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IBM to acquire Blade, intends to compete with Cisco, HP
By siliconindia
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Tuesday, 28 September 2010, 18:55 IST |
1 Comments
Bangalore: IBM is in plans to take over Santa Clara based Blade Network Technologies, whose technology routes data to and from servers in data centers. IBM intends to go for this acquisition in the fourth quarter, reports Frank Michael Russell of the Mercury News. The terms of the deal has not yet been disclosed from either sides.
In order to face stiff competition with its competitors like Hewlett-Packard and Oracle, IBM is strengthening its data center offerings. Blade network manufactures switches which connect servers, storage and networks in data centers, large rooms of computers that handle corporate tasks. After signing a 1.7 billion deal with Netezza and Open pages, this is the third acquisition of IBM this month.
Similar to this step by IBM, Cisco Systems, had released its first blade servers last year,taking itself into the data-center market and posing stiff competition to HP and IBM. In April, HP bought 3Com for $2.7 billion to strengthen its data-center networking.
"This deal may increasingly allow IBM and Juniper Networks to work more closely in the networking domain. As IBM expands into the networking world, we would not rule out the possibility of Juniper Networks combining forces with IBM," said Ticonderoga Securities analyst, Brian White.
According to a report by Gartner which was released in June, Blade competes with much larger rivals, including Cisco, which had 47.8 percent of the $1.9 billion data center switching market in 2009. Other companies in the market are HP and Sunnyvale network-equipment maker Juniper Networks, an investor in Blade.
"Today's news is a very good outcome for our customers, and for the hardworking employees of Blade," Vikram Mehta, CEO, Blade.
IBM says that about half of its BladeCenter customers use Blade Network switches, so one can see why Big Blue cannot afford to let this company slip into HP's hands. HP, by contrast, makes its own blade switches as well as a slew of switches and routers that come from its former 3Com and ProCurve product lines. HP bought 3Com last November and has been purging its data center of Cisco gear.