Dell has agreed to acquire EqualLogic for 1.4bn in cash. The firm specialises in storage devices for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs).

The acquisition marks the largest purchase in Dell's history.

Dell unveiled the MD3000i in September, the firm's first storage device that targetted SMBs. The computer maker has been selling storage systems to enterprises through a partnership with EMC.

In a press release, Dell chief executive Michael Dell cautioned that SMBs face an explosion of data that requires storing and retrieval.

"Our customers will be dealing with the largest increase in data we have seen in our history over the next few years," said Dell.

"Leading the iSCSI revolution will help Dell accelerate IT simplification and virtualisation and will drive the Dell value proposition into more areas of the enterprise storage business."

Similar to Dell's MD3000i, EqualLogic offers systems based on the iSCSI protocol that operates over a standard Ethernet connection.

Fibre Channel is the prevalent protocol for enterprise storage systems, but the technology is considered too expensive for small businesses.

SMBs play a major role in Dell's attempts to return to revenue growth and win back position as the world's largest PC maker from HP.

The firm earlier this year unveiled its line of Vostro PCs and notebooks that aim to address specific needs of the segment.