Yesterday we noted IBM’s decision to
resell Brocade’s Foundry networking gear [1], adding that “the move is widely seen as a response to the decision by IBM partner Cisco Systems to enter the blade server market.” Not so, according to Cisco’s Bill Marozas, who says industry pundits have jumped to an erroneous conclusion.
“In reality, it’s an anti-HP strategy,” Marozas writes on Cisco’s
Data Center Networks blog [2]. “IBM needed to counter HP’s Data Center strategy and broader DC portfolio offering and Brocade/Foundry gave them what they needed: An OEM deal through which IBM can now resell its own branded ethernet gear vs. ProCurve in accounts. The Cisco-IBM SAN (MDS 9000 Family of products) relationship remains strong.”
Information Week [3] agrees that HP is the target, but
plenty of [4] others [5]think Cisco is in Big Blue’s crosshairs.
Rich Miller is the founder and editor-in-chief of Data Center Knowledge, and has been reporting on the data center sector since 2000. He has tracked the growing impact of high-density computing on the power and cooling of data centers, and the resulting push for improved energy efficiency in these facilities.
Article printed from Data Center Knowledge: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com
URL to article: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/04/29/cisco-ibm-brocade-deal-is-targeting-hp/
URLs in this post:
[1] resell Brocade’s Foundry networking gear: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/04/28/ibm-expands-relationship-with-brocade/
[2] Data Center Networks blog: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/comments/is_the_recent_ibm_brocade_data_center_announcement_targeted_at_cisco_or_hp/
[3] Information Week: http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/04/ibms_to_oem_bro.html
[4] plenty of: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/042809-ibm-brocade-foundry.html?hpg1=bn
[5] others: http://gigaom.com/2009/04/27/do-not-pub-ibm-brocade/
[6] Rich Miller: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/author/richm/
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