* Cisco, Sun, Oracle and HP on collision course
It’s so strange to see HP and Sun in such hot competition with Cisco in their server announcements. But this is our new reality.
Ever since Cisco came out with its Unified Computing System last month, Cisco has been a competitor to traditional server companies, and some are viewing them as in reactive mode.
This week, HP introduced its BladeSystem Matrix, which converges software, server, storage and networking onto one platform. Cisco’s UCS seeks to do the same thing – and although Cisco last month played down the competition factor, it’s there, and unmistakably so.
Last week, Sun introduced a networking product that also attempts to counter Cisco’s latest moves. Whereas Cisco added a server to its networking core, Sun added a networking device to its server core. Sun says its Virtual Network Express Module eliminates the need for an aggregation switch. The server blades connect to the networking module via PCI Express in the backplane of the blade chassis.
And of course this week, Oracle made a play for Sun. Now, the prospect of Oracle and Cisco being competitors has to blow your mind, at least a little bit. Will the software side give Oracle an edge, as Jim Duffy suggests?
Let me just leave you with this thought: If Sun is amping up its networking efforts, does that reinforce its creed, “The network is the computer”? And if Cisco is coming at it from the opposite direction, does that mean it believes “The computer is the network”? And if Larry Ellison is getting involved, does that mean he’ll finally get to make his “Network Computer”? If you still needed proof that the destinies of computers and networks are one and the same, well, now you have it.
