Barney's Blog

Blog archive

Cisco, EMC and VMware: A New Virtual Team

Microsoft has Citrix as a huge virtualization partner, and now VMware has Cisco and parent company EMC to fight back.

The three have formed an alliance to sell blocks of virtual capacity to IT. Cisco can not only handle the networking, but has a new server line built for virtualization and unified communication. EMC has services and plenty of storage to go around. And VMware has the core virtualization and cloud software.

In fact, the three talk less about virtualization and more about clouds. I'm not clear on whether this is focused on external clouds (where they just sell capacity) or internal clouds (where IT can build its own utility-style computing infrastructure). Do either of these approaches wet your whistle? Who's your favorite virtualization vendor? Fire off answers to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on November 11, 2009


Featured

  • An image of planes flying around a globe

    2025 Microsoft Conference Calendar: For Partners, IT Pros and Developers

    Here's your guide to all the IT training sessions, partner meet-ups and annual Microsoft conferences you won't want to miss.

  • Notebook

    Microsoft Centers AI, Security and Partner Dogfooding at MCAPS

    Microsoft's second annual MCAPS for Partners event took place Tuesday, delivering a volley of updates and directives for its partners for fiscal 2026.

  • Microsoft Layoffs: AI Is the Obvious Elephant in the Room

    As Microsoft doubles down on an $80 billion bet on AI this fiscal year, its workforce reductions are drawing scrutiny over whether AI's ascent is quietly reshaping its human capital strategy, even as official messaging avoids drawing a direct line.

  • Microsoft CSPs To Start Selling Windows 10 ESU this Fall

    Organizations that want to extend the life of their Windows 10 PCs can begin buying extension plans from Microsoft's Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners on Sept. 1.