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Category: Cisco
November 18th, 2009
Salesforce kicks off Dreamforce, announces Chatter
These days, two of the biggest buzzwords in online business tools are collaboration and social.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has just taken the stage at San Francisco’s Moscone Center to kick off the Dreamforce conference and is expected to introduce Salesforce Chatter, a new tool that brings collaboration and social together. (Techmeme)
Other coverage: Michael Krigsman: Dreamforce: Quick first impressions
The company, in a statement, says Chatter will “revolutionize the workplace” by leveraging social networking models that have become popular among the mainstream, notably Facebook, and bringing them to a secure and private cloud where people, content and applications will have profiles feeds and groups.
As you can probably imagine, Chatter incorporates things like status updates (I’m on a conference call now or maybe in a meeting), groups (which helps a project team stay updated), sharing (which allows users to determine who sees what) and, of course, Twitter, with the most relevant tweets being filtered into Chatter.
The Salesforce announcement comes on the heels of Cisco’s own unveiling of collaboration tools earlier this month and builds on some of the buzz created by Google when it introduced a preview version of Wave, an online collaboration platform.
The Salesforce model goes beyond just collaboration tools. This is a platform and Salesforce is opening it to developers as a platform so they can build their own social enterprise applications of their own. Likewise, the 135,000 native apps on Force.com will also become social, the company said.
Increasingly, as workers are mobile, companies are global - or virtual - and meetings are conducted over a video conference just as often as they’re held in a conference room, employees no longer can rely on walking over to a colleague’s cubicle to discuss a presentation.
Chatter is scheduled for release in early 2010 - though Benioff wouldn’t offer any specific date, noting that delays can happen. It will be included in all paid editions of Salesforce CRM and Force.com but there will also be a new Chatter Edition for $50 per user per month and will include Salesforce Chatter, Salesforce Content and Force.com. (See YouTube video below)
The company also offered a peek at a new user interface, scheduled for release next year, that looks cleaner and simpler but has some familiarity to the old UI, easing in the users who tend to not like change.
Back at the Dreamforce keynote, Benioff - joined by San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom - spent some time talking about the work that the Salesforce Foundation is funding locally. He also spent time looking back at previous announcements made by the company.
Interestingly enough, Benioff and team spent the first half of his keynote looking backward, talking about previously-announced services that were relatively unknown to those in the audience, based on the number of hands that went up when Benioff asked who’d heard of them. (So, it seems it may have been a good idea to review them.)
Specifically, he talked about the four clouds: Sales Cloud 2 and Service Cloud 2, which were introduced earlier this year. (Video) He also mentioned Custom Cloud 2, which he said will be the focus of discussions at Dreamforce tomorrow. He also teased to an unknown cloud that would be revealed at the end of the keynote, which ended up being Chatter.
He called it “Our biggest breakthrough ever,” describing it as Facebook and Twitter in the enterprise. Unfortunately, he didn’t get big rounds of applause for Chatter - largely, I suspect, because it took him at least 15 minutes of talking about his own experiences with Twitter and Facebook to finally get to the announcement.
As a side note, Chatter is a cool announcement but a long-winded keynote seemed to be forcing the audience to remain engaged. The news itself was buried into the final minutes of the speech. And company executives - especially Benioff - seem to be trying to inject some excitement into this keynote, including some bizarre Bruce Springsteen-like introductions for anyone who steps on stage. (”Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome to the stage… JOE SMITH!!!!).
The audience is clearly engaged already. Some 19,000 people are attending Dreamforce and many of them are already fans of the technology, so why the need to splash some “Hollywood” into it and try to sell them on the idea of cloud computing? They’re already sold. At Oracle Open World this year, there were cameo appearances by The Who’s Roger Daltrey and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the biggest celebrity on stage at Dreamforce was San Francisco’s mayor.
Maybe it’s me but it all seemed like showboating overkill, especially given that the keynote started 30 minutes and then still went over the 90-minute time frame, There were plenty of places where the keynote could have been trimmed to put things back on schedule. And, given that people started to stream out of the auditorium as the Chatter demo continued (and went on and on and on) and tweets reflected that attendees were not as engaged as they could have been, the company really sort of botched this keynote.
November 16th, 2009
Cisco raises bid for Tandberg; Lands 40% of shareholders
Cisco on Monday said that it will raise its bid for video conferencing company Tandberg to $3.4 billion, up from $3 billion. The higher offer arrived after Tandberg shareholders balked at the first bid.
