Cisco is reportedly preparing a hyperconvergence appliance through an OEM arrangement with start-up Springpath. According to CRN and The Register, Cisco has invested an undisclosed amount in Springpath as a prelude to the introduction of a hyperconvergence appliance combining Cisco’s UCS server platform with Springpath’s software, which enables compute, storage, networking and virtualization to run on an x86 server.
The deal would effectively quash speculation that Cisco would acquire Nutanix for its hyperconvergence offering. It might also kill a partnership Cisco has with SimpliVity.
SimpliVity last summer entered into a similar arrangement with Lenovo, a competitor of Cisco’s in data center servers. Nutanix filed an IPO a few weeks ago and entered into an OEM relationship with Lenovo in November.
Cisco said it doesn’t comment on “rumor and speculation” when asked about the Springpath reports.
Separately, Cisco won an appeal on a years-long Wi-Fi patent dispute with Commil USA, a patent owner, licensor and enforcer. According to Reuters, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Cisco was not liable for directly infringing on a patent held by Commil that applies to large Wi-Fi deployments using multiple access points.
The dispute with Commil dates back to 2007. In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out an appeals court ruling in favor of Cisco and awarded Commil $64 million, which Cisco again appealed.
Cisco prevailed this time when a panel of three Federal Circuit judges determined on December 28 that there was not enough evidence to support the jury’s findings in the Supreme Court ruling.
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