Cisco

With Cisco-EMC pairing, what’s up with VMware?

The HP vs. Cisco/EMC/VMware hype fight this week re-emphasized that Cisco and EMC (and its subsidiary VMware) are joined at the hip in their aggressive grab for data center share. 

Recurring rumors have Cisco giving up all pretense at some point (John Chambers: ” Ah heck, let’s just get this over with!”) and buying EMC outright. Continued »

Vblock done, Cisco to launch new unified collaboration attack

Cisco and its best friends forever EMC and VMware finally came clean about their Vblock plans on Tuesday.

Now watch for Cisco next week to shift gears–a tad–and unveil a slew of unified collaboration gear from phones to new unified communications servers–or is it now collaboration servers?  Big news on deck on that front for Nov. 9 when Cisco CEO John Chambers will talk up the products. They will probably also include additional new ISR G2 routers on the infrastructure front.

But back to vBlock: Don’t expect HP and IBM to lay down. In fact, you won’t have to wait long for them to up their  competitive responses to Cisco’s aggressive data center push. HP will talk up it’s “converged infrastructure” approach and will say–truthfully–that it, unlike Cisco or EMC–has all the pieces for a converged data center system. Servers? Check. Networking hardware? Check, check. Storage? Check check check.  It’s already down the road with some converged products and probably put pedal to the medal after Cisco’s first unveiled its Unified Computing Systems news last spring. 

Cisco is now opening up its UCS servers to channel partners which is bound to further incite HP .

Check out more IT channel news on SearchITChannel.com.

HP to add storage to converged server/switch

Inquiring minds really want to know when HP will add storage to its converged hardware offering.

The answer appears to be as soon after Jan. 2, 2010 as possible. Continued »

Top five channel hot spots

There’s nothing like a channel advisory board call to recharge the batteries.

Here are the top five takeaways from SearchITChannel.com’s quarterly call earlier this week:

First: It’s probably a no-brainer, but solution providers expect a big hardware refresh to accompany the Windows 7 launch this fall and hope to bundle an array of services around that upgrade binge.

Continued »

Cisco, in sales revamp, to form new Strategic Partner Org

Cisco is forming a new Strategic Partner Organization to manage accounts from both its worldwide channels and strategic alliances groups. The new group will report to Keith Goodwin, Cisco’s senior vice president of worldwide channels, according to a Cisco memo sent to staff late this week.

Continued »

Should be interesting to see if Cisco customers upgrade en masse over next 12 months

Wasn’t able to make the Cisco Partner Summit this week in Boston, although I have been following updates along the way on their Channels Blog and also internally within the Partner Central site. Disclosure: I do some communications consulting for the Cisco worldwide partners organization, so I have access to lots of information that I cannot write about. Although if you have a question about their solutions initiative, feel free to contact me directly.

I haven’t noticed any news items a Continued »

Conglomeration conga

Whether Sun and IBM ever actually do tie the knot, the M&A craziness will continue.  It’s interesting to parse reactions to this possible deal. For IT shops, there’s angst because some Sun partisans hate IBM and people with religious devotion to IBM won’t touch Sun. If those two data center giants converge, the fear is less competition and higher prices.

VARs are acutely interested in this because a vendor they may have been selling against may soon magically morph into their vendor.  This raises interesting channel conflict issues. Despite its well-documented troubles, Sun has gotten good reviews for its channel management by a handful of its elite partners. They’re not eager to be thrown into the IBM pot.

Continued »

Nortel’s choice

Once the dust from Nortel’s bankruptcy filing settles, the company is going to face some tough decisions: What excess will it shed and which customer base will it cater to? Continued »

Nortel for sale … maybe

Nortel is mulling over bids worth nearly $1 billion for its Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) unit.

Nortel placed the MEN unit — one of the healthiest divisions in the company — on the block in September to slash costs and earn some cash, but now the company is taking its time deciding on a bidder, The Globe and Mail of Canada reported this week. Continued »

Whose cloud is it anyway?

Raise your hand if you’ve heard enough about the proverbial cloud yet.

Understood. The hypefest has been enormous. And the payoff? Not there yet. Continued »