In a statement, Cisco said 40 percent of Tandberg shareholders tendered shares to the networking company.
Tandberg shareholders have proven to be a tough crowd for Cisco. The rub: Cisco extended the deadline for the deal to Dec. 1 and said it will withdraw its offer if 90 percent of Tandberg shareholders don’t agree to it.
Among some of the key items:
- Cisco said that Tandberg’s largest shareholders, Folketrygdfondet and OppenheimerFunds, have already accepted the higher bid. That’s likely to push other shareholders off the fence.
- If Tandberg doesn’t take this offer Cisco “will withdraw the offer and evaluate alternative ways to expand our activities in the video communications market.”
- Cisco raised the interest payable on the offer price to 3 percent from 1.75 percent.
November 13th, 2009
Tech M&A accelerates: Will the No. 2 and No. 3 players sell out or compete?
In this installment of The Big Question podcast TechRepublic’s Jason Hiner and I talk about the evolving tech landscape as mergers and acquisitions accelerate. There are plenty M&A possibilities ahead, but tech industry may wind up with giant vendors and startups and little in between.
Meanwhile, a lot of companies will have to make some big decisions. Will IBM get back into networking hardware? What should companies like Juniper and Brocade do? Will there be enough strong No. 2 players to go around?
The Big Question is a joint production from ZDNet and TechRepublic.
You can play this 25-minute episode from the Flash-based player at the top of the page or:
Stories discussed in this episode:
- HP announces $2.7 billion acquisition of 3Com (ZDNet)
- Cisco vs. HP: 3Com acquisition ups the ante (ZDNet)
- Seven tech industry acquisitions we would sanction (TechRepublic)
- Logitech Buys LifeSize. Now what about Polycom? (ZDNet)
- Google spent about $780 million today (ZDNet)
- EU showdown over Oracle-Sun; Objections seem imminent (ZDNet)
November 11th, 2009
Cisco vs. HP: 3Com acquisition ups the ante
Cisco and HP have been duking it over their visions for the next generation data center architecture and the battle is just getting interesting. Cisco entered the server market and HP has countered by purchasing 3Com for $2.7 billion.
Simply put, both Cisco and HP have encroached on their rival’s home turf. The 3Com purchase gives HP a foothold in security (3Com owns TippingPoint), switches and routers (statement, breaking news). HP also becomes the No. 2 networking vendor. Cisco CEO John Chambers foreshadowed the HP collision course back in August. He declared HP a clear foe.
Also: HP announces $2.7 billion acquisition of 3Com; raises outlook
This chart from a Goldman Sachs data center report sums up how HP-3Com purchase changes the landscape (my notes added):
November 10th, 2009
Logitech gobbles up LifeSize; Enters video conferencing
Logitech, a maker of Webcams and other peripherals, said Tuesday it will acquire LifeSize Communications for $405 million in cash. The move puts Logitech into the video conferencing market.
LifeSize offers high-def video conferencing systems. LifeSize’s customers range from small and medium businesses to large companies. I’ve tested out a few LifeSize systems and found them to be solid systems for the money.
The move by Logitech (statement, Techmeme) means that most of the standalone video conferencing players have been acquired. Cisco is planning to buy Tandberg, but having some trouble. And once LifeSize is off the board Polycom will be the last player standing.
In a statement, Logitech CEO Gerald Quindlen said the plan is to use LifeSize to move beyond low-end Webcams into the corporate market. The two companies combined should be able to stake out some solid turf among smaller companies.
Among the benefits outlined by the companies:
- LifeSize can use Logitech’s supply chain heft for distribution;
- Logitech can use LifeSize for more of a foothold in the corporate market;
- The two companies can pursue more unified communications systems.
Logitech will operate LifeSize as a separate division based in Austin. Craig Malloy, CEO of LifeSize, will run the unit and report to Quindlen. LifeSize expects $90 million in revenue for 2009.
Related: LifeSize PassPort: The First Skype-Compatible Telepresence System
Dave Greenfield: Logitech Buys LifeSize. Now what about Polycom?
November 10th, 2009
Cisco finds Tandberg shareholders a tough crowd
Cisco on Tuesday said that a mere 9.37 percent of Tandberg shareholders have accepted the company’s cash offer.
In October, Cisco offered $3 billion in cash for Tandberg in a deal that looked relatively simple. Cisco would gobble up Tandberg and beef up its video conferencing arsenal. However, some Tandberg shareholders balked at the deal. Tandberg management has urged shareholders to take the Cisco offer.
