Alcatel-Lucent continues to develop their cloud vision, announcing a partnership with HP that demonstrates Data Center Network Connect and CloudBand. From a business perspective it’s a win for both companies. HP needs (badly needs, in fact) a relevant public cloud position that integrates networking and computing, because of its competition with Cisco. Alcatel-Lucent needs a cloud strategy for operators, one that can provide cloud services in the traditional way but also host features and content—on computers.
I noted in Netwatcher, our technology journal, last month that network vendors needed to take a more affirmative position in the cloud. Not only is it the core driver for enterprise network investment, it’s the biggest new focus of capex and infrastructure planning for network operators. Most vendors have at least some product foundation for a cloud position, and at least two (Cisco and Juniper) have more pieces to the cloud puzzle than Alcatel-Lucent. So why has Alcatel-Lucent managed to get its story out? We even wrote about a possible Juniper cloud position back in the spring, one that would have leveraged their QFabric and PTX, and nothing came of it. Could it be that Alcatel-Lucent is starting to think holistically?
In our fall survey, operators and enterprises both complained that their vendors were stuck selling piece parts instead of solutions. When buyers are faced with major transformational pressure on their own revenue side, they want products that combine to address those pressures and they don’t want to have to guess on whether the blue blocks connect with the green ones. So Alcatel-Lucent’s biggest victory here may be that it’s finally talking the right talk. If the company can now link their cloud story to Application Enablement in a convincing way, they could be promoting the whole ecosystem.
They also need to drive the bus on the HP relationship because HP is hardly the darling of the corporate world when it comes to business strategy these days. HP has data center switching but nothing that measures up to what Cisco or Juniper can offer, and that creates a vulnerability for Alcatel-Lucent’s strategy of data center connection. I’ve already noted that Juniper could have done something pretty interesting in this space almost nine months ago, and in theory they could still work quickly to make a counter-splash. Cisco, having the computer technology as well as switching, could do even better. That means that Alcatel-Lucent can’t stand still with this story. Good job so far; now don’t blow the goal-line play.