Cisco’s Unified Computing Means Standards With a “C”

Vikram Mehta, President and CEO of BLADE Network Technologies, in Gigabit and 10G Ethernet network infrastructure solutions that reside in blade servers, believes Cisco’s so-called Unified Computing strategy holds vast and arguably adverse implications as a way to lock customers into a proprietary world while locking out vendors like HP and IBM that are trusted open systems suppliers to enterprises around the world.

Vikram Mehta

Mehta writes in a blog posting that there are at least ten good reasons why Cisco’s proprietary version of data center computing won’t fly. According to Mehta, those reasons include:

Reason #3: Unified Computing means standards with a "C." Writes Mehta: "According to Cisco, converged data and storage networking requires Cisco’s Data Center Ethernet (DCE), thus eliminating freedom of choice with a sole-source Cisco-only server and network. This puts at risk integration and interoperability with vast existing installations. The rest of the industry is working on an open approached called Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) using IEEE’s Data Center Bridging (DCB) standards."

Reason #4: It’s more about packaging than true innovation. For example, Cisco’s fabric extenders carry the same cost structure as switches, as they utilize similar switching silicon, physical interface components, and management processors. When compared to traditional switches — sharing management via ‘stacking’ — the fabric extenders are another example of packaging, not innovation. The more costly data center infrastructure components — CPUs, RAM, and networking silicon — remain unchanged, except Cisco’s prices are higher and more Cisco gear is needed to control them.

Reason #10: Follow the money — into Cisco’s bank account. Cisco’s ‘California’ server approach requires Cisco’s Nexus 5000 switches that start at $17K for a bare-bones Layer 2 switch and significant premiums for adding Layer 3 and FCoE functionality, so the total cost of ownership will be similar to the cost of living in California.

To read Mehta’s blog with all 10 reasons why he asserts, Cisco, welcome to your ‘California’ server, now please go home