But most shareholders are sitting on the fence waiting for others to make their decisions. In a statement, Cisco said it needs 90 percent of Tandberg shareholders on board. Cisco already extended a deadline from Nov. 9 to Nov. 18. Once Nov. 18 passes, Cisco said it will evaluate whether to extend or withdraw the offer.
On an earnings conference call with analysts last week, Cisco CEO John Chambers addressed the Tandberg deal:
We view tele-presence at the high-end to be extremely effective for Cisco and make no mistake about it, we have caught the imagination of both enterprise leaders and service provider leaders on what this can mean. You are now seeing companies like Procter & Gamble and GE really be able to take that concept down though not just for executives or not just for communication but completely changing business models, supply chains, productivity, how instead of workers going to where the work is you bring the work to where the employees are located. So you are seeing that market transition.
Where we were missing was at the mid level and at the desktop level and some of the open architectures, so they are a perfect match for us in terms of the combination of the two.
Tandberg shareholders appear to believe that Cisco will raise its bid for the company. Indeed, Tandberg has some impressive growth rates. However, Cisco could just as easily go shopping elsewhere.
On Monday, Cisco said in a regulatory filing that it would raise $5 billion in cash via a bond offering. Cisco already has a war chest of $35 billion in cash, equivalents and investments as of Oct. 24.
Also: Cisco unveils collaboration, e-mail and social tools for the enterprise
Cisco beats for Q1; bullish on investments and recovery
Cisco, EMC, VMware announce joint integrated datacenter venture
November 8th, 2009
Cisco unveils collaboration, e-mail and social tools for the enterprise
Cisco is placing bets on the future adoption of collaboration tools for businesses by unveiling later today a enhanced suite of offerings, including a new social networking software designed for a corporate setting and a new cloud-based e-mail hosting service, as well as video and voice integration into the collaboration platform. (Statement)
The company said that the idea behind the new collaboration platform is to be less “document-centric” and more “people-centric” by working with voice, IM and video to create business-to-business communications - and meetings - more efficient. In part, that includes the ability to bring Facebook-like tools into the mix, but secure them in a way that meets the needs of a company. The company explains its social video system, called Show and Share, like this:
Cisco Show and Share is a social video system that helps organizations create and manage highly secure video communities to share ideas and expertise, optimize global video collaboration, and personalize the connection between customers, employees, and students with user-generated content. It allows organizations to record, edit and share video with comments, ratings,. tagging and RSS feeds, ans speech-to-text transcripts can be uploaded for easy video search and viewing.
The other announcement - Cisco WebEx Mail - stems from the company’s acquisition of PostPath and offers a cloud-based system that also has Outlook interoperability. Through its acquisition of Jabber, the company also said it has integrated the XMPP standard to give it a secure but widely available presence in the collaboration tools.
In some ways, Cisco - which has been competing with companies such as IBM, HP and Dell in the data center - is now adding Microsoft, which recently dropped the price of its hosted versions of Exchange, Sharepoint, and Office Communications Server, and Google to its lineup of competitors with these new services. For some time, Google has been pushing its cloud-based apps for businesses and even scored a major deal with city of Los Angeles recently to manage its email system. And now, it’s previewing Google Wave, a Web-based, real-time collaboration tool that allows users across the Web to communicate with each other in e-mail like message thread or instant chats and share documents, videos, images, charts and more.
Under the Google Wave approach, users can open the collaboration projects, or “Waves,” to anyone over the Internet, allowing collaboration with anyone via the Web. Cisco’s new offering also breaks down the walls of the traditional network, allowing users to work with customers, vendors and others who normally might have been locked out of the collaboration process
Cisco said that, upon rollout, its mail offerings - priced “somewhere south of $8 per mailbox per month” but still being finalized - will be cloud-based only while the collaboration platform will reside on-premise. Eventually, the company will offer the ability to split data between the two worlds - on-site and in the cloud - but still sees companies being more comfortable with e-mail in the cloud than they are with collaborative documents and correspondence in the cloud.
The company has been vocal about its visions for the future, notably its belief that video will be “the center of everything” in future communications. With this push into collaboration software, the company is subscribing to the idea that e-mail is losing some of its luster as a tool for conducting business. Anyone who’s ever exchanged two dozen emails with a half-dozen people just to set up a meeting knows how ineffective e-mail can be when working with teams.
