Cisco Systems, the U.S. network equipment giant, said that Samsung Electronics would be its “natural partner” to develop and deploy a network enabling connections to multiple cloud computing systems such as public and private enterprise clouds.

The two companies, which have a patent cross-licensing agreement, have not yet gotten into the details of Cisco’s so-called Intercloud for its customers and partners.

But Robert Lloyd, president of Cisco’s development and sales, said Korea’s global tech manufacturers such as Samsung and LG Electronics would be considered its key partners, along with companies in the health care, transportation and energy sectors, to create an ecosystem for the envisioned “Internet of Things,” or of Everything. 

“Connecting all those clouds that meet legal requirements, then giving someone like large consumer companies and banks the ability to deploy their businesses around the world on the cloud is very much part of Cisco’s Intercloud strategy,” Lloyd recently told a small group of reporters in Seoul.

“The network is at the heart of those connections, and we have that specific technology we developed that allows our customers to move their workload and information between all of those clouds in a very secure and open way.”

Cisco will be investing $1 billion to expand its cloud business as it projects that the remaining 98 percent of things will become connected with the Internet, though only 2 percent are now.

It seeks to expand a technology alliance, in which Australia-based telecom Telstra is currently the only member, and speed up innovation through cross-licensing with Samsung to usher in the IoE era.

“The arrangements we are making in terms of patent licensing make sure that there is a balanced approach we take forth in the marketplace,” Lloyd added.

Lloyd, who is said to be one of the candidates for Cisco’s next chief executive after the incumbent CEO John Chambers retires, did not further disclose details of the patents the two companies’ might share for the IoE.

Cisco’s market strength relies on Internet network switches and routers.

But it is currently betting big on cloud computing applications and the IoE amid the company’s low growth forecast, in part due to increasing competition from companies like Huawei, HP, IBM and Microsoft.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)