Microsoft, Intel, BMC, EMC Smarts and VMware are expected to endorse Cisco's "Unified Computing" data center strategy at next in New York.

Sources say these companies will be on the roster of partners Cisco is lining up for its strategy, which is also expected to include the introduction of the company's . Blade server stalwarts and are -- or were -- longtime partners of Cisco's in data center applications, but California is expected to strain those relationships and keep those companies off Cisco's partner list this time around.

IBM is uniting with Juniper for Project Stratus; and HP is expected to tightly link its blade server and ProCurve networking operations for next-generation data center opportunities.

Another significant player for next-gen data centers is , which recently for the high-speed Ethernet fabric and foundation of its plans.