Cisco has been transforming itself during the economic downturn to be more than just a networking company by the time the economy started to recover. As part of the movement, it’s been beefing up its offerings, largely through acquisitions. In October alone, it made three acquisition announcements - $3 billion for Tandberg, a video conferencing equipment maker, $2.9 billion for Starent, a provider of mobile Internet Protocol gear, and $183 million for ScanSafe, an Internet security company.
Last week, it presented Wall Street with better-than-expected first quarter results and said - several times - that it was seeing signs of the beginning of an economic recovery.
November 4th, 2009
Cisco's beats for Q1; bullish on investments and recovery
Cisco, which went on quite a buying spree last month, beat Wall Street’s expectations for its fiscal first quarter and said that its investments are showing signs of paying off now that the economy is starting to show signs of recovery.
For its first quarter, which ended October 24, the company reported adjusted net income of $2.1 billion, or 36 cents per share, a 14 percent dip from a year ago, on sales of $9 billion, which was down 13 percent from a year ago. Analysts had been expecting adjusted earnings of 31 cents per share on sales of $8.7 billion. (Statement)
In a call with analysts today, CEO John Chambers said that, from a financial perspective, the quarter was very strong, compared to its expectations and given the challenges that remain in the global economy. He said that almost off of the company’s internal financial measurements exceeded or came in at the high end of the company’s expectations.
But he also warned that analysts should not get ahead of themselves to use the positives of the first quarter to make assumptions about the full year but instead to wait and see how the second quarter, which is expected to be strong, actually plays out. For the second quarter, the company forecast revenue to grow one percent to four percent over the previous year, or sequentially by two to five percent. Chambers was careful to not declare an economic recovery but instead said that the signs of recovery are getting stronger.
Despite the declines from 2008, the company was bullish on the future, specifically on the work they’ve done to transform the Cisco beyond a networking company and position itself to be competitive with other technology bellweathers as the economy starts to recover. In a statement, CEO John Chambers said:
We believe that key market transitions across collaboration, virtualization and video will drive productivity and growth in network loads for the next decade, and are evolving even faster than expected. Our ability to launch four proposed acquisitions, the ecosystem-shifting coalition with EMC/VMware, and five new products and industry solutions into the Cisco pipeline in the past few months alone underscore this momentum. Our build — buy — partner innovation engine is clearly running on all cylinders, while our operational machine is pulling costs out of the business even as we scale new models for growth. Execution and results over time will demonstrate the long-term impact of this vision and strategy — but a new model of productivity based on collaboration is clearly emerging and we believe this may be the most profound opportunity for businesses in our 25 years as a company.”
As the economy remained uncertain for most of 2009, Cisco spent the year transforming itself, starting with the announcement of its Unified Computing System in March. More recently, the company made three acquisiton announcements in the month of October - $3 billion for Tandberg, a video conferencing equipment maker, $2.9 billion for Starent, a provider of mobile Internet Protocol gear, and $183 million for ScanSafe, an Internet security company.
Earlier in the year, Cisco bought Pure Digital, which makes the popular Flip Video camera, for $590 million and picked up Tidal Software, which makes application management and automation software, for $105 million.
Shares of Cisco were up slightly in regular trading, closing at $23.29. Shares were on the upswing in after-hours trading, up more than 5 percent.
November 3rd, 2009
Cisco, EMC, VMware announce joint integrated datacenter venture
Cisco, EMC and VMware announced Tuesday a joint venture to sell a new integrated data center product called V-Block.
Their venture, called the “Virtual Computing Environment coalition,” will sell and provide maintenance and service support for V-Block, and will combine EMC storage equipment, Cisco virtualized servers and networking equipment and VMWare virtualization technology.
[EMC statement] [Cisco] [VMWare]
Rumors of the deal — code-named “Alpine” — have been going around since September.
October 29th, 2009
Juniper Networks makes its move; Rolls out processor, router, network operating system revamp
Juniper Networks on Thursday unveiled an armada of new gear, software and chips that it hopes will ding Cisco Systems while positioning the company well in the next generation data center.
The networking company will roll out its strategy at the New York Stock Exchange later today (statement). Juniper’s strategy positions the company’s network operating system, Junos, as a centerpiece of the enterprise network while surrounding it with a bevy of new systems including processors that offer “3D Scaling.” In a nutshell, 3D Scaling is expected to allow for more subscribers, services and bandwidth to be squeezed into the network.
