Cisco coming out with a blade server? That’s a possibility, according to a blog post by Allan Leinwand writing in Gigaom. He writes: “[Cisco] already produce Linux-based blades for their Catalyst 6500 Series switches, so it seems logical to expect that a blade server will appear shortly in the Nexus 7000 Series.” Leinwand offers no evidence that Cisco is testing such a blade or has one on the drawing board, other than to say that to stay relevant in the data center – where data networking “is no longer the central force” – developing its own blade server will help Cisco remain in the data center. He adds: “IBM currently sells Cisco switch ports attached to their blade servers. Once Cisco reverses this selling dynamic and announces their blade server for the Nexus 7000 switch you can bet that the folks in control of the enterprise accounts will take notice and go on the offensive.”
It’s an interesting theory but is it worthwhile Cisco developing its own blade servers – a market that it has no experience in and one that is being aggressively protected by traditional hardware vendors that can produce blades in high volume, such as Dell? Or are blade servers for Cisco’s big switch the right way for Cisco to go? (Compare blade servers here.)
UPDATE: Read what Doug Gourlay, senior director of Cisco’s data center solutions marketing has to say about this speculation. (He thinks such a product from Cisco is unlikely.)
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