Cisco began OEM’ing EMC’s mid-range and high-end NS500 and NS700 filers last year, to sell alongside the Cisco WAFS products that were originally developed by Actona Technologies Inc. Sales of those WAFS products will have been limited, and Cisco will not say how many EMC boxes it sold.
WAFS, or wide area file services, are aimed at allowing large businesses to relocate data from branch offices to data centers. This process leads to a demand for more filers at the data center, and this is why Cisco struck its OEM deal with EMC.
In a statement, Cisco said its relationship with EMC is at its strongest point ever. Never mind the dumping of EMC’s NAS gear, one of the high points of the relationship involves WAFS, according to the statement.
To that end, the NAS end-of-life notice is a first step in a broader Cisco/EMC relationship that will deliver a more tightly integrated sales and marketing effort, the statement said.
Also tied in with its WAFS sales, last year Cisco struck a support deal with EMC’s arch-rival in NAS, Network Appliance Inc last year. Asked whether this deal with NetApp is to be extended to included OEM’ing of NetApp boxes, Cisco said: There are no changes planned to the standard cooperative support agreement with NetApp. The agreement covers support only.
