|
The problem when you start a giant ball rolling, is that you never know exactly where it will stop and how many things it will roll over in the process. That, more-or-less is what happened when networking giant Cisco Systems decided earlier this year that it would enter the computer server market.
The ball hasn’t stopped rolling yet, but it caused one more major upheaval in the technology industry Wednesday. Computer and server manufacturer HP announced it had reached a definitive agreement to purchase 3Com for $2.7 billion in cash. With the purchase HP says it now has all the ingredients it needs to supply the data center market from end-to-end.
“Companies are looking for ways to break free from the business limitations imposed by a networking paradigm that has been dominated by a single vendor,” Dave Donatelli, executive vice president of HP’s enterprise servers and networking unit said in a statement. “By acquiring 3Com, we are accelerating the execution of our converged infrastructure strategy and bringing disruptive change to the networking industry.”
It’s interesting to hear HP claim that it is bringing “disruptive change” to the networking industry, because it is actually reacting to Cisco’s moves earlier this year. To recap, here’s the general outline of events.
• In March Cisco announced its entrance into the server market, unveiling its Unified Computing System. In short, Cisco began selling servers aimed at data centers that combine computing, storage and virtualization technologies.
• IBM reacted to Cisco’s decision by announcing in April that it was expanding its partnership with Cisco rival Brocade Communications. IBM said it would rebrand Ethernet switching and routing products made by Brocade.
• In July, IBM further distanced itself from Cisco by announcing it had struck a similar agreement with Juniper Networks to sell its switches and routers under the IBM brand.
• Dell announced in September that it too had reached an agreement with Brocade to sell Brocade networking equipment under the Dell brand.
• Dell followed that up in October with a deal to resell Juniper products under the Dell PowerConnect brand.
• The Wall Street Journal reported in early October that Brocade was shopping itself around. HP was among the reported suitors.
There are more moves to be played out on this front. Brocade has yet to seal a deal with a suitor, and you have to wonder whether Juniper wants to continue to go it alone. But clearly the industry was bound to remade once Cisco got the ball rolling.
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
