Speaking at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans this past July, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said of Google’s forthcoming Chrome OS, “Who knows what this thing is?” Today, he found out. The operating system, a direct challenge to Microsoft Windows, was on display at a media gathering at the company’s HQ this morning, and in the words of Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management, it is intended to make computing a “delightful” experience.
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As its recent buying binge–three acquisitions in October, alone–suggests, Cisco’s business is in decent shape these days. Reporting first-quarter results after market close today, the company handily beat Wall Street estimates.
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The long-rumored data center partnership between Cisco, EMC and VMware is at last a reality. The three companies have formed a new joint venture called Acadia. Its purpose: To sell and support V-Block, an integrated data center product that combines Cisco’s Unified Computing System, EMC’s storage equipment, and VMware’s virtualization technology.
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Shares of VMware are on the rise this morning, spiking seven percent thanks to some decent earnings. On Thursday, the virtualization software firm reported a second-quarter profit of 20 cents a share, topping the 19 cents projected by analysts.
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Cisco has finally crossed the Rubicon. Long a partner to the big server makers, the networking equipment giant today became a competitor, announcing an aggressive push into the server market. No longer content to peddle switches and routers alone, Cisco is now selling a full-blown data center solution.
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You wouldn’t know it from the company’s share price today, but VMware (NYSE: VMW), maker of virtualization software, reported a 150% increase in fourth-quarter profit and an 80% jump in sales to $412 million yesterday. Sadly, investors–presumably the same ones that slapped Apple around after its “best quarter ever”–took a pessimistic view of such growth [...]
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Cisco is calling it its biggest enterprise product launch in 15 years, and given the cloud of hyperbole in which it debuted today the Nexus 7000 data-center switch may be just that.
Like any network switch, the Nexus 7000 controls and directs the flow of data between connected computers. But unlike any network switch, it can [...]
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Its footing in the PC market slipping the way it has been–thanks to a deteriorating reputation for customer service and aggressive rivals–Dell is increasingly turning its attention to storage. In a big way. This morning the company announced plans to acquire storage virtualization outfit EqualLogic for $1.4 billion in cash. If approved by shareholders, the [...]
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Sun Microsystems, whose co-founder and Chairman Scott McNealy once described Microsoft’s Internet Information Server as “the Corvair of Web servers–unsafe at any speed” has become a Windows Server OEM.
Extending a partnership first struck in 2004, Sun will now resell and install Windows on its x86-based servers. For Sun, the deal is a way to drive [...]
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Well, VMware’s definitely going to get a run for its money now. Not 24 hours after the virtualization leader’s spectacular public offering, Citrix Systems said it would purchase open-source server virtualization outfit XenSource for $500 million in cash and stock.
Five hundred million dollars. Quite a sum–especially when XenSource is burning through $15 million a [...]
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