For Dell, the future is data.

The company, best known for selling affordable personal computers, announced on Monday a $2.4 billion purchase of Quest Software. The deal will form the backbone of Dell’s software business and push it deeper into the higher-margin enterprise market.

Quest is an uncharacteristically large acquisition for Dell, which has done only one other multibillion-dollar deal in its history. But Quest is the latest in a string of enterprise deals for Dell. Since February, the computer maker has announced six transactions, including SonicWall, a network security business and AppAssure, a security software maker.

“The addition of Quest will enable Dell to deliver more competitive server, storage, networking and end user computing solutions and services to customers,” John A. Swainson, president of Dell’s software group, said in a statement.

Dell’s shopping spree hinges on the thesis that the ballooning amount of data being generated by businesses and the Web is presenting new challenges for companies, which need to store, manage and protect more and more content.

Founded in 1987, Quest is one of the larger players in this arena, with about $857 million in annual sales. It sells a broad range of solutions, such as software to manage databases, protect information and simplify access to data.