Cisco and Dell have expanded their Solution Technology Integrator agreement aimed at helping customers to better manage virtual data centre environments.
The deal, announced at Cisco Networkers 2009 in Barcelona, will see Dell add Cisco’s Nexus 5020 switches to its Power Edge server and EqualLogic, PowerVault, and Dell/EMC storage platforms.
The offering is designed to help customers simplify the management of next generation data centres via a unified networking fabric that consolidates LAN, SAN and server cluster network environments into a single high-speed 10Gb Ethernet fabric, supporting protocols such as Fibre Channel, FCoE, and Internet Small Computer Storage Interface(iSCSI), the companies said.
Talking to CBR about the deal, Dante Malagrino, marketing director, data centre solutions, said it was a natural step in the relationship between the two companies.
“We want to develop our relationship with Dell more. We also work with EMC and VMware, who are both huge partners of Dell, so it makes sense. We are completing the puzzle,” he said.
Dell will ship Cisco products with its own offerings and storage platforms from EMC. Dell will also be providing full support for the collaborative releases. The companies hope to ship an ‘all-in-one’ data centre within the next few weeks.
Larry Hart, senior product marketing manager at Dell, told CBR that the move is part of the company’s drive to make data centre management easier.
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“We’re working very hard to simplify the IT environment, especially the data centre,” he said. “We’ve been partners with Cisco on an OEM basis for about three years. It’s a great opportunity to take hold of unified fabric and to continue driving that collectively. We feel we’re leading the charge in unified fabric in terms of delivering a 10Gb Ethernet fabric that provides virtualised services.”
The announcement was made on the same day as HP’s ProCurve division released details of a partner programme with Microsoft, Avaya and McAfee to offer an out-of-the-box networking platform. The move was seen by many as an attempt to take on Cisco.
