Cisco's Unified Computing System Products Unavailable Through Distributors

The vendor's new blade servers, and other new products, won't be available through distributors Ingram Micro and Tech Data, at least initially, executives said.

On Monday, Cisco announced its long-expected data center play, the Cisco Unified Computing System, which comprises a host of new Cisco products, along with a flurry of contributions from dozens of technology partners.

Cisco CEO John Chambers said earlier this week that the Unified Computing System will "bring together the compute power, the storage access and the networking capabilities" of the next-generation data center and facilitate Cisco's vision of accessing information from any device, any network and any location at any time.

"That's consistent with how they go to market with emerging technologies. [The products] are not generally available when they make their announcements and they have their beta customers. But we fully expect as they gain some experience in that and some traction in the market, that it will be available through Tech Data and others," said Chuck Bartlett, vice president of network product marketing for Tech Data.

The Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor expects to service Cisco VARs selling into the data center through its Advanced Infrastructure Solutions group, and more specifically, its Cisco Solutions Group unit, announced last month.

"We have the full gamut of data center products, from switching to storage to routers. This has been an ongoing focus for us and we're already engaged with customers that buy [other Cisco enterprise] products from us today," Bartlett said. "Over time, we'll develop the capability to inventory and configure the [Unified Computing System] line and sell the whole bill of materials."

Holly Garcia, senior director, vendor management, for Ingram Micro's new Cisco Business Unit, also said her company will be ready to sell Cisco's blade servers, whenever that time is.

"Our intent, as Cisco migrates to this Unified Computing System, is to migrate with them. We will continue to build on our value proposition in that space, and when it flows through two-tier distribution, we will have a solid go-to-market platform," Garcia said.

Cisco has not put any time table on its distribution plans, nor on what resources its distributors would be required to have to support that line, Garcia said.

"This is a pretty big deal for them. It's exciting for Cisco and for Cisco partners. They're keeping it close. We're comfortable with that at this point," she said.

Cisco now has about 250 data center specialized partners, 75 percent of which focus specifically on servers and virtualization, storage and networking, according to Cisco. As the company's UCS vision unfolds, Cisco will launch an Advanced Technology Group, starting with a subset of between 30 and 50 data center specialized partners, according to the company.

Once the initial 30 to 50 partners are brought on board, Cisco will go after a broader set of partners that may not possess established practices in all three areas and help them expand their competencies, according to John Growdon, Cisco's senior director of go to market for worldwide channels.

Tony Siriani, president of CRT Group, a Manalapan, N.J.-based solution provider, said he's interested in the new Cisco UCS products and said he's fine with VARs having to source them from Cisco, at least for now.

"Until we get more familiar with the products and we make sure we have the right internal resources, it's not a bad idea for the beginning," Siriani said. "[UCS] addresses an area that they have not been very strong in. It's more opportunity for us to penetrate accounts with something else."

Andrew Hickey contributed to this article.