The business end of Cisco

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That said, getting customers to buy into Cisco's vision won't necessarily be a cakewalk. Transforming how the data center is designed will likely pit Cisco against some of its biggest and most powerful partners, including IBM and HP.

"Cisco is heading into a new competitive landscape," Yankee Group's Kerravala said. "They no longer are competing against 3Com or Nortel Networks. They will be competing with IBM and HP, who have been their partners. And that is difficult to do."

But Kerravala believes Cisco's approach has an edge over its potential competitors. For one, Cisco has been good in the past at picking out market transitions and executing on those trends. The company began focusing on the data center several years ago and has slowly built a portfolio of products that includes storage area networking equipment, virtualization software, and wide area optimization technology. What's more, its traditional switching and routing products fit nicely into the portfolio. The Nexus 7000 switch will help unify this strategy.

"Cisco has always been an important supplier to large companies, but this would take them to a higher plane."

--Arun Taneja, analyst

Second, Cisco's core competency in networking is well-suited for the virtualization revolution, Kerravala said. As more computing resources like memory and storage are pooled together, these devices will have to be connected through a network. And adding intelligence to that network to use resources in a more efficient manner will likely become important.

Convincing customers that its vision of the data center is the right approach is crucial to Cisco's enterprise business, not only because it will generate new revenue for the company, but it will also help add value to its existing routing and switching business. The reason is simple. If Cisco can make the network a valuable asset, it can continue to sell its routing and switching gear in other parts of the network at high profit margins.

It also gives Cisco more influence in the executive suite, where it can help steer corporate spending toward its own products.

"Cisco has always been an important supplier to large companies," analyst Taneja said. "But this would take them to a higher plane. They would become the dead-center of the strategic partnership."

[certworld]

I don't think so that Cisco ends the business, there are many more certifications available with testking exams and pass4sure different cisco exams.