Cisco, for its part, refused to comment on Brocades Foundry acquisition when we contacted the vendor earlier today, although the broader implications of the deal are only now becoming apparent.
The proposed acquisition of Foundry is equal parts offensive and defensive, wrote Citgroup analyst Paul Mansky, in a note released this morning. [It is] offensive, in that it could spur action from a host of others ranging from Juniper to F5, to potentially HP.
The analyst added that these vendors are unlikely to sit back and watch from the sidelines as Brocade and Cisco set about carving up the next-gen data center.
Juniper, only recently entering the Ethernet switch market, will likely now be pressed to develop/articulate a storage convergence strategy, Mansky wrote. Meanwhile, HP is the closest to Cisco in evolving the data center and appears to be a dark horse in what we expect to be a consolidation wave to come.
HPs future role is intriguing, given that the vendor is a major Brocade partner, yet its ProCurve products compete directly with Foundrys routing switches. Brocades CEO Mike Klayko was even grilled on this topic during last nights conference call to discuss the Foundry purchase.
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