Cisco Switches on VMware
Published on 29 Jul 2007 · Filed in Musing · 202 words (estimated 1 minutes to read)I just saw this headline from virtualization.info about Cisco being the first to announce a third-party virtual switch for ESX Server. Honestly, I’m not too terribly surprised.
Surely, the announcement of John Chambers as a keynote speaker at VMworld 2007, followed by the investment of $150 million by Cisco into VMware surely had to signal that something was going on. This revelation that Cisco plans on being the first to announce a third-party virtual switch for ESX Server is honestly not a surprise. In fact, if I recall correctly, there were rumors of this last year at VMworld.
Still, despite the fact that it’s not really a surprise, I’m still excited about the possibility that this is actually the case. I’m not a Cisco expert, but I’d love to have the ability to run Cisco-based switches on ESX Server (assuming the overhead isn’t too significant). That should make integration of ESX Server with Cisco-based networks much easier than it has been in the past. What’s next—SAN switches on ESX? (I may not be too far off, there, with all the rumors and discussions about NPIV support in ESX Server.)
UPDATE: Ryan Glover over at p2vd.com shares his thoughts on the announcement here.