Server Rentals Just Got Serious: Cisco Makes Play for Juniper and Sun Vet to Lead Virtualization Efforts

Virtualization is taking over the world, and all of the major companies are getting on-board just as fast as they can.

Cisco has long-been one of the dominant players in the tech industry – and when they make a move, the world trembles. Just recently, Cisco appointed a Sun Juniper vet, David Yen, as the senior vice president and general manager of its server access and virtualization technology group.

Yen has quite a storied past. He initially made a name for himself when he was involved over at Sun Microsystems. Sun, another name which anyone even remotely associated with the tech industry should recognize immediately, has one of the most forcible server presences in the world – and part of its prowess can be attributed to Yen.

When Yen moved to Juniper Networks, another major company that has shown some serious progress in the virtualized space, his reputation was assured.

Which is exactly why the blogosphere is erupting with this news.

And now, he works for Cisco.

The particular business segment that Yen will lead includes Cisco’s Nexus network switches and its United Computed System. According to Web Host News, these two businesses units are “projected to make $650 million in revenue, annually.”

But why is Cisco taking this sudden jump?

According to Bloomberg News, “The move into servers has put Cisco into closer competition with the biggest computer makers, including Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) Hewlett-Packard and other companies also are expanding into new markets, including networking, storage and services, an effort to become one-stop shops for data-center customers.”

This is a big ticket space and a major issue – and here at Vernon, our allegiances are definitely with HP and IBM, two of our most well-respected partners. And out of our $40 million dollars worth of server rental inventory, quite a few of the models we offer are HP Proliants and IBM Power 7 Series.

We can still appreciate bold moves from the competition, however, and this definitely qualifies.

As the rush for dominance in the virtualization space continues, it will be very interesting to see which company comes up on top. And let’s not forget Amazon and all the others…