IBM intends to sell SDN business offer 1 billion USD dell HP engagement

IBM intends to sell SDN business offer 1 billion USD dell HP contacted NetEase technology news January 29, according to foreign media reports, according to people familiar with the matter, IBM is currently planning to sell some of its network business, the price may be as high as 1 billion U.S. dollars. This is only a week after the company sold its low-end server business to Lenovo. Last week, IBM changed its x86 server business to Lenovo in 2.3 billion dollars, including several networking products, such as switches for server connectivity and other products. But this transaction does not include IBM's software Definition Network (SDN) business. SDN is a relatively new network technology that allows data center networks to be quickly set up and configured using software, similar to virtual machines within servers. The advantage is that the network settings become more flexible and convenient and do not need to replace the new hardware. IBM says it has approached several internet business companies to seek buyers, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Juniper and Fujitsu. The SDN business does not have important strategic implications for IBM because of the recent cost of IBM's expansion of Watson's cognitive computing business and its SoftLayer cloud computing business, according to people familiar with the matter. It is unclear which company will buy IBM's SDN business. In a company contacted by IBM, an executive who declined to be named said his company had at least "to look at, to understand." "IBM spokesman Aide Babini Ed Barbini declined to comment on the matter. Representatives from Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Juniper declined to comment. The representative of Foxconn is not yet in contact. Several SDN start-ups have emerged in recent years, such as Big Switch NX and Nicira (now acquired by VMware). and well-known network providers, such as Cisco, HP and Dell, are working to develop and promote their own SDN technology, and to establish different standards for the technology. IBM has been involved in the Open Daylight Project, supported by Cisco and Hewlett-Packard, but has not received large-scale industry support. The stumbling block to achieving SDN sales may lie in BM's offer. But an executive said IBM's 1 billion dollar initial offer was "very optimistic". (Chen)