Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Gasp! Cisco and HP collaborate on blade switch

Perhaps it's a matter of keeping your friends close but your enemies closer: Bitter data center and networking rivals Cisco and HP collaborated to develop a switch for HP's blade server systems to address the needs of joint customers.

The Cisco Fabric Extender for HP BladeSystem, also known as the Cisco Nexus B22 Fabric Extender for HP, offers tighter integration for customers investing in HP BladeSystem servers and Cisco Nexus switches and preserves investments in existing data center technology, the companies say. Cisco fabric extenders are devices designed to broaden the reach of Nexus 5000 and 7000 switch fabrics closer to the server rack for greater scalability.

VITRIOL: Cisco memo slams HP strategy

It's a curious collaboration, considering that Cisco and HP have become very vocal rivals since Cisco's entry into the data center server market and HP's acquisition of networking pioneer 3Com. Indeed, it would seem to undermine both companies' respective efforts in those market expansions. And HP is a leading provider of blade switches for data center servers.

"I'm a little surprised," says Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research. "I thought they would have gone to anyone but Cisco. It might be an indicator of the quality of that product. I don't think (HP Networking) has that functionality so the server group has to do what it has to do."

But HP points out that it has a lot of joint customers using HP servers and Cisco switches.

"BladeSystem customers are looking to HP for solutions that easily integrate into existing environments," said Jim Ganthier, vice president of marketing, Industry Standard Servers and Software at HP, in a statement. "This new solution allows industry-standard collaboration options for enterprises choosing HP BladeSystem c-Class infrastructure."

"This is all about customer demand and supporting our Cisco networking customers," says Soni Jiandani, senior vice president of Cisco's Server, Access and Virtualization Technology Group. "Both HP and Cisco recognize that we have a large base of joint customers. Many customers have HP servers and enclosures while investing in Cisco's networking infrastructure. For those customers, it is important to ensure they have choice. Cisco has traditionally been a part of the HP BladeSystem portfolio with Catalyst 3020 and 3120 series and the MDS9124 Fabric Switches and we are now extending this to the Nexus FEX for HP BladeSystem."

The Cisco Fabric Extender for HP BladeSystem is available now from HP. Pricing begins at $9,799.

Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: 3Com, 3Com, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, HP, Technology
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Configuration / maintenance, Data Center, hardware systems, servers
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • A Technical Overview of the Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Exadata Storage Server
    Businesses today increasingly need to leverage a unified database platform to enable the deployment and consolidation of all applications onto one common infrastructure. Whether OLTP, DW or mixed workload a common infrastructure delivers the efficiencies and reusability the datacenter needs – and provides the reality of grid computing in-house. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • HP ePrint Enterprise mobile printing solution
    The merger of mobile devices and cloud services has become one of the most significant enablers of business productivity and innovation in the past decade. We now hold the power of communicating and computing in the palms of our hands, nearly anywhere business or life takes us. However, one key business process has eluded the mobility movement: printing. Even the most technically enabled business travelers find themselves hunting down print services while on the road and interrupting IT managers when visiting a branch office simply to print a document. But finally, a truly mobile print experience is available—helping enterprises to drive business productivity further. Read more.
    Learn more »
  • Optimizing Data Quality in the Enterprise - How to Tackle Your Bad Information
    Data quality – the measure of data accuracy, completeness, and consistency across a business – has become the core focus of information management efforts among many of today’s organizations. Problems with data quality continue to plague corporations of all types and sizes. In this paper, we will discuss some techniques companies can implement to enhance data quality across the entire enterprise. We will also highlight data quality management solutions, which provide businesses with the ability to effectively and economically enhance the correctness, completeness, and consistency of information in each and every system within their technology infrastructure.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments