Channel Beat: Oracle's Low-Price Lineup Takes Aims At Cisco, EMC

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Oracle is stepping up its competition with Cisco and EMC, launching new hardware with the cheapest price tag on the market.

Oracle’s new family of Sun server systems, called X5, targets the market dominated by Cisco and EMC.

Oracle Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison admitted Oracle as ’a lot of catching up to do’ although he maintains that Cisco and EMC don’t come close to competing with Oracle on system performance alone.

This week Microsoft announced a free upgrade for Windows users for Windows 10.

The update will be available for a year, and once a user installs Windows 10, Microsoft will keep it updated as long as it remains eligible for support. Microsoft executives say the company now sees Windows as a service, and this represents a fundamental shift in the Windows business model. Partners support the move, saying it will be beneficial in the long term. Pricing for Windows 10 is not yet available.

Equinix acquired cloud professional services company Nimbo this week, a move Equinix says will be the first of many acquisitions.

Nimbo has seen huge growth in recent years, with just less than $10 million in revenue last year. Equinix will look to help enterprises move into the cloud with Nimbo, with a focus on hybrid cloud solutions. Details around the deal have not been disclosed, but Nimbo will continue to operate independently.