HP fires back at Cisco's 'Hotel California' UCS

Both Cisco and Hewlett Packard insist their integration partnership will continue, but the two companies will also be competing more fiercely than ever as they stake out competing visions for the future of the enterprise data centre.

Earlier this week Cisco launched Unified Computing System (UCS), a platform that unites computing, networking and storage access along with virtualization resources into one system for the data centre. It will be going-up against HP's Adaptive Infrastructure portfolio, setting-up the past and future integration partners for a battle for data centre supremacy.

`Following the Cisco launch, HP sent a strongly-worded response to the media raising a number of criticisms of Cisco's approach with UCS. The release said it was "appropriate that Cisco launch(ed) their server in a museum" as the notion of unified compute, network and storage as a system was debuted with the first blades five years ago. It also questioned if you would "let a plumber build your house," claiming Cisco's "network-centric" view of the data centre is incomplete, and dubbed UCS as "Cisco's Hotel California" claiming a lack of standards compatibility.

It was a feisty broadside from HP but Chris Christianotoulos, x86 server business development manager for HP Canada, said the two companies will still remain partners, where customers want to leverage Cisco networking infrastructure within their HP environments. But as Cisco moves deeper into the data centre, they'll also be competing as well.

"Cisco is providing a vision with their UCS approach they've pre-announced, but to us that's a vision HP is delivering on today," said Christianotoulos. "It's a vision for them, but for us it's a reality today with Adaptive Infrastructure from HP."

The two companies are really taking philosophically different approaches, added Christianotoulos. Cisco has chosen to align itself with specific vendors, creating a very narrow offering targeting the virtual world within the data centre. HP views the data centre as more of a heterogeneous world, said Christianotoulos.

"We believe it's about giving customers open standards and the ability to select the right approach for their data centre. Cisco is quite different," said Christianotoulos. "The data centre today is a physical world and a virtual world, and (you need to) be able to manage both. Cisco is very focused on the virtual aspect."

At the end of the day, while competitors come and go, Christianotoulos said HP has been a leader in the server segment for 20 years and remains focused on reducing cost and complexity in the data centre, regardless of competition from Cisco or others.

"We're not new to the data centre game. You can look at the network, but the data centre is about a lot more than the network," said Christianotoulos. "It's about applications, it's about running customer business, and it's about saving costs. We believe we have the best answer."

Cisco is taking HP's strong response as a sign it must be on the right track.