Most folks are focusing on Cisco Systems’ consumer electronics push this week. But The VAR Guy is keeping one eye on the data center — where Cisco apparently is preparing to launch blade servers. If true, our resident blogger wonders: How soon will Cisco speed dial Red Hat, MySQL, Novell, SugarCRM and other open source application providers?
Sure, Cisco already has relationships with a range of software companies. But pushing into the blade server market will force Cisco to strengthen partnerships with operating system vendors, application providers, middleware developers and so on.
The ties between top server makers and massive application providers are notoriously strong. Consider this: Dell is Oracle’s biggest reseller (or so Dell claimed at an even attended by The VAR Guy in 2006). Certainly, Cisco can develop similar relationships with the usual software suspects (Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, etc.).
Changing the Rules of the Server Game
But if Cisco truly wants to disrupt the server market — and capture the next generation of application systems — the networking giant should also ink relationships with Alfresco, JasperSoft, Openbravo, Pentaho, SugarCRM and other fast-growing open source application providers. (Check back Jan. 14, when The VAR Guy profiles 50 open source companies that are redefining the IT channel.)
And somewhere within the blade server strategy, Cisco must figure out how to work even more closely with SaaS (software as a service) application providers and hosting firms that serve up Exchange Server, SharePoint and other popular SaaS applications. At the same time, Cisco can potentially create links between its servers and the company’s Wide Area Application Services strategy.
Parting Shot
The smartest, most disruptive move of all: Cisco should quietly test Asterisk on its servers, and prepare to potentially cannibalize Cisco’s own unified communications business.
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Tags: Alfresco | Cisco Blade Servers | Cisco Servers | Cisco Systems Inc. | Jaspersoft | Openbravo | Pentaho | SugarCRM | WAAS | Wide Area Application Services
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Why stop at serving applications? Cisco can snuggle up to Ubuntu or RedHat or Suse and put a very powerful GNU/Linux terminal server on those blades.
There are lots of forces making this the time for thin clients. Those clients need reliable redundant servers. Cisco could cash in on its rep for reliable networking, the Green movement in IT (less power, heat, noise, maintenance, material, waste), the need to fill the vacuum left by Vista and the current need to tighten belts. Improved performance while cutting costs and simplifying administration should make this easier to sell now than ever before.
Robert: Your point about Linux terminal servers running on Cisco blades is a great one. A few weeks ago IBM and Canonical announced a strategy that will put thousands of virtualized Ubuntu Linux desktops on IBM servers… similar to your point about Cisco Linux terminal servers…
Interesting concept, but I think Cisco has already placed its bets, and they are on proprietary software. It bought Webex for conferencing, Postpath for e-mail, Jabber for IM (though that has an open source element) and is gradually integrating them.
As for Asterisk, it’s not really in keeping with Cisco’s enterprise-strength pitch — it doesn’t scale very well beyond small businesses — though I believe some people of hacked Asterisk onto Linksys boxes if that counts?
I don’t see why Cisco can’t maintain good relations with both proprietary and open source vendors, so long as they are not called ‘Microsoft’.
In terms of SaaS providers, many of them do use Cisco networking equipment — but blades are typically too pricey for SaaS companies, who prefer 1U and 2U servers in a cluster.
In my opinion, Cisco’s SaaS fate lies with the channel, both in apps and hardware sales. Microsoft Online has all but cut out MS resellers, who are furious that MS will host its own software and own the customer relationship. This leaves only Cisco Webex and Unison are pledged to deliver unified communications primarily via the channel.
Rurik: Hello again. How far along is Unison with its channel program? As you work more closely with Canonical have you started building up a network of solutions providers or is that still a few months off? Please keep The VAR Guy — and his readers — posted.
–Microsoft Online has all but cut out MS resellers, who are furious that MS will host its own software and own the customer relationship.–
Interesting. The dinosaur that is M$ seems intent on guaranteeing extinction rather than risking survival. By becoming a bottleneck that the world loves to hate, M$ will increase competition, its nemesis. This behaviour is probably good for everyone in the long run. In the short run, the downturn will provoke businesses like Cisco to follow the growth wherever it is: emerging markets, Green IT, and lower-cost solutions.
In the past, M$ has embraced technology only to kill competitors, former partners, in particular fields. This gave them more of the pie. Cutting out resellers is the last stage of that. There are very few partners left except the hardware guys and hardware is so competitive the hardware guys do not want M$ holding them back any longer. ASUS, HP, Dell, and everybody making netbooks has exhibited a greater degree of independence from M$ in the past year. Next year should be even better.
Competition is good. We have about the right level in hardware. No one is starving and customers get great value for the dollar. In software it is a mixed bag. Some are paying through the nose for a decade-old solution that was obsolete when introduced. Startups are not locked-in to that. Paying several times over for software is becoming a tired business model. Free software should keep growing for many years. This will stimulate competition in software so that similar benefits to the world that we see in hardware should develop. It means M$ and its partners will have to rethink relationships.
Cisco confirms server plans to New York Times.