Networking equipment and software provider Cisco has announced the third generation of its Unified Computing Systems (USC) or “fabric computing:” X86 servers, networking equipment and storage all squeezed into a single enclosure. The newest release features enhancements to the management software that handles it all, in addition to  performance increases, but analyst Dan Kusnetzky believes that the company-generated hype may not be justified.

Cisco’s USC can deliver the promised advantages in certain environments, but not all. And the technology is also not the first one of its kind, at least in one department.

“Cisco presents itself as being first to combine blades, networking equipment and storage into a single, unified enclosure. This I know to be incorrect. Egenera has been offering similar systems for nearly 15 years and is now using its PAN Manager management and orchestration software to help companies such as NEC, Fujitsu and HP offer similar unified environments! HP and IBM have well over a decade of experience in this area as well.  Dell is no newcomer to this market either.”

The networking giant is facing a lot of competition from correlating offerings, but its investment in USC has been paying off so far. Cisco as a whole is looking forward to a lot of growth as the cloud and big data drive companies to upgrade their networks, and other vendors are acknowledging the same opportunity.

Electronics giant Dell announced a networking buy today, as it shifts from the consumer space to a more enterprise-focused vision. It acquired SonicWALL for an undisclosed amount; a maker of networking security solutions that will be integrated into Dell’s software group. The deal was a big one based on some numbers pulled by the blogosphere, likely in the hundreds of millions.