Cisco Drops EMC NAS Products
Cisco Drops EMC NAS Products
June 11th, 2006: Cisco has canned a reseller agreement it struck with EMC last year for network attached storage (NAS) arrays. It has, however, been careful with its words emphasising a closer relationship with EMC is in the works, and not a desertion to Network Appliance.
Cisco was selling EMC's Celerra NS500 and NS700 NAS arrays alongside its wide area file services (WAFS) appliance. It had been re-branding and selling these NAS boxes as the Cisco FS 5500 and FS 5700 Integrated NAS Devices.
Cisco says it has no plans to provide NAS functionality from EMC or any other vendor, which has lead some researchers to speculate that the reseller agreement has been dropped due to lack of sales. Something Cisco has not confirmed.
Despite the OEM cancellation and last year’s support deal struck with EMC rival NetApp, a statement by Cisco says that its relationship with EMC is “at its strongest point ever” and that “the NAS end-of-life notice is a first step in a broader Cisco/EMC relationship that will deliver a more tightly integrated sales and marketing effort.”
Cisco says it will continue to support existing devices and active service contracts until October 2011.
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