This is just a short blog entry about Cisco’s Unified Computing initiative. It seems Cisco has been quite busy readying blade server technology to bring to market. According to this NETWORKWORLD article, analyst Zeus Kerravala of the Yankee Group was quoted as follows:
If Cisco builds their own server, it will forever change the relationship they have with server manufacturers, for the negative.
I don’t pretend to understand these things. I’ll be watching to learn what the value proposition is for these systems offerings what with HP, IBM, DELL, Sun and Verari coming to mind in order of volume it seems like a crowded field. I could be wrong about that order vis a vis volume come to think of it. It looks about right though.
As I was saying, I’ll be eager to learn more about this offering. I don’t imagine the original business plan of Snapple included becoming the 3rd largest refreshment beverage business in North America. I’m sure they don’t mind having that spot in the marketplace though because that is actually quite an astounding position to be in considering the barriers to entry in that industry. I wonder if Cisco is making a sort of Snapple move? Would 3rd in volume be sufficient?
Kevin Closson's Blog: Platforms, Databases and Storage 
The concept of unified computing is to tie the network to the compute environment due to virtualization. When a VM is running on a server and the server manager wants to move that VM from one server to another, it often requires the network policies, VLAN, ACLs, etc to be changed as well. If the application is going to maintain its current operating state, the network and server changes must be made in concert with the VM move. Right now, that can’t happen. The vision of unified computing is to have that happen through a centralized management console which reprovisions the server and network when the VM is moved.
This will expand the use of VMs from second tier applications and test/development environments to real time, mission critical applications.
Virtualization has played a key role in data center consolidation. Unified computing allows virtualization to extend its value into data center automation.
Hope that helps.
Zeus,
Thank you *very* much for stopping by and offering that information!