Comments on: Cisco’s Data Center Moves: Who Wins, Who Loses?

By: Microsoft and HP Team Up to Take on Cisco

Microsoft and HP Team Up to Take on Cisco — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:01:57 +0000

[...] a huge opportunity. In this partnership, we’re seeing how Microsoft, HP and Cisco are reacting to these trends reshaping their markets. [...]

By: Hewlett-Packard’s Russ Daniels discusses his company’s approach to the Cloud | Paul Miller

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:48:48 +0000

[...] Cisco’s Data Center Moves: Who Wins, Who Loses? (gigaom.com) [...]

By: Cisco’s Data Center Play Paves the Way for More M&A

Cisco’s Data Center Play Paves the Way for More M&A — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:19:04 +0000

[...] (something Om prophesied a year ago) with what it called a Unified Computing System that will compete with offerings primarily from HP and IBM. A few days later, rumors circulated that IBM might buy Sun Microsystems for $6.5 billion (or that [...]

By: Robin Harris of StorageMojo his the nail on the head re: Cisco « Yet Another VC Blog

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:47:34 +0000

[...] Cisco’s Data Center Moves: Who Wins, Who Loses? (gigaom.com) [...]

By: Dave-0

Dave-0 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:49:01 +0000

Hype+image+FUD(.5 product) = UCS

Sign me
unimpressed

By: Rackable’s New Servers Like It Hot

Rackable’s New Servers Like It Hot — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:09:26 +0000

[...] a market that’s growing increasingly competitive with Cisco planning a new line of servers dubbed the Unified Computing system, Dell creating a seperate business unit just to deal with web [...]

By: How Dell Will Respond to Cisco’s Server Challenge | Online Buissnes

How Dell Will Respond to Cisco’s Server Challenge | Online Buissnes — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:16:35 +0000

[...] Cisco caused some tremors in the typically staid server industry earlier this week when it introduced a brand-new way of tackling the data center infrastructure, one that treats compute resources as mere elements of the network fabric. The company has dubbed this unique approach “Unified Computing.” With this move, Cisco is challenging traditional server makers, with Dell and Hewlett-Packard in its crosshairs. Of the two, I think Dell is the most vulnerable. [...]

By: How Dell Will Respond to Cisco’s Server Challenge

How Dell Will Respond to Cisco’s Server Challenge — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:00:57 +0000

By: Sun Being Acquired? | Mostly Marketing - Definitely Digital

Sun Being Acquired? | Mostly Marketing - Definitely Digital — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:46:08 +0000

[...] Cisco’s Data Center Moves: Who Wins, Who Loses? (gigaom.com) [...]

By: Sun, IBM, and the value of a comprehensive proposition | Paul Miller

Sun, IBM, and the value of a comprehensive proposition | Paul Miller — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:38:51 +0000

[...] Cisco’s Data Center Moves: Who Wins, Who Loses? (gigaom.com) [...]

By: Subbaraman Iyer

Subbaraman Iyer — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:50:00 +0000

This is clearly a game changing move. The key question is how will Cisco transform this low margin business (gross margins in server business is in mid twenties) into something respectable? Cisco would also have to bolster its partner network and given that many of their current partners also work with IBM and HP, this may become interesting. I have blogged about the implications here at: http://subbaiyer.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/cisco-declares-war-on-ibm-and-hp/

By: Prashant Gandhi

Prashant Gandhi — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:55:39 +0000

To date we have had technology silos: connectivity (networking), compute and storage. Clearly, with this announcement, Cisco is blurring the lines between connectivity and computing. This is no different than collapsing the silos of parallel networks, whether it is data/voice/video (via unified services network) or ethernet/fibrechannel/infiniband (via unified I/O). Unified computing (or connected computing) is the next logical step in this technology evolution.

More details on connectivity versus computing at http://yescloud.wordpress.com.

By: rohit

rohit — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:20:58 +0000

whether cisco takes the so called ‘server’ markets is not the right question to ask. imho, the right question is who will drive market *transformation* for the new private, public, enterprise data center systems. virtualization across Compute, Store, Network creates a new market space. it is this new space that cisco will (hopefully) dominate and is betting it grows in to a big market.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:43:35 +0000

This sounds exactly like what Egenera has been doing for almost a decade now.

By: Sam Johnston

Sam Johnston — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:48:02 +0000

As I see it there are two options:

1> The servers take over the networking, replacing it with performant, malleable (and often open) software.
2> The networking takes over the servers, pulling them down into expensive, proprietary hardware.

I know which of these two options makes more sense on first inspection (hint: a server can easily be a router but a router can never be a server).

I expect there will be announcements from competitors during this critical window between initial announcement and production launch and I imagine it will be hard to say for sure how this will pan out until then – pricing would certainly help though. The main risks I see is from virtual networking built into virtualisation platforms and operating systems (as well as “cloud networking” providers like Avastu, and also from alienating existing resellers like IBM and HP who now have significant incentive to deliver more open, modular but still “unified” hardware stacks.

Sam

By: Cisco’s Data Center Moves: Who Wins, Who Loses? | David Santos

Cisco’s Data Center Moves: Who Wins, Who Loses? | David Santos — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:27:47 +0000

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