Inspur-Cisco joint venture officially inaugurated

(Photo: Courtesy of Inspur Group)

Chinese cloud computing and big data services provider Inspur Group and U.S. technology multinational Cisco on Nov. 11 announced the official inauguration of their joint-venture company, after a framework agreement for strategic cooperation signed between the two companies during Chinese President Xi Jinping's State visit to the U.S. in 2015.

According to the contract and the Articles of Association of joint venture, the headquarters of the joint-venture company - Inspur - Cisco Networking Technology Co. Ltd - will be located in Ji'nan, eastern China's Shandong province, with Inspur having a 51 percent ownership in the joint venture and Cisco 49 percent. The amount of registered capital is $100 million. The joint venture will develop and manufacture a range of products potentially including high-end products meeting the needs of customers based on the advanced and well-positioned technologies of both Cisco and Inspur.

Inspur Chairman & CEO Peter Sun, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, and Cisco Greater China's Chairman & CEO Owen Chan attended the inauguration ceremony in Ji'nan on Nov. 11.

The two parent companies have reached agreement regarding their cooperation in product, technology, and service. The two sides will seize the opportunity provided by the new generation networking technologies represented by SDN to gear up the development of networking products and technologies, and to deliver advanced technologies related to IT infrastructure, cloud, data center, smart city, big data and so forth to the marketplace. The phase one of the go-to-market plan is already kicked off, and the first products are expected to be officially launched next year.

The joint-venture project will become an important part of Inspur's "cloud strategy." It will further enrich Inspur's data center portfolio and improve Inspur's ability to build complete cloud data centers. Meanwhile, it is also a major move under Cisco's long-term, sustainable development strategy in China, and will become an important addition to Cisco's operations in China, according to the press release of Inspur.

The partnership between two leading technology companies from China and the U.S. is in line with the interests of both countries and also provides a new model for the cooperation between companies from the two countries. The Inspur-Cisco joint venture will provide a benchmark for local IT companies to bring in advanced technologies from abroad and drive the independent and secure development of information technologies in China.