For Juniper, the product overhaul represents a repositioning as the center of the network. Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson called the repositioning a “historic day” for the company that highlights the vision for the next decade of networking. “Juniper believes it’s time for a new approach to networking. An approach based on smart systems and open software platforms. An approach that adapts to changing business dynamics. An approach that embraces partnership and unleashes innovation,” said Johnson.
Juniper’s biggest brother in this adventure is IBM, which has an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partnership. The companies said that IBM is now shipping to customers a suite of Ethernet networking products to customers. In addition, Juniper has surrounded itself with a bevy of other partners such as Dell.
The game appears to position Juniper as a Switzerland type neutral and open figure as larger players vie to become the dominant data center architecture.
Among the moving parts from Juniper:
The company unveiled new Junos software platform. Junos, a network operating system that runs behind the scenes, is Juniper’s answer to Cisco’s Internetwork Operating System (IOS). Junos has been updated to program layers of the network for rich user interfaces. Juniper’s platform consists of the Junos operating system, a Junos Space network application platform and Pulse, a network client.
Juniper rolled out new processors. The company touted a new Junos One family of processors. The linchpin here is a Junos Trio chipset with 3D Scaling, which allows enterprises to cram more onto a network. Junos Trio will be delivered in new line cards and 3.5 inch routers for the Juniper MX Series. The Junos chips are the fourth generation. There are 30 patents in the architecture. Juniper founder and CTO Pradeep Sindhu said in a statement that the company has invested more than $80 million over the last five years developing the processor line.
Juniper introduced new edge routers based on its software and new processors. The systems, dubbed MX 3D, carry some heady claims including dramatic cuts in operating expenses for carriers. Juniper is claiming that the MX Series can provide up to 2.6 terabits per second with less power consumption. To put that throughput into perspective 2.6 terabits per second equates to 8.5 million iTunes downloads in one tenth of a second or 50 Blu-ray DVDs downloaded in less than 5 seconds.
The MX 3D introductions include new line cards and two new routers. The products will be available in December and throughout 2010.
The company is offering cloud services based on its systems. Virtualized security services are the headliner here and Juniper is also offering new support for VMware and Citrix.
Also see: Juniper steps up Cisco assault
October 28th, 2009
Juniper steps up Cisco assault
Juniper has delivered an appetizer with Dell on the way to what could be an comprehensive assault on Cisco on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Dell and Juniper announced a partnership to sell the networking company’s gear under the PC maker’s PowerConnect brand. The companies said their collaboration will allow customers to deploy a common network management platform and operating system.
Meanwhile, Dell and Juniper said they will collaborate on open standards for virtualized data centers (statement). Under the OEM pact, Dell and Juniper will tag team on MX Series Routers, EX Series Ethernet Switches, SRX Series Services Gateways and Junos Software.
Where’s this headed?
Juniper for weeks has been touting its analyst meeting on Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange. While details aren’t available, Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson and CTO Pradeep Sindhu are expected to outline the company’s vision and strategic initiatives.
On Juniper’s third quarter earnings conference call last week, Johnson outlined some of the vision:
October 27th, 2009
Cisco continues its buying spree with ScanSafe acquisition
Cisco Systems said today that it plans to acquire ScanSafe, a privately held provider of software-as- a-service (SaaS) Web security products for businesses. The deal is part of Cisco’s plans to build a “borderless network security architecture that combines network and cloud-based services for advanced security enforcement,” the company said.
The deal, which will cost Cisco about $183 million, is expected to close sometime in early 2010. Upon close, Cisco plans to integrate ScanSafe into its AnyConnect VPN Client. In a statement, the company said.
Web security is a large and expanding market expected to grow to $2.3 billion by 2012. By acquiring ScanSafe, Cisco is building on its successful acquisition of leading on-premise content security provider IronPort. The acquisition brings together the Cisco IronPort high-performance Web security appliance and ScanSafe’s leading SaaS Web security service. This combination will expand Cisco’s security portfolio to offer superior on-premise, hosted, and hybrid-hosted Web security solutions.
Earlier this year, Cisco CEO John Chambers said the company planned to be “aggressive” during the downturn and pick up the pace on its acquisitions, largely focused on small private companies with market leadership - such as ScanSafe. In May, the company acquired Tidal Software, which makes application management and automation software, for $105 million to advance its data center and service offerings. The same month, it also finalized the acquisition of Pure Digital Technologies for $590 million.
