A Divorce of Titans

April 30, 2010 will be the death knell of the longstanding HP and Cisco partnership. 

For years Cisco has had a contract with HP to provide system integrations, but this partnership has been deteriorating for quite some time and was accelerated when Cisco recently created and started touting its Unified Computing System (UCS). UCS is a data center solution that directly competes against the larger server vendors such as: HP, IBM, and others. Cisco has decided not to renew their contract with HP, which will expire on April 30th, 2010.

It seems the main issue between the two is how each of them views customer value. While this is a VERY subjective matter, it seems they do not see eye to eye on this extremely important item. I personally see this as a somewhat fluff (re: easy out) excuse as Cisco is making a bold move into a new space. 

Which company has the ‘better’ view of customer value will only be determined in the long term as customers will have to start looking at their data center and infrastructure options differently going forward.

While both sides allude to the fact that it will be ‘business as normal’ to their customers, we all know that things don’t work that way in IT; and there will be issues.

Both companies have been doing pretty well in 2010, and it will be very interesting to see how things work out for the rest of the year and going forward.

It is, in a nutshell: Mark Hurd vs. Tom Chambers

With similar market share and both having stellar management, I would have to side with Mr. Chambers. I think Chambers made a very tough, calculated, and important decision that will turn out to be a big piece of his legacy.

As an aside; Juniper and/or Extreme may see an offer in their near future. Look at Juniper being the first name bandied about due to their recent security issues. 

Todd