The <a title="http://www.cisco.com/go/nexus4000" href="http://www.facebook.com/note_redirect.php?note_id=146888128278&amp;h=0f699a7f7fb731de33b7fa8336f5f472&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cisco.com%2Fgo%2Fnexus4000" target="_blank">Cisco Nexus 4000</a> Series is a family of blade “switches” for scale-out x-86 blade servers ( non-Cisco).  Nexus 4000 is NOT a Fabric Extender, Nexus 4000 is a “Switch”.

Nexus 4000 Series Blade Switches are the fourth generation of blade switches from Cisco. It will fit inside blade server I/O slots to provide network connectivity for blade servers. The first generation blade switch was the Cisco IGESM blade switch. The second generation was the <a title="http://www.cisco.com/go/bladeswitch" href="http://www.facebook.com/note_redirect.php?note_id=146888128278&amp;h=8d5fdb74923163ca67f6e6d99db53601&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cisco.com%2Fgo%2Fbladeswitch" target="_blank">Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3000 family</a> , the third generation is the <a title="http://www.cisco.com/go/bladeswitch" href="http://www.facebook.com/note_redirect.php?note_id=146888128278&amp;h=8d5fdb74923163ca67f6e6d99db53601&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cisco.com%2Fgo%2Fbladeswitch" target="_blank">Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3100 family </a> (aka VBS). And now the fourth generation is the Nexus 4000 Blade Switches.

So Cisco is not new to the blade switch market, in fact they are clear leader in blade switch market space both in terms of installed base of blade switches &amp; market share even with our Catalyst blade switch product line.

This newest addition to the Cisco Nexus family of data center products, the Nexus 4000 Series will extend the benefits offered by the Nexus family to our partner blade servers. More specifically it provides the <a title="http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns945/index.html" href="http://www.facebook.com/note_redirect.php?note_id=146888128278&amp;h=c0186b1d3b262f07380d4bfbac0da3b9&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cisco.com%2Fen%2FUS%2Fnetsol%2Fns945%2Findex.html" target="_blank">Unified Fabric </a> functionality to partner blade servers.