Cisco’s timing for Unified Computing System – a tad off?
Posted by: Bridget Botelho
Cisco Systems, Dell, Gartner Inc, Hewlett Packard, HP, IBM, server market, Unified Computing, x86 servers
Does anyone else think it is a bad idea for Cisco Systems to enter the server market when the industry is experiencing the most significant year-over-year sales decline in history?
Worldwide server revenue declined 24 percent in the first quarter of 2009 and shipments dropped 24.2 percent compared to the first quarter of 2008, and no one went unscaved; all of the top five global server vendors - IBM, HP, Dell, Sun and Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens – saw double-digit revenue declines for the first quarter of 2009, according to Gartner, Inc.
Worldwide: Server Vendor Shipment Estimates, 1Q09 (Units)
|
Company |
1Q09 Shipment |
1Q09 Market Share (%) |
1Q08 Shipment |
1Q08 Market Share (%) |
1Q08-1Q09 Growth (%) |
| Hewlett-Packard |
530,849 |
30.8 |
683,433 |
30.1 |
-22.3 |
| Dell Inc. |
382,385 |
22.2 |
516,499 |
22.7 |
-26.0 |
| IBM |
230,984 |
13.4 |
302,057 |
13.3 |
-23.5 |
| Sun Microsystems |
60,294 |
3.5 |
84,313 |
3.7 |
-28.5 |
| Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens |
59,029 |
3.4 |
78,867 |
3.5 |
-25.2 |
| Other Vendors |
458,161 |
26.6 |
605,883 |
26.7 |
-24.4 |
|
Total |
1,721,702 |
100.0 |
2,271,052 |
100.0 |
-24.2 |
Source: Gartner (June 2009)
Meanwhile, Cisco is marketing the hell out of its upcoming Unified Computing System (UCS), which is rumored to start shipping in a couple of weeks. The company has been offering tid bits of information about UCS through webcasts for months to build anticipation for the system. For instance, yesterday. Cisco announced it would offer rackmount servers in addition to blades.
But once the drumroll for UCS dies and the system actually ships, who’s buying?
I would love to be a fly on the wall in a Cisco executive meeting to hear their strategy with UCS. Do Cisco executives really think this is a good time to introduce an entirely new server system? And are they arrogant enough to think they can beat IBM, Dell and HP at their own game?
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