Neither company is saying a thing yet, but word is Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) and EMC (NYSE: EMC) are joining up to sell a new collection of products designed to deliver cloud computing capabilities, Reuters reports. Called vBlock, the cloud solution is intended to help the companies compete more effectively with IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ).

The partnership, which no one is admitting to, involves a joint venture between Cisco and EMC that will sell vBlock. The former will supply the networking equipment and servers, with the latter kicking in the storage gear and virtualization technology through its VMWare (NYSE: VMW) subsidiary. The joint venture will put the systems together, integrate the components for clients, and make the whole pile of cables and silicon work. A formal announcement is expected next week.

Networking equipment manufacturer Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) announced Wednesday that sales are likely to fall this quarter, making it four declines in a row. The company anticipates that revenue will fall 15 to 17% for the first fiscal quarter, which ends in October. This will put revenue between $8.6 billion and $8.8 billion -- down from $10.4 billion for the same quarter last year.

For now, Cisco is looking back on a tough fiscal fourth quarter. The company watched net income fall 46% year-over-year from $2.01 billion to $1.08 billion for the quarter. Revenue was off 18%, down to $8.54 billion but ahead of analyst expectations of $8.51 billion.

Networking concern 3Com (NASDAQ: COMS), whose colleagues include Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), made an adjusted 10 cents per share in the company's fiscal fourth quarter. Not so great, considering 3Com made an adjusted 9 cents per share one year ago.

In terms of estimates, 3Com did well. The market was expecting 5 cents per share. The analyst community was obviously worried that the recession was going to hamper profit growth more than it did. Of course, who could blame the analysts, right? After all, 3Com did see a better than 8% slide in top-line sales.

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) reported Q3 stats after the bell on Wednesday. How did the tech company that runs with the likes of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR), and Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) fare? Very well, thank you.

Well, let me clarify that. Cisco saw a lot of declines in its numbers, but we all know what the most important thing to investors is: beating the Wall Street analysts. In this regard, Cisco's management did just fine. As I observed in my earnings preview piece, the call was for Cisco to do somewhere around 25 cents per share. Well, the company bested that figure by an awesome nickel on an adjusted basis.

"Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) has increasingly developed a series of technologies more closely tied to end-users -- with a focus on the home entertainment hub," notes Toby Smith.

The editor of ChangeWave Investing explains, "The company understands that the market for consumer electronics products is too big and too important to ignore."

"It is well known that Cisco is the dominant supplier of the switches and routers that enable networks and computers to be linked together.

"Recently, Cisco made its most consumer-oriented acquisition by picking up privately held Pure Digital Technologies, the maker of the popular and simple-to-use Flip video camcorder.

Marvell Technology Group's (NASDAQ: MRVL) Q3 earnings report had some great numbers that made me want to consider the stock as a potential buy. However, some things about the long-term price action of the company's shares makes me want to avoid the stock altogether.

The bottom line for the storage and networking tech company increased 64% to $0.23 per diluted share; this number beat estimates by three pennies. Pretty cool, right? Here are a couple more positives: operational cash flow increased 41% on a sequential basis compared to Q2 of this year, and free cash flow increased 47% on the same basis. On a year-over-year basis, operational cash flow increased more than ten times, leading to a huge increase in free cash flow. And non-GAAP gross margin, while not seeing an increase, saw fit to at least remain flat instead of decreasing. Not bad. Marvell's shares traded 8% higher in premarket action.

Here's the deal, though. I'm not sure I'd want to buy Marvell at this point in the dreadful economic cycle. Going back to the long-term price action, there's no escaping the significant decline in the stock price as a result of potential future weakness in its business. For example, recently, Melly Alazraki wrote about Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and how sales of that device might be affected by the recession. Marvell is a supplier to the iPhone.

With the stock in single-digit territory, and with the global markets acting horribly, I just can't see buying Marvell. Indeed, I enjoyed the earnings report. But one must consider the company is unsure about demand for the stuff it sells going forward. Maybe Marvell might make a trade or something, but I'm not ready to go long-term on it just yet.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Stories of stolen laptops and credit card information theft come out on a regular basis. It's hard to imagine that sensitive customer data is kept on a laptop computer in many cases, but that's happening every day. Data security is obviously not a top priority for some of these companies that handle massive amounts of customer data.

In many cases, this kind of electronic theft is due to data being kept locally on a laptop's hard drive. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) wagers a newer product may alleviate that risk, as it has introduced a "thin client" laptop PC that has no internal data storage function at all. The new computer is classified as a "connected laptop," and performs all its functions when connected to a server through a wired or wireless network. The data the machine interacts with is somewhere on a remote, secure server -- not on the laptop's insecure hard drive.

