At the beginning of December 2008 virtualization.info broke the news: Cisco is about to enter the x86 server market launching its first blade system in collaboration with VMware and possibly with EMC.
The platform, codenamed California, will feature a massive amount of memory, data center automation tools, a Nexus 5000 networking module, and deep integration with VMware Infrastructure.
It doesn’t matter if Cisco will really merge with EMC or if it will just acquire VMware (or none of these options): California is real and its launch is near.
InformationWeek just published additional details about the hardware specifications:
- Intel Core i7 CPUs
- up to 192GB DDR3 RAM
- PCI-Express bus
The news magazine also unveiled the planned launch date: March 16, 2008.
It sounds like a little late, considering that Cisco may announce the product at VMworld Europe 2009 (Feb. 24-26).
Maybe VMware doesn’t want to put this special partnership under the conference spotlight as it would be disturbing for at least a couple of its Platinum sponsor: HP and IBM.
Or maybe Cisco prefers a US stage to make the major announcement.
Or maybe the InternetNews date is wrong.