Cisco switches on to IBM in storage deal

Big Blue signs up to resell networking giant's storage switches

Networking giant Cisco has furthered its storage ambitions by signing up IBM to resell its storage switches.

The deal will allow Big Blue and its business partners to offer customers the high-end MDS 9000 series of Fibre Channel and IP switches which connect storage systems to servers in Sans.

Mark Darvill, technical director at Cisco Gold partner Logical, said this should also benefit Cisco resellers. "These partnerships usually go both ways and we expect Cisco resellers to get access to IBM products, which will help us provide network storage systems to customers," he said.

Nick Watson, head of unified channels UK at Cisco, confirmed that Cisco VARs will be able to sell IBM storage products. "A lot of these resellers are partners of both companies already. We will not leave our existing partners out," he said.

Steve Duplessie, analyst at the Enterprise Storage Group, said the deal with IBM was a good move for Cisco. "I believed it would take between six and nine months for Cisco to get through anyone's qualification process, but IBM said it is ready to ship next month. This could be a sign of things to come," he said.

"EMC and Hewlett-Packard could be next on IBM's list, so that will mean the three firms that sell the most Fibre Channel switch products will be adding Cisco to the list. Then it's up to Cisco to create the demand at end-user level, which it should be able to do."

Research firm Gartner has predicted the market for San switches will grow from $1.2bn in 2002 to $4.3bn in 2006.

In addition to IBM, Cisco has reportedly begun working with Adaptec, EMC, Emulex, Hitachi Data Systems, Storage Networks and Veritas Software.