Rumors are flying again that Cisco is considering buying VMware from EMC and we at Cisco Subnet say, ok, we’ll bite and report on it. Reuters published a story today which lays out a fairly compelling argument for the deal, if you don’t mind overlooking the obvious fact that Cisco is already an investor in VMware with its very own Dennis Powell sitting on VMware’s board of directors. Ergo, Cisco doesn’t need to own VMware outright to gain an insider’s power over the company or its technology.
Then again, we at Cisco Subnet cannot pretend to read the minds of those who hold the purse strings at Cisco. So, for the sake of argument let’s say EMC puts VMware up for sale. Is it a fit for Cisco to own? According to unnamed sources in the Reuters story, Cisco thinks so, and last summer even had some sit down discussions about purchasing all of EMC for the sake of owning the coveted virtualization software maker.
And we do admit that a union between VMware and Cisco makes sense giving Cisco’s desire to push its way into the application server market with its Application eXtension Platform (AXP) and other initiatives. It makes at least as much sense as EMC owning VMware.
As long as we are speculating, we say what makes more sense — but which we believe will never happen — would be if Microsoft were to buy VMware. This assumes Microsoft would be willing to play the Oracle game, buying up its biggest competitors with the idea of absorbing customers and, eventually, integrating technology. Given Microsoft’s track record on integrating acquired technology (not to mention satisfying customers) a Microsoft/VMware deal would not likely make VMware customers happy. Given the strong love-hate relationship between Cisco and Microsoft, a Microsoft owned VMware could be good for Cisco, if love prevailed and the two of them saw this a way to push Windows further into the data center and AXP further into the app server market. It could certainly be a win for Cisco customers who would get the advantage of a close mutually beneficial union of three important vendors.
In any case, you can now consider yourself fully informed on the latest dish regarding Cisco and VMware.
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