Cisco plans to enter Virtualization arena with a “Unified Box” approach?
By Tarry Singh at 20 January, 2009, 2:06 pm
Well, instead of all that hassle of hooking up servers in racks and tying them up with the FC/Ethernet to storage boxes and then finding those switches, Cisco’s plan could be to hook it all in Just Enough in one box approach. That is what I am guessing, although if ou truly think outside the box, this one box approach will surely beat the complex implementation scenarios and all other administrative hassles.
So Cisco is planning a embedded virtualization [VMware's ESXi will find its place and surely Xen will find some love too, depending on the purchase plan against "build it ourselves" with Xen or KVM] and switch/router – all-in-one box. That’s what I am guessing:
But if its just some snazzy [not!] server box with embedded virtualization software and has nothing much to add to it, it is pretty much bound to fail. Why?
Apps chatting with bare metal is the next gig, Oracle, started a project back in the future where its apps could “chat” directly with the hardware transistors. This contraction [in the industry and as well the physically, by bringing the data center resources literally together, will only lead to aggresive transitions where apps will start directly with hardware [firmware] and then you can forget about all those massive investments.
My advice: If you’re as smart as me, then you’re thinking downmarket and low margins.
Here’s Ashlee’s story:
The product — a server computer equipped with sophisticated virtualization software — is a bold but risky move by Cisco into an unfamiliar, intensely competitive market that typically produces far lower profits than Cisco makes from network gear. But it reflects the company’s ambition to grow beyond its roots as the so-called plumber of the Internet to offer everything from instant messaging software to digital stereos.
For years, Cisco remained content to sell the switches and routers that direct the rivers of data flowing between computing systems. It dominates that market, making most of its $40 billion a year in revenue, and 65 percent gross profit margins, from such products.
The other major makers of computer hardware, including H.P., I.B.M. and Dell, have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the company, which is based in San Jose, Calif.: Cisco sells networking gear, while they sell personal computers, servers, storage systems and software.
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