Cisco blade to feature BMC technology; marriage in the air between Cisco, BMC?

Network World's Jim Duffy has uncovered some new details about Cisco's upcoming server blade code named California, which is expected to launch next month. BMC Software will contribute data-center automation tools for the hardware, writes Duffy. The software will reprovision network resources when virtual machine workloads are moved around, helping Cisco meet its stated goal of providing unified computing that tightly integrates hardware and network resources.  Duffy cites sources who say the BMC piece is so important to Cisco that it may even acquire all or parts of the management company.

Such as acquisition would also address Cisco CEO John Chambers' frustration with the state of Cisco network management. Another consideration is BMC's 2008 purchase of BladeLogic, a developer of data center automation tools. BladeLogic was one of the most highly-sought prizes by management vendors, IBM and EMC, and helped put BMC on track to better compete with HP, IBM and EMC, notes Denise Dubie in her Network/Systems Management newsletter.

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• Cisco
• blade server
• BladeLogic
• BMC
• California Server
• data center
• network management
• server blade
• systems management