Cisco Will Clarify UCS Details March 30 - Page 3

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So in the future, where a customer specifies Cisco networking equipment, HP will work with them and support what the customers require, he added.

"At the same time, where customers are looking for server offerings, we're going to compete vigorously for those offerings," said Thome.

Marty Lans, senior director of product marketing for networking provider Brocade, felt the same way.

"Our perspective is the things they are talking about are the things we are doing today," said Lans. "I think we can compete in that space. The things we do with IBM and HP and those guys is integrated down at the same level as Cisco."

Lans thinks the competitors to Cisco – IBM, HP and Dell, as well as itself – need a better message.

"What you are going to see out of the 'allies' is we'll probably need to do a better job of articulating the solution as a whole because there's not a lot that needs to be developed to compete against what they are offering here," he said.