2/23/2006 -- That's how Abraham Lincoln brought his first inaugural address to a close, imploring -- with those very words -- a highly polarized populace to look beyond the divisions of North and South. "We must not be enemies," he exhorted. "Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection."

How fitting, then, that in the run-up to this week's President's Day holiday, Cisco Systems Inc. and Dell were able to put their past divisions behind them and -- as if drawn by what Lincoln might have called "mystic chords of memory" -- announce a new Catalyst switching and Dell PowerEdge blade server bundle.

The two partners say the addition of Cisco's Catalyst Blade Switch 3030 to Dell's PowerEdge Blade Server enclosure can reduce cabling by up to 90 percent. What's more, Cisco and Dell claim, it also helps reduce blade center footprint requirements by optimizing rack space.

Analysts, on the other hand, say the biggest upshot of the deal could be a new era of detente -- if not of all-out rapprochement -- between the two putative rivals. Cisco, of course, has long looked askance at Dell's attempts to elbow its way into the low-end of the enterprise switching space, via its PowerConnect line of switches. The new arrangement won't alter Dell's strategy, of course, but at least the two sides are talking. "This agreement brings Dell and Cisco closer together, and it may lead to Dell backing off on its own Ethernet switches in the future in favor of selling Cisco gear to customers," notes Steven Schuchart, a senior analyst for enterprise infrastructure with consultancy Current Analysis.

The deal also helps Cisco plug a glaring gap in its blade OEM portfolio. "For Dell, it provides a blade server Ethernet switch from the largest and most dominant competitor in the Ethernet switching market," Schuchart points out. "Now that Cisco...sells blade server Ethernet switch modules for all three of the big server companies: IBM, HP and Dell. The blade server market is growing and, with this announcement, Cisco has insured that it will have a piece of that market."

The agreement cranks up the pressure on blade server switching rivals Intel Corp. and Blade Network Technologies, who "will have to redouble their efforts to insure that Cisco simply does not dominate this market segment," he concludes. -Stephen Swoyer