Cisco upcoming blade server to run Linux?

Rumors of a Cisco blade server has resurfaced again, with indications that the blade could feature Red Hat's RHEL operating system as an option, or even as the default OS. According to a report on istockanalyst.com citing industry sources, "The KVM (non-bare metal) virtualization features in RHEL would allow any type of virtualized container to run on the Cisco blades."

The speculation was fuelled by a report issued late Wednesday by Katherine Egbert at Jefferies & Co., who reported that such a deal with Red Hat might be in the works, writes localtechwire.com. The news helped to rally Red Hat shares, the news service reports.

Speculation that Cisco would be coming out with a blade server to round out its data center ambitions first saw the light of day in September. Investment firm UBS issued a bulletin saying that  a blade server from Cisco was likely to be launched within a year and that entry into that market would open a new multi-billion dollar market.

Cisco already had a blade that runs Linux. The Linux-based AXP Network Module 502 runs on the company's 2800 and 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR), and Cisco is currently running a competition for new applications to be developed on the platform.

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• Cisco
• AXP
• blade server
• Cisco AXP
• data center
• Red Hat
• RHEL
• server blade