Yeah, Wyse pivoted quite a bit over the years. If I recall correctly it was a pretty good exit. I would hazard to guess that AIG's virtual desktop infrastructure is not running mainframes in the backend, but a bunch of x86_64 servers hooked up to a SAN. Not that much cheaper equipment-wise than a bunch of desktops, but a smaller attack surface for hackers, easier to back up, easier to patch/update, lower power usage, fewer support staff.... so many advantages to virtual desktops. Citrix and a private company called Desktone play in that area, too (among others).

The biggest risk to Dell that I can see is that smaller companies increasingly run off of EC2 and 'cloud' apps like Netsuite, Salesforce, and Google apps instead of buying their own servers. Then those companies get so large that they find it's cost effective to assemble their own servers (I think Google along with Facebook and Amazon do this to some extent already)