IT hardware and networking major, Cisco unveiled its plans to enter the server market in a move the company termed as ‘catching the next market evolution’. The development will also lead to Cisco coming in direct competition with established players like HP, IBM, Sun and Dell. Incidentally HP and IBM are currently business partners of Cisco.

Cisco is known for its networking products mainly pertaining to routers and switches. Cisco CEO, John Chambers added that the company will not focus on competitors. He was probably addressing concerns regarding the late entry of Cisco in the server market which already has established players including HP, IBM, Sun Microsystems and Dell.

Cisco’s move to enter the server market is believed to have originated post acquisition of Nuova Systems for $50 million. It was reported earlier that Cisco had code named its server development project as ‘Project California’. The new server developed is expected to be falling under the blade server category.

The biggest barrier to Cisco though appears to be from the fact that the market is flooded with servers from established players and there is no clarity on how well Cisco’s servers will be compatible with those.

But some analysts feel that Cisco’s virtualization architecture allowing integration of server, storage and network platforms may prove to be a significant differentiator.