These "thin client" machines are not a new concept, but very few portable, real-world laptop PCs have featured a working model that allows full productivity while almost completely eliminating data security issues inherent in any portable data product. Based on HP's recent acquisition of thin client product maker Neoware, the new Compaq model 6720t has no data at all residing on it. If the laptop is stolen or damaged, the data is retrievable, since it sits on a server, not on the machine itself. The laptop would be worthless to thieves.

Although the model does indeed feature a solid-state disk drive, it's designed only to exchange data on a network (wired or wireless). If HP can make inroads into those companies and entities who require portable computing without security risks, it may just create a whole new market for itself that now barely even exists.

Just call Ciena the company that's covering the communication services spectrum.

Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) supplies application-focused communications equipment, software and services to communications service providers, cable operators, and governments.

Analysts really like two dimensions of Ciena's operations: Its optical networking products business, which helps service providers increase the efficiency and bandwidth of their communications networks; and its broadband networking products business.

Other positives: Most analysts see CIEN's 2008 revenue increasing about 15%-20%, with a 35%-40% revenue gain seen for this year. Analysts also expect the company to increase its market share of larger-customer accounts. The Reuters F2007/F2008 EPS consensus estimates for CIEN are $1.28/$1.72.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), the powerhouse maker of computer-networking equipment, fired an executive charged by Brazilian federal authorities in a tax-evasion probe at the company.

Last month, Cisco said Brazilian authorities raided its offices in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and seized documents and detained employees. From the sound of what was going on, it seems like there was a complicated fraud scheme being perp'd out of Brazil that benefited Cisco, its Brazilian unit, and a vendor in the country.

How big is this issue? Hard to tell at this point. What we do know is what the Brazilian authorities are alleging. Authorities there claim that the U.S. company evaded 1.5 billion reais ($832 million) in taxes.

The tax hit is relatively small compared to Cisco's $170 billion market cap. The company has a strong balance sheet and this shouldn't be particularly serious, even if the firm had to pay the entire alleged amount. Meanwhile, Brazil has tripled its police staff in a major crackdown against white-collar crime.

What remains to be seen is how big a deal this is for Cisco's entire Brazilian operation, and whether this affects sales and growth going forward. I'm interested to see how well the company communicated their exposure to investors.

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Author's fund doesn't hold a position in CSCO.

Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) announced today that it plans to let go a number of additional employees over the next year, in addition to the 3,700 cut loose earlier, and will take an additional $100-150 million hit for severance packages over the next several quarters. In the past year, under new CEO Jonathan Schwartz, the company has returned to profitability, albeit primarily via cost containment. BloggingStocks' Eric Buscemi recently pointed out the company's modest revenue growth in relation to improving margins.

The news comes on the heels of Sun's unveiling of the new UltraSPARC T2, which it describes as the world's fastest commodity microprocessor, a product it hopes will help reinvigorate company growth. The UltraSPARC will be sold separately, rather than as a part of Sun assemblages.

I'm guessing the timing of the announcement was planned to send a message to the market that force reduction would not come at the expense of R&D. The market remains wary, however, as SUNW stock continues to trade well below its six-month high.

It seems that no matter where I travel on the Internet these days, I run into another new warning about some evil Internet-borne threat that wants to invade my computer, rifle my bank records or expose my personal life in order to wreak havoc and inject trouble while accomplishing a complete withdrawal of my life savings. Thanks to a worthwhile investment in McAfee (NYSE:MFE) products, I have been safe, at least until now. But it seems that the times are changing in the arena of Internet crime. Actually, it's probably safer for me and other PC users now. We're not the desired targets any more. Now it seems that the criminals are more interested in going after the big guys. It's that old rule about deep pockets -- the more you have, the more someone else wants to get it.

Luckily enough, I came across a systems security suite that appear to have it all covered. Kaseya, McAfee and Singlefin, a St. Bernard Company (OTCBB:SBSW), have come together under the umbrella of Secure My Company, a monthly subscription service providing systems protection from the inside out. Given the fact that an emerging tactical attack on business is being mounted from the user side of business equipment, it is very important that companies monitor the dissemination of internal data to exterior destinations. Secure My Company has chosen their three focus providers to create a synergistic defense against data intrusions and theft from outside a company and from within.

Internet security is one game where you must be at least one step ahead of the competition, especially when you consider that the competition wants to bleed your funds or to just plain ruin you. We're not talking about business competition. We're talking about those individuals and organizations that operate strictly in defiance of the rules. They are criminals who will stop at nothing to gain access into what you have worked so hard to build. If you are personally in charge of your system or network security then you'd better be up to date. If someone else handles those details for you, then make sure that they're on the ball. Today's computer criminals aren't the hackers and virus writers that we've all become used to. We're dealing against a smooth, savvy and intelligent bunch. They only way they will respect you is if you demand that they will and that means keeping them locked out, for good.