Cisco Hedging Virtualization Bets?

Consider the following scenario: Roughly 10,000 people are set to converge at VMworld (Aug. 31-Sept. 3, San Francisco). In many ways, the conference represents the center of the virtualization universe. But Cisco Systems VP Mark Fulgham (pictured) will be half-a-country away, delivering a virtualization keynote at Red Hat Summit (Sept. 1-4, Chicago). Here’s why.

Cisco appears to be hedging its technology bets in the virtualization world. When the networking giant unveiled its Unified Computing System in March 2009, VMware and Red Hat both joined the party. And Cisco is a platinum sponsor at VMworld and a visionary sponsor at Red Hat Summit.

Enter Mark Fulgham, VP of marketing for Cisco’s Data Center Solutions. During the Red Hat Summit, Fulgham will offer a keynote speech on datacenter virtualization and cloud computing.

At the same event, Red Hat is expected to update its virtualization strategy — including details for customers and channel partners about how the company will march forward with Qumranet — which Red Hat acquired in September 2008.

No doubt, VMware’s virtualization stronghold is under attack on multiple fronts — by Citrix, Microsoft, Parallels, Red Hat, Virtual Bridges and plenty of others. And during the biggest virtualization event of the year, Cisco is hedging its bets and spending some time with Red Hat. That’s pretty darn interesting to The VAR Guy.

Follow The VAR Guy via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; Twitter; and via his Newsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center.