Cisco is expected to unveil today the concept that it has been developing for the past 2 years in the greatest secrecy: a blade server that is part of its strategy for transforming the data center. The official announcement is expected later today, during a webcast presentation.

The new blade-server will put Cisco in an unusual competition with Hewlett-Packard, but it is ultimately part of changing business demands. Cisco’s solution is based on an integrated, unified and simplified approach.

This would be the company’s entrance into the server market, as it would start selling its own servers. Competition will now take place on an entirely new level, and that should come as no surprise in the economic context we’re witnessing.

Data center virtualization ultimately offers lower cost of ownership, increased resilience and improved agility and responsiveness, and Data Center 3.0 is built on just that.

“The approach allows customers to quickly and cost-efficiently take advantage of emerging trends such as unified computing and cloud computing,” Cisco said.

Cisco is collaborating with other data center technology partners on its program, but their names are yet to be officially unveiled. According to several media sources, Cisco will use virtualization solutions and collaborate with Microsoft, VMware, BMC, EMC, Intel and others.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Cisco Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior as saying that the new product will be a "me-too" server, which will offer an entirely new system, and not just compete with existing blade servers.