Cisco's virtualization push could benefit consumers

From CNET News.com: At first glance Cisco Systems' latest announcement that it's entering the server market seems like another boring corporate IT announcement, but take a closer look. The company's long-term vision of a "virtualized" data center could eventually revolutionize how consumers will one day access new services via the Net.

First, let's look at what Cisco actually announced. On Monday, the company unveiled a new data center architecture it's calling Unified Computing. This new architecture includes new hardware from Cisco, namely blade servers, an interconnection "fabric," a chassis for the blade servers, Fabric extenders and network adapters. It also includes coordinated support and software integration from several partners, including chipmaker Intel, software maker Microsoft, storage gear maker EMC, and virtualization partner VMware among several others.

On its own, this announcement is a big deal for Cisco. The company, which has spent the last 20 years building infrastructure equipment, is now competing in the computer server market against some of its current partners like Hewlett-Packard and IBM. But as the company's executives pointed out during a press and analyst event to unveil the new strategy, Cisco never announces just a product.

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