To convert an enemy into a friend? Cisco, HP cooperate to develop blade switch

In the data center and network area has been a dead enemy of Cisco and Hewlett-Packard recently announced that will cooperate to HP's http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/13737.html "> Blade Server Development of a blade switch, To meet the needs of the two company's common customers.

Two companies say Cisco has developed a fabric Extender for HP BladeSystem, the product name is Cisco Nexus B22 fabric Extender for HP, allowing both HP BladeSystem servers to be purchased, Customers who have purchased Cisco Nexus switches are more tightly integrated to protect their customers ' investments in existing data center technologies. Cisco Fabric Extender was originally designed to extend the fabric capabilities of the Nexus 5000 and 7000 switches, designed to provide better scalability for server cabinets.

Cisco Fabric Extender for HP BladeSystem is currently available for delivery, starting at $9799.

Given Cisco's access to the data Center server market with HP since Cisco's acquisition of the network pioneer 3Com has become a frequent adversary, the partnership looks rather bizarre. In fact, two companies seem to be eroding each other's expansion in these markets. and Hewlett-Packard is becoming a leading manufacturer of blade switches for data center servers.

"I was feeling a little surprised," said Zeus Kerravala, chief analyst at ZK Research. "I thought HP would work with any company, except Cisco," he said. But I 211.html "> think this kind of cooperation also shows that this product is quality assurance. I don't think HP can do a Web product as well as it does a server. ”

But HP points out that there are a large number of customers at the same time using HP servers and Cisco switches.

"BladeSystem's customers require HP to provide solutions so they can easily integrate them into their existing environment," said Jim Ganthier, marketing vice president of HP's industry standard server and software department. This new solution allows companies to choose HP BladeSystem C-class Infrastructure as an industry-standard collaboration option. ”

"This collaboration is all to meet customer demand, is to support our Cisco Network products customers," Cisco Server, Access and virtualization Technology Group senior Vice President Soni Jiandani said. "Both HP and Cisco have realised that our common customer base is quite large. Many customers have both HP servers and users of Cisco's network infrastructure. For these customers, protecting their investments is the most important. Cisco's Catalyst 3020 and 3120 series and MDS9124 fabric switches have historically been part of the HP BladeSystem portfolio, and we're now going to expand this mix to include Nexus Fex. ”