Cisco's servers should stay away from HP and IBM, analysts say

In unveiling Cisco's long rumored Unified Computing System (UCS) data center initiative on Monday, Cisco CEO John Chambers said that while he "respects" Cisco's newfound competitors in the server market, they have created "silos" in the data center.

Later in the 90-minute event, Gary Moore, Cisco's senior VP for advanced services, took pains to maintain that Cisco's new architecture can be integrated to interoperate with "legacy systems." Moore said customers have been telling Cisco, "Don't make me throw away my investment, or I'm not going to go to you!"

Cisco has signed on Accenture for assistance with integration, along with a roster of other systems integrator partners that includes CSC, Wipro Technologies, and Tata Consultancy Services. Cisco is also enlisting about 250 of its smaller channel partners for the UCS cause. Integration middleware specialist BMC is one of Cisco's numerous software partners in the expansive initiative.

Ironically, though, in separate reports issued today, major analyst groups Forrester and Gartner each suggested that UCS will be best implemented -- initially, at least -- in so-called "greenfield" situations -- in other words, in brand new deployments, not even involving legacy computers from other vendors.

Actually, analysts James Staten and Galen Schreck of Forrester Research see a lot to like in Cisco's unusually architected approach to the data center. Cisco's blade server system, which incorporates the network equipment maker's first server, "goes one step beyond its predecessors by starting from a unified network foundation on ten gigabyte per second Ethernet (10 GbE) that delivers a true wire-once architecture," according to a report issued today by the two Forrester analysts.

"We believe this is the next step in blade server technology as it collapses a lot of components in those systems -- unified network, direct path I/O from the VM through the chip, to the network, and unique system optimization for virtual workloads."

The Forrester analysts even concede that UCS could bear the same strong impact on the server market as Cisco's earlier VoIP push did on the telephony market, but only over time. It would be "a mistake to discount HP and IBM who see this same vision and arguably are better positioned to take their strategic partner enterprise clients there."

For their part, Gartner analysts pointed to compelling needs for Cisco to offer value over rival server makers HP, IBM and Dell -- as well as to adhere to competitive price points -- across areas that include blades, virtual adapters, switching fabric, and systems management tools.

In a "First Take" issued today, Gartner also took specific issue with Cisco's switching fabric, along with its server management tools.

"UCS's architected system storage fabric has limited fibre channel bandwidth on top of the rack switching fabric. This restricts Cisco as it competes and makes it dependent on storage partners such as EMC and NetApp for the storage component," according to this First Take report.

Moreover, the limitations of Cisco's tools will force customer reliance on long-time software vendors -- whether they are Cisco partners, or not -- and thereby make it difficult for Cisco to control its own data center accounts.

"Cisco offers basic server management and tools for virtualization and energy management. However, continued dependence on third parties for provisioning and integration of the application infrastructure will require that customers remain intmate with software vendors such as Citrix, IBM, Oracle, VMware, Microsoft, and SAP. Gartner believes this will inhibit Cisco from readily gaining more data center account control."

In a list of recommendations, Gartner suggests that enterprises should "invite Cisco to be on shortlists initially, and use [UCS] in 'greenfield' opportunities and to negotiate with other vendors." Enterprises should also "switch vendors only when you understand all transitional and operational costs and benefits."

Rather similarly, Forrester's Staten and Schreck predicted that "UCS will succeed mostly in greenfield deployments inside of companies who have a strong strategic partnership with Cisco. As they realize the gains promised, others will start to take [UCS] seriously."

On Monday, Cisco's Chambers referred to Cisco's USC as an "architectural play." Now, it looks as though the architecture could be playing mostly on its own for a while.