Originally Posted to The Wall Street Journal
A dozen or so tech executives did everything but sing Kumbaya as Cisco Systems unveiled its widely anticipated entry into the computer business.
The general outlines of the announcement were already pretty well known by this point: Cisco will offer “systems” that combine networking gear, servers and software. The goal is to make the data centers that run businesses and the Internet more efficient. At Monday’s event, in San Jose, Calif., Cisco christened the new approach “unified computing.”
The launch event–which was shy on details such as pricing of the products–was basically a love fest, moderated by John Chambers. Cisco’s CEO was joined via TelePresence, Cisco’s high-end video-conferencing system, by the chiefs of many of the tech companies who were involved in the project in one way or another. No one talked much about what the new Cisco system does. But they agreed about its impact.
A sample: “It’s going to change the game,” said Joe Tucci, CEO of storage maker EMC; “John, you’ve changed the game,” added Bob Beauchamp, CEO of software company BMC. Chambers bounced from CEO to CEO, who each contributed a few minutes of puffery.
Later, people talked about how chief information officers, the (mostly) men who control corporate tech budgets, would have to start thinking about their data center spending and indeed Cisco differently. And that, ultimately, is the point of today’s announcement. In the data center, one company owns the relationship with the buyer and everyone else just supplied parts. Right now, Cisco is a parts company–it sells the networking gear that people tack on to whatever else they buy.
The new system is intended to make Cisco the most important tech company in the data center, the strategic relationship that matters most to buyers, and the company that dictates what other equipment customers buy. In that regard, the event was a preview for what Cisco hopes happens in the wild.
