Update:  @Omarsultan from Cisco replied to me via email and said that Cisco is in a quiet period with earnings coming so "No Comment" for now.  So after earnings I expect Cisco to be firing on all social media cylinders.  I’m sure Cisco will have a good Angle on this.  Cisco is building a strong social media army over there @ciscodc and throughout the company.  I’ve been very impressed with Cisco’s openness lately.

IBM and Brocade just announced a strategic partnership in selling Brocade’s networking gear. Folks this is not a shot across the bow by IBM.  It’s a direct hit to Cisco.  It will have a direct negative revenue impact to Cisco and major positive one for Brocade.

I’ve blogged this past January about the dangers of Cisco and their strategy of going after adjacent markets (datacenter servers) – why because Cisco has had business relationships with other vendors like HP and IBM.  Then I said "Cisco entering the datacenter will most likely piss off their partners".. Looks like IBM moved first.  I am still expecting something from Juniper.

Brocade’s CEO Mike Klayko comments on the significance of the expanded OEM agreement with IBM through which IBM will rebrand and sell the Brocade enterprise IP networking family of products through the IBM global sales force and authorized IBM Business Partners.

This announcement is a huge deal for Brocade by getting reach in the customer market.

Two ways: 
– 1) Brocade’s product set has sales reach via IBM, and 
– 2) IBM services group can add stickiness to Brocade’s offering something Cisco has been dominant in for years.

I estimate that IBM Global Services does about $40 billion in technology services (not including business services).  Can you imagine the revenue impact for Brocade – mind blowing.  Nice move by Brocade and a major endorsement.

This morning I was chatting with our new SiliconAngler James Watters (who is covering Infrastructure 2.0 and posted his first post this week on SiliconAngle).  James was saying:

IBM Global Services (IGS) is a massive channel, and I think the $500M number is small; Take SUN for example, at Sun’s peak IGS sold more SUN big iron than SUN did… they (IBM Global Services) are the ones that really move product.

IGS sells as part of their architecture solutions; so their architects will put in say 200 Cisco X-product as part of their solution..now it will be Brocade.

I’ve pinged @omarsultan at Cisco and @brocadewingspan from Brocade to see what their Angle are on this.  Haven’t heard back from them yet.  Brocade is in major PR mode and Cisco is radio silence.

Here is what I’m watching – lets see if Brocade’s product leadership translates into massive sales.  Then we’ll have the winner on the product side. If Brocade can’t turn this into a massive revenue winner, then that will clearly demonstrate that Cisco’s product leadership will remain intact.

Ladies and gentlemen buckle your seat belts the datacenter wars have begun.  Marguerite Reardon at Cnet has a good piece on this news from Brocade and IBM.