Opinion: Cisco's tightening embrace

Cisco spent its Partner Summit in San Francisco this week laying out plans for world domination, in the words of one Australian integrator. If there were sceptics in the audience they stayed right until the end. 

There were few empty seats in the 1500-seat auditorium during the last hour of the three-day event, during which CEO John Chambers drawled through his vision for the next incarnation of the internet. 

Chambers was as well trained as every other Cisco executive in hammering home the message of how video would soon represent 90 percent of network traffic and would transform the way we do business and live our lives.  

Aside from video, many had come to hear about Cisco's intentions in the server space. The unified computing system (UCS) platform is a key part of owning the data centre, which Cisco hopes to do with partners EMC and VMware.

The strength of Cisco's appeal depends in part on its relationships with those two vendors, which also hold number one positions in their respective markets.

Cisco's relationship with VMware certainly looked robust.

One of the big announcements was a partner program that included joint online training in UCS and VMware's vSphere program, offered at no cost to channel partners worldwide; a bundle comprising a UCS C250 with VMware vSphere and the Nexus 1000V distributed virtual software switch; demand generation and marketing tools; and online demonstration labs for UCS and vSphere operating on virtual fabric. 

The big news: UCS resellers who undertake the free online training will be able to sell vSphere without requiring further certification.  

The scale of investment between Cisco and VMware makes it harder for the software company to insist it is working equally with other partners. 

In developing first the 1000V, which reportedly took several years, and then the vBlock, a preconfigured module of storage, processing and software, VMware is showing its hand but refusing to admit the depth of the relationship. 

I asked Hatem Naguib, VMware's vice president for worldwide Virtual Computing Environmen (VCE) partnerships, whether UCS was the best platform  for running vSphere.   

"If you look at the work that Cisco and VMware have done with their ecosystem you will find elements of this. I think there is some unique value add," he replied.

I think that means, "Yes". 

VMware is in the awkward position of trying to maintain its market share by holding a neutral position with hardware vendors while burrowing its way into enterprise via VCE as quickly as possible. 

In the meantime Microsoft is freely handing out licences to its HyperVisor virtualisation software to almost anyone who asks for it. 

Will VMware roll out similar programs, integrated switches and preconfigured data-centre modules with other hardware vendors?

I'd be surprised if VMware had the spare R&D cash to share with other vendors, or if Cisco would be happy to allow it.

The writer attended the partner summit as a guest of Cisco