Earlier this month, Cisco reinforced its commitment to video conferencing technologies by announcing plans to acquire Tandberg, a Norwegian video conferencing outfit, for $3 billion.
October 23rd, 2009
Data center design 101
I don’t have to design data centers, but I do have to play a knowledgeable wonk on the Web from time to time. With that in mind, I attended two data center presentations at the Gartner IT Symposium to see what I could learn.
My knowledge about the data center essentially boils down to one word: Money. Companies are building new data centers to save money on power and better utilize their computing power. Sure, cloud computing is a factor, but a small one for enterprises at this juncture. These people are building data centers in a big way. The other money point: Vendors are killing each other to be the data center king. Cisco takes on HP. IBM is in there. Oracle too (via Sun). And unfortunately for IT buyers each vendor has a different twist on data center architecture.
Simply put, I’m a data center economics major with a minor in things like raised floors, cooling systems, server racks and other items.
Here’s what I learned:
Companies are only building what they need. A weak economy and green IT initiatives mean that techies are increasingly going to be judged by their data center savings, says David Cappuccio, an analyst at Gartner. An efficient data center design can cut the footprint by 60 percent.
Tiers are being mixed and matched with one data center. Data centers have tiers of availability. Tier 1 is 99.6 percent uptime and Tier 4 is 99.995 percent with Tier 2 and Tier 3 in between. To build a Tier 1 10,000 square-foot facility the cost is $9.94 million. Tier 4 will run you $34.5 million, according to Gartner.
One of the more recent trends is to mix and match tiers within one facility. With this approach, you can segment applications based on the importance to the business.
Everyone has a box for mid-sized and large businesses. IBM, Rackable, Sun, Verari Systems and HP all have trailers (right) that can extend data centers and deploy in 12 to 14 weeks. Cappuccio noted that Microsoft has a large 200-and-more-container deployment at its Chicago data center. Microsoft is also experimenting with wind-powered containers. For mid-sized companies these containers could become an alternative to traditional data centers—slap these boxes on a slab and go.
Pod architecture. Cappuccio noted that previous data center design principles went like this: Build a facility for today, estimate what you’ll need in 20 years, and go. Today, it’s all about pods. With this approach you figure out how much space you need, say 15,000 square feet, and then build out for five to seven years. Then you add pods as you grow. Pods also allow for retrofitting so a data center complex can last 40 to 50 years.
Combine pod architectures with density zones. Cappuccio added that data centers should be designed by density zones. High-density applications (200 watts per square foot) represent 10 percent to 15 percent of a total data center usage. Medium-density apps (150 watts per square foot) account for another 20 percent. The rest is low-density (100 watts per square foot). If you mix and match densities you save money on the build-out. The density zone approach is likely to be used in the majority of new or retrofitted data centers by 2013. Double bonus if you take the pod architecture and use density zones.
The money chart:
Raised floors are passe. Anyone who has been in a traditional data center knows that raised floors, anywhere from 12 to 18 inches to 24 to 48 inches, are the norm. If you design a data center properly you can use a concrete slab for the build out. Building on a slab can be $20 per square foot cheaper than a raised floor.
And once you learn the data center principles all you have to do is evaluate all of these vendor data center visions dancing around. The field: Cisco, Oracle, HP, IBM and VMware. You can toss Dell, Microsoft, Amazon and Google into the mix too. The big takeaways from Gartner’s talk on the vendor data center vision are:
- Don’t get locked into anything proprietary;
- The tectonic plates between these vendors are still shifting;
- Don’t let any one vendor creep to the point where it controls your budget. Data centers aren’t meant to be homogeneous.
That final point is very notable. Most data center players have adjacent products and if you’re not careful your entire enterprise could depend on one big name.
October 15th, 2009
Why do some Tandberg shareholders want more from Cisco? Growth
Some Tandberg shareholders are reportedly rejecting Cisco Systems’ $3 billion cash tender for the video conferencing player and the reason is clear: Tandberg is delivering heady growth in a downturn.
Shareholders that own more than 24 percent of Tandberg want to block the Cisco proposed buyout (Techmeme). Why? It’s about the growth.
Tandberg released its third quarter results Thursday and management reiterated that shareholders should take the Cisco offer (statement). Executives also said that they will operate under their existing compensation packages and stay with Cisco going forward.
But Tandberg is a company delivering third quarter revenue growth of 11.6 percent from a year ago. Operating profit was up 10.2 percent. And these results come as many companies consider down single digits to be the new up 10 percent.
