HOPKINTON, MA and SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - March 16, 2009) - EMC® (
NYSE:
EMC) and Cisco
(
NASDAQ:
CSCO) today announced they are expanding their strategic alliance
to help customers to cost-effectively take advantage of their
industry-leading information infrastructures to realize the benefits of
next-generation virtualized data centers. With the launch of the Cisco
Unified Computing
System, the two companies will focus on testing products for
interoperability and on developing data center solutions and support
offerings.
As a next-generation data center platform, the Cisco Unified Computing
System brings together computational, storage access and network resources
into a cohesive system optimized for virtualization. This offers customers
a new approach to simplifying data center complexities while lowering cost
of ownership by integrating the Cisco Unified Computing System with EMC's
broad portfolio of information infrastructure technologies. These include
automated IT management solutions such as EMC Smarts® and EMC
ControlCenter®, industry-leading storage products, and VMware's powerful
virtualization tools.
Cisco's Unified Computing System enables better utilization of IT
infrastructure in a fully virtualized environment. These next-generation
data center architectures will enable a new style of dynamic IT extending
customers' virtualized data centers, creating a foundation for private
clouds that federate with compatible service providers.
"Customers are asking vendors to collaborate to address critical data
center needs that will drive efficiency and their ability to do more with
less. EMC and Cisco share a vision that enterprise IT will eventually
evolve towards a private cloud model and both companies are committed to
working together to achieve this," said EMC's Frank Hauck, executive vice
president, Global Marketing and Customer Quality. "Given virtualization is
at the core of these next-generation data center architectures, EMC and
Cisco, along with VMware, have been working together to invest significant
resources together to provide customers the efficiency, control and
flexibility they desire in next-generation data center architectures."
"Customers are increasingly looking to industry leading companies to
collaborate and deliver architectural solutions that increase business
agility and reduce costs," said Rob Lloyd, executive vice president
designate, Worldwide Operations for Cisco. "We have validated this
approach through our longstanding strategic alliance with EMC. Together,
EMC and Cisco, along with VMware, are unleashing the power of
virtualization by pioneering a system level approach to deliver advances in
efficient data center management and security and business continuance."
EMC and Cisco have been collaborating for years on creating an optimized
information infrastructure that combines EMC's expertise in storing,
protecting and managing vast amounts of information with the power of
Cisco's intelligent network. The two companies work together around
storage area networking with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
agreement that enables EMC to resell the Cisco MDS multilayer switches and
Cisco Nexus 5000 platform as part of EMC Connectrix® family of
connectivity products. As part of this relationship, EMC was the first
storage vendor to offer a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) switch based
on the Cisco Nexus 5000 platform.
Moving forward, the two companies are focused on data center transformation
by helping customers define where they are today, and more importantly,
helping them take their data center into the future through the following
key investments:
- Integrated Technology Architectures and Interoperability Testing
-- EMC and Cisco will continue to collaborate on designing and testing
integrated technology architectures that simplify customers' environments
and enable seamless deployment of the companies' technologies. In the
critical area of IT resource management, EMC and Cisco will focus on
discovery and dependency mapping, automated root cause analysis, and policy-
based configuration management.
- Solutions Development -- EMC and Cisco, along with VMware, have
committed resources for a dedicated solutions lab to showcase the
integration of the companies' technologies and to develop new solutions
that address customers' most critical business requirements.
- Professional Services and Support: EMC and Cisco will expand
collaboration by offering professional services that make it easy for
customers evolve their data center architecture and more quickly realize
the benefits of the powerful combination of the companies' technology
solutions. In addition, the two companies will expand their integrated
customer support center to more efficiently assist issues around next-
generation, virtualized data centers.
Additional Resources:
About EMC
EMC Corporation (
NYSE:
EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider
of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable
organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create
value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services
can be found at
www.EMC.com.
About Cisco
Cisco (
NASDAQ:
CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms
how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco
can be found at
http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to
http://newsroom.cisco.com.
EMC, Smarts, ControlCenter and RSA are registered trademarks of EMC
Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
This release contains forward-looking statements as defined under the
Federal Securities Laws. Actual results could differ materially from those
projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk
factors, including but not limited to: (i) adverse changes in general
economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in information
technology spending; (iii) our ability to protect our proprietary
technology; (iv) risks associated with managing the growth of our business,
including risks associated with acquisitions and investments and the
challenges and costs of integration, restructuring and achieving
anticipated synergies; (v) competitive factors, including but not limited
to pricing pressures and new product introductions; (vi) the relative and
varying rates of product price and component cost declines and the volume
and mixture of product and services revenues; (vii) component and product
quality and availability; (viii) the transition to new products, the
uncertainty of customer acceptance of new product offerings and rapid
technological and market change; (ix) insufficient, excess or obsolete
inventory; (x) war or acts of terrorism; (xi) the ability to attract and
retain highly qualified employees; (xii) fluctuating currency exchange
rates; (xiii) litigation that we may be involved in; and (xiv) other
one-time events and other important factors disclosed previously and from
time to time in EMCs filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission. EMC disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking
statements after the date of this release.
For direct RSS Feeds of all Cisco news, please visit "News@Cisco" at the
following link:
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html
Contact Information: Contact:
Jennifer Dreyer
EMC
(508) 293-7238
Dreyer_Jennifer@emc.com
Pamela Ferrill
Cisco
(408) 527-79076
pamfe@cisco.com