You win some, you lose some. This could probably sum up the status of two tech giants Dell and Cisco. Dell, after ramping up with several devices updates, just suffered a setback—in the hands of Cisco. Recovering from recent shambles, Cisco has aggressively pounded itself to move forward and rebuild its core. Yesterday efforts began to pay off.

A world leader in networking and consumer electronics, Cisco overtakes Dell to snatch the number 3 position in blade server sales. Not only that, the company posted almost a 400% sales increase that gave them a total of $171 million in revenue from sales of thin computer boards that support data centers. Although these numbers are still in the rear compared to Hewlett-Packard (No. 1) and IBM (No. 2), it is already a big triumph for Cisco as it is mending slowly after recent missteps. But clearly, HP is not threatened by this advancement.

Obviously, Cisco has learned tons of things from the past and has been relentless in pursuing success again. Just this month, the company made two big leaps. First, with the launch of their first data center container that gave them a big push in the hardware market. Second is the expansion of their support portfolio resulting in a strengthened bond with Microsoft. Positive vibes continue to shift towards Cisco’s backyard with updates including the addition of IPv6 support to routers, switch to dual-stack deployments, upgrades IOS to accelerate IPv6 adoption via 200 new features.

Falling a notch in blade servers’ sales is not the only issue that Dell faced recently. Its name, despite being a known ally of the Windows Phone, is missing when Microsoft announced “Mango” updates and key hardware partners. Microsoft explained the situation and said that Dell is not ready to employ Mango in their devices and they lack the proper hardware for the work. But despite these slight road blocks, Dell still maintains its composure and Midas touch. Its business is still growing, margins are up and profit soars. Recent developments with Dell include teaming up with SAP, a development that was broadcast during the SAP Sapphire 2011, an update on Boomi, introducing sleek remote desktops, and the launch of two new thin clients: OptiPlex FX170 and FX130.