Here’s a look at Tandberg’s trend lines.
Cisco isn’t likely to budge much unless more shareholders reject the buyout offer, but you can hardly blame a few investors for asking for more.
Also see: Polycom: A potential takeover target following Cisco-Tandberg deal
October 13th, 2009
Cisco goes shopping (again) scoops up Starent
Updated: Cisco said it will buy Starent Networks in a deal valued at $2.9 billion. The move comes shortly after Cisco bought Tandberg.
Starent provides mobile Internet Protocol (IP) gear. Cisco will use Starent’s equipment to better target carriers, which are increasingly relying on wireless units to fuel their growth.
According to a statement, Cisco’s purchase will work out to be $35 a share in cash for each share of Starent. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2010. The Starent acquisitions comes just two weeks after Cisco announced plans to buy Tandberg.
Cisco said it plans to use its video and IP expertise and combine it with Starent’s equipment to better target 3G and 4G wireless buildouts. On the 4G front, Starent’s equipment has been mostly used for WiMax buildouts.
Starent’s equipment allows carriers to manage mobile networks and services. Once the deal is completed, Starent CEO Ashraf Dahod will report to Pankaj Patel, who runs Cisco’s service provider business. Starent, which was founded in 2000 and went public in 2007, has roughly 1,000 employees worldwide.
Among the initial analyst reaction:
JMP Securities analyst Samuel Wilson:
Starent Networks produces infrastructure hardware, software, and services that enable mobile operators to deliver video, Internet access, voice-over-IP, and e-mail services to their subscribers. Starent is the market leader in North America but competes with Ericcson, Nokia-Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, and ZTE. Starent’s strength has been with CDMA networks, and 75% of Starent’s revenue comes from Verizon; it was recently named a secondary supplier on Verizon’s LTE rollout. AT&T is currently making its 4G (LTE) plans and, in a blow to Starent, reportedly narrowed the field to Nokia- Siemens, Ericsson, and Cisco. It is possible that Cisco saw Starent’s technology as a key toolset to help seal the AT&T deal.
Cowen analyst John Marchetti:
We view the deal favorably, as we think the addition of Starents multimedia intelligence, core network functions, and services to manage access from any 2.5G, 3G and 4G radio network to mobile operators packet core network enhances Cisco’s competitive position in wireless infrastructure market.
Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff:
Our checks indicate that Cisco was also motivated by Starent’s engineering talent which has software expertise that Cisco can leverage across other product offerings. We expect Cisco to launch a variety of service blade offerings on its routing platforms (e.g. IMS, policy, femtos, ad-supported services, etc.) that mainstream Cisco’s platforms into the operators’ services-aware networks.
October 1st, 2009
Polycom: A potential takeover target following Cisco-Tandberg deal
With Cisco gobbling up Tandberg for $3 billion and bolstering its video conferencing lineup all eyes turn to Polycom, another market leader that looks ripe to be acquired. If not, Polycom is expected to be able to hold its own against Cisco.
Cisco’s acquisition of Tandberg gives the company a bigger installed base for its telepresence products and an arsenal of lower-end video conferencing gear. Polycom will either need to compete head-on, or be acquired. Analysts seem to be betting that Polycom will be acquired. If not, analysts say Polycom (all resources at ZDNet, TechRepublic) can gain video conferencing share in the short run as Cisco completes the Tandberg purchase.
Cowen analyst John Marchetti notes that Polycom can find plenty of partners given that Tandberg is now owned by Cisco. Marchetti adds that Polycom can compete with Cisco, which is likely to take a hands off approach with Tandberg, but it’s hard to rule out a takeover in the future. Marchetti says:
October 1st, 2009
Cisco doubles down on video conferencing; Acquires Tandberg for $3 billion
Cisco is beefing up its video conferencing arsenal, picking up Tandberg, a Norwegian video conferencing outfit, for $3 billion.
In a statement, Cisco said it is acquiring Tandberg to expand its collaboration platform. With the deal, Cisco will bring in Tandberg’s network infrastructure and video conferencing equipment (right).
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2010 and boost Cisco’s earnings in fiscal 2011. Tandberg’s 1,500 employees will be part of Cisco.
