Cisco this week announced a switch module for HP’s BladeSystem chassis that can allow HP blade servers to connect and interoperate better with a Cisco-based data center network, the two vendors say.

The Cisco Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module fits into HP’s BladeSystem p-Class chassis and acts as a gateway for traffic moving in and out of the BladeSystem. The vendors say the switch module can improve blade server performance by opening up wider network pipes to an HP blade chassis, and can improve management of data center and network gear.

The Cisco device will be sold through HP. It is a Layer 2/3 switch with 24 ports of 10/100/1000M bit/sec Ethernet, and it runs Cisco’s Layer 2/3 IOS switch software image. Cisco says the switch is comparable in features and performance to its Catalyst 2970 switch.

The switch module communicates with blades in the BladeSystem through the chassis backplane, with the switch acting as the connection between the chassis and a LAN. Previously, Cisco and HP say, individual blades in a BladeSystem would be plugged into an external LAN switch via patch panels and 100/1000M bit/sec NICs on the BladeSystem blades; this setup, using multiple patch cables connected to the switch, could become unwieldy.

Cisco says dual Gigabit Ethernet Switch Modules could also be deployed in an HP BladeSystem chassis to provide redundant paths to the network for each server blade.

Last year, Cisco announced its first blade-server-related switch, a 24-port blade that fits into IBM’s blade server chassis, as well as software that combines Cisco network management features with IBM Tivoli server provisioning software.

In 2003, Nortel announced a Layer 2-7 switch for HP’s blade server chassis that provided functions that are similar to those of the Cisco product. But it also offers Layer 4-7 load balancing and Layer 7 application switching capabilities.

Cisco says it is focusing on Layer 2/3 switching in the blade chassis for now.

“We don’t believe that customers need to change their fundamental network architecture with [blade server] technology,” says Maciej Kranz, director of Cisco’s Desktop Switching Business Unit.

He says functions such as firewalls, Layer 4 load balancing and Layer 7 switching are better performed on external devices. “The feedback we are getting [from customers] is that it is just too complex to put Layer 4-7 services into the blade. It doesn’t scale.”