VMware

Cisco/EMC joint venture: private & public cloud data center strategy

Cisco, EMC and VMware have formed a joint venture called “Acadia” to promote a new vision of the data center, built on virtualization and presumably cloud-ready elements. Intel will also have a small stake in the deal. The core of this venture is an architecture built on technology from all three, who form what they call the Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) Coalition.

The “product” is a set of Vblock Infrastructure Packages that are essentially ready-to-install combinations of software and hardware to support security, virtualization, networking, computing and storage. Acadia will sell, install and sustain this as the customer requires, and we’re hearing they have their first contracts in the bag in Asia and the EU, with one in the U.S. likely coming within 45 days.

The concept is also targeted at both private and public clouds, and in this aspect it could be the basis for something highly interesting to service providers and even somewhat competitive as a service-layer technology. So far none of the players seem to be positioning Acadia as a generalized solution for the service layer, and we can’t find any indication of new products other than element management for the Vblocks, but the value of the package concept is considerable for users whose needs fit in the framework of the three Vblock configurations.

Professional services and a developer ecosystem are also provided; the latter may be where service-layer technology comes into the picture. We think that a service-layer extension to the VCE concept could put a lot of pressure on other network vendors. Ericsson has no real announced strategy, Alcatel-Lucent and NSN have strategies they’re not really opening up on, and Juniper has just announced a major service-layer innovation. All of these would need to accommodate whatever positioning Cisco might make.

Cisco’s blade aspirations short on software?

Cisco’s new blade offering, Project California, is likely to be strong on blade and short on software other than UC. This could be a shortcoming that will make Cisco more vulnerable to competition than even some incumbent players might be. Cisco’s project has leaked out for a year or more, giving people plenty of time to position against it.

Dell recently commented extensively on its own view, which might be described as a “blade ecosystem” approach that would involve not only hardware but software and management tools. The implication is that Cisco won’t go there, but we find that very hard to believe given Cisco’s recent software push and the fact that it has management software tools already. In addition, rumors Cisco might even buy VMware have continued to swirl. We think that Cisco’s launch of a blade server would likely come when market conditions appear to be easing, but it may make some M&A moves much earlier.