. One of Dell's earliest acquisitions was Boomi, which simplifies deployment and management of cloud-based applications alongside existing on-premises applications, and the company in 2011 acquired SecureWorks, which now is central to security services provided in the cloud. Dell is also trying to piece together its cloud strategy through recent acquisitions such as virtual desktop company Wyse Technology, cloud-based data backup and recovery services AppAssure and security company SonicWall, which were all acquired this year. Dell in July also said it would acquire Quest Software for $2.4 billion.