Cisco introduced its first server last week in a bid to help unify the data centers into one cohesive unit. By extending its product line, Cisco will also capture a larger share of spending in the still hot and growing data center market.
The approach, called a Unified Computing System, takes new Cisco networking equipment and packages it with Cisco’s first blade server, storage hardware and virtualization software. It expands Cisco’s role beyond networking and into the unfamiliar territory of server manufacturing, which is dominated by partners IBM and Hewlett-Packard.
Cisco’s packaged system, which will go on sale in the second quarter, will provide an especially flexible and efficient architecture, enabling IT managers to get more out of their hardware. “It gives us a chance to be the leading company not just in communications but in IT,” said Cisco CEO John Chambers.
Chambers said the rise of virtualization in the last few years helped prompt Cisco to expand its role in the data center. Virtualization software allows servers to host multiple virtual machines, making formerly dedicated servers take on various computing roles.
Cisco believes that by combining the discrete parts of a data center into one managed product, the benefits of virtualization can spread across the data center and find its way into more servers. Currently, an estimated 30 percent of servers employ virtualization software.
“You can’t think of this as a blade (server) or a network; it really is a system,” said Rob Lloyd, Cisco’s executive vice president designate of worldwide operations.
I believe that Cisco’s offering will likely appeal first to high-end enterprise customers. Either way this move by Cisco increases the competition in the server virtualization market which should lead to increased savings and innovations.
Posted under Data Center Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization News
This post was written by admin on March 25, 2009