So what’s Cisco’s plan? Tandberg’s gear will be integrated in with Cisco’s TelePresence portfolio. Meanwhile, Tandberg’s endpoints will give Cisco more of an installed base to sell into. Tandberg’s portfolio includes everything from desktop video conferencing systems to multiscreen telepresence systems. Simply put, Cisco is trying to take its telepresence act to multiple points.
Here’s a brief look at Tandberg’s porfolio:
Tandberg CEO Fredrik Halvorsen will lead Cisco’s TelePresence Technology Group. He will report to Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of Cisco’s emerging technologies group.
In a research note, Cowen analyst John Marchetti said:
We note with Tandberg’s broad installed base, Cisco now has the ability to more aggressively push a full portfolio of collaboration and video networking solutions to a much wider customer base and we expect the company to aggressively target the mainstream enterprise video conferencing market with the Tandberg product set, a market that Tandberg enjoys leadership in today along with Polycom. The only overlap between the two companies from product perspective is at the high-end Telepresence level where we expect some product rationalization is likely to occur, with Cisco maintaining its Telepresence solution and making it interoperable with the full suite of Tandberg conferencing products.
September 21st, 2009
The best VoIP solution is ...
The face of corporate IP telephony has changed considerably within the past few years. No longer simply concerned with pursuing cost savings and efficiencies by amalgamating voice and data infrastructures into one integrated network, VoIP providers are seeking to enable customers to leverage their telephony implementations across a wide range of products and services. James Bannan of ZDNet Australia looks at the top contenders:
Unified communications (UC), integration and collaboration are today’s driving forces. Businesses want to be able to offer cost-effective and seamless communication to all users, regardless of their role within the company or the tools through which they work. It’s not just about desk phones running XML applications, but rather extensions following users across multiple platforms — business software, collaborative applications, smartphones and traditional base stations.
This change has been made possible by the infrastructure work implemented by VoIP providers throughout the 1990’s — VoIP technology is firmly established as a robust and scalable communications platform over the traditional PSTN model. The recent changes have been driven by the constant merging of disparate technologies — mobile phones are fully web-enabled with high-bandwidth data pipes, and business applications are far more web-aware than has previously been the case. Such an environment is highly conducive to tight systems integration, and a more seamless user experience across platforms.
Although Australia’s broadband infrastructure has come under sustained criticism in recent years, it has surprisingly not proven to be a barrier in the take-up of IP telephony. Australia has one of the highest levels of VoIP market penetration globally.
Businesses looking to implement a new VoIP solution or expand their existing investments are certainly spoiled for choice, and the benefits are not only available to the big end of town. Small- and medium-sized companies stand to gain significantly from a data-centric telephony system, and most providers have a solution that can meet the needs of five users or 50,000.
Next — >
September 8th, 2009
Review: Cisco's 891 ISR does more with less
Cisco’s 891 (ISR) adds to Cisco’s Integrated Service Router family of security, wireless networking, VoIP telephony, network switches and routers that could make its mark on remote offices and small businesses. ZDNet Australia gets the verdict on it from Matt Tett of Enex TestLab:
Technology convergence is, in theory at least, a great idea. One product doing more things means less complexity, more integration and lower cost, but too often it has been for the worse.
In many cases, the good features of a stand-alone device, built up through years of product evolution, are lost. Technology hashing is rife in consumer products such as mobile phones, digital cameras, PDAs and, of course, business technology too, which includes firewalls, anti-malware devices, content filters, intrusion detection and prevention devices.
September 1st, 2009
Dell partners with Brocade to compete in data center war
The latest developments in the data center wars comes this time from Dell and Brocade, which are announcing a partnership today that includes Dell reselling Brocade networking equipment under its name as part of an “end-to-end” data center offering.
In today’s competitive data center landscape, the networking piece of the puzzle has become more essential. Earlier this year, networking giant Cisco Systems shook the industry when it announced its entry into the server business and unveiled its Unified Computing System.
Since then, we’ve seen the other players, notably HP and IBM, jump into action to announce strategies and partnerships aimed at becoming the one-stop shop for today’s data center.
Dell and Brocade were already partners on the storage networking front. But, as part of this new relationship, the two will innovate together on virtualization management and virtualized infrastructure, Dell executives said.
Amid a sluggish PC economy and a changing landscape of enterprise computing, Dell has had to diversify its portfolio of offerings. To keep up with the competition, Dell had to take on a networking component.
The company also announced a partnership with Scalent, which takes an open approach to networking, allowing customers to avoid the need for a complete “rip and replace” of equipment and instead use existing infrastructure.
Previous coverage:
Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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