Look, Ma, No Hardware: Cisco’s Virtual Switch

Shakil published 17 Sep 2008, 18:35 in main - 407 views

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Cisco Systems has found a way around all that bothersome metal and plastic used to make its networking gear. The company has concocted a virtual switch that it’s selling in tandem with VMware, the leader in virtualization software and a close Cisco partner.

The Cisco Nexus 1000V is a curious device because it’s not a device at all. Instead, the virtual switch, due to ship in the first half of next year, uses software to handle many of the networking and security functions found in Cisco’s standard hardware.

Cisco’s networking products tend to receive less attention than the third-party servers and storage systems they connect. The new virtual product can be seen as a way for Cisco to try to tap into one of the hottest parts of the software market and draw more attention to its data center gear.

The switching technology proves helpful when dealing with the virtual servers created by VMware’s software. VMware customers can run numerous operating systems and applications on a single physical system, and all of that software still needs to maintain the networking connections and policies usually associated with physical systems. To date, VMware has been including a virtual switch of its own making, but the Nexus 1000V can link more systems and is a step up from the old VMware product.

“That virtual switch today does not have the capabilities of our product,” said Soni Jiandani, a vice president at Cisco.

Cisco declined to provide any pricing details for the virtual switch but did say it will ship as standard with VMware’s software and customers will pay to activate the technology.

The union between Cisco and VMware arrives via an existing business relationship. Cisco owns close to 2 percent of VMware, having invested in the company ahead of its initial public offering in 2007. Intel owns more than 2 percent as well. EMC, a maker of data storage technology, is the majority owner of VMware, with close to 85 percent of its shares.

Despite issuing a flood of news at its annual customer conference, VMware watched this week as its share price continued to slide. During early Wednesday trading, VMware was down about 16 percent, dipping below its August 2007 IPO price of $29 per share to about $27. The company recently hired Paul Maritz, a former Microsoft executive, as its new chief executive, after firing co-founder Diane Greene.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company