Cisco Systems Inc. today unveiled its first blade server as part of the company's "unified computing" initiative.
Analysts said the new Intel-based blade blade server, code-named California, is designed to manage and automate the movement of virtual machines and applications across data center servers.
The blade servers are a key piece of the unified computing initiative, which aims to make it easier for companies to virtualize systems, said Cisco Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior in a blog post.
Today's announcement, hosted by CEO John Chambers, is the latest part of a virtualization strategy Cisco announced five years ago.
Analysts said the company will also announce a switch and management console jointly developed with BMC Software Inc. and EMC Corp.
This version of this story originally appeared in Computerworld's print edition.