Year: 2013

March 25, 2013 Leave a Comment
Avatar

Real world ROI results with UCS servers – a detailed study at Loughborough University

I recently worked with Loughborough University on a financial impact study of their initial deployment of Cisco UCS. The study documents their findings of a dramatic improvement in IT efficiency, bearing out the advantages that attracted them to the UCS solution. Loughborough’s Customer Case Study has been revised with the results of this TCO study as well new details on the next stage of their deployment of Cisco Virtual Experience Infrastructure (VXI) Smart Solution.

We examined Loughborough’s projected growth rates and compared the continuation of their previous rack server environment against a UCS solution combined with an expansion of their virtualized environment. Server consolidation and reduced administrator workload contributed to exceptional results: a total savings of US$878,789 (40% OpEx and 60% CapEx) with a 225% ROI and 22% IRR. Compared to the previous environment, Loughborough’s UCS deployment will drive down cost in several key areas over the coming five years:

  • server hardware – 38%
  • switching infrastructure and cabling – 80%
  • power and cooling – 49%
  • new server provisioning – 79%
  • virtualization software – 39%

“When we compared the legacy server and network with one based on Cisco UCS, TCO effectively halves over a five-year investment lifecycle.”

Dr. Phil Richards, Director of IT, Loughborough University.

As a result of Cisco’s Unified Fabric approach, the study shows that Loughborough will need only six switches (three redundant pairs) to support their end state vs. 30 in their legacy environment and a corresponding reduction in cables from 646 to just 44.

These results are typical to what other customers achieve when they switch to UCS. See my first blog post, Yes, Cisco UCS servers are that good.

Would you like to learn more about how Cisco UCS can help you? There are more than 250 published datacenter case studies on Cisco.com. Additionally, there is a TCO/ROI tool that will allow you to compare your existing environment to a new UCS Solution. For a more in-depth TCO/ROI analysis, contact your Cisco partner.

Loughborough University TCO Study Waterfall



Authors

Avatar

Bill Shields

Senior Marketing Manager

Product and Solutions Marketing Team

March 24, 2013 Leave a Comment
Avatar

EuroMPI 2013: papers due soon!

Consider this a public service announcement: don’t forget that EuroMPI 2013 papers are due soon!

EuroMPI 2013EuroMPI is the place to see where the documented standard of MPI hits reality, both in terms of implementations and applications.  Come talk to real implementors, real users, and hear about state-of-the art techniques and performance optimizations.

Continue reading “EuroMPI 2013: papers due soon!”



Authors

Avatar

Jeff Squyres

The MPI Guy

UCS Platform Software

3 Comments
Avatar

Announcing Cisco Unified Access Webinar Series

The ever-increasing number of devices and applications coming into the workplace poses complex challenges for the enterprise. As a result, IT must adapt the ways in which they enable, manage, and secure end-user access.

  • How will the network handle increased demand for bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies and mobility?
  • How can IT maintain raised expectations for wired devices, while improving the end-user experience?

To solidify IT as a key contributor in driving better business processes, IT teams must shift from maintaining the network to delivering innovative, connected experiences. The key to success is to simplify the network, and Cisco Unified Access does just that.

Mark your calendars for our five-part webinar series to learn how to create an effective, unified access strategy. Find out how to transform IT to better address the demands of BYOD and next-generation technology.

  • Wednesday, April 3: Activate the IT Transformation <–Register NOW!
  • Wednesday April 17: One Network Part 1: Deploying Unified Access
  • Wednesday May 1: One Network Part 2: Simplifying the Network Infrastructure
  • Wednesday May 15: One Policy: Centralized Policy, Control and Enforcement
  • Wednesday June 5: One Management: Converged User Access Management

You will learn how to: Continue reading “Announcing Cisco Unified Access Webinar Series”



Authors

Avatar

Vivian Chan

March 23, 2013 Leave a Comment
Avatar

Systematic Transformation in Higher Education: The Intersection with Technology in a Journey Toward the Future (Navigati …

AM73036Part 3 of A Six-Part Series: Transforming Higher Education in the US

This six-part series will focus on transformation of the traditional higher education system in the United States. The Need for Change and  Shared Challenges were the focus of the previous chapters in this series.

From Cisco’s experience with higher education institutions in the U.S., those that are implementing change well are laser-focused on three critical areas: the ability to address questions of culture, to modernize teaching and learning, and to scale and propagate change across multiple, often divided, siloes within their institutions.  Also, these institutions are using technology to manage each area more effectively.

Technology plays a critical role within each of these sectors, and if used wisely and artfully, can help to accelerate innovation and change. The rate and speed at which institutions need to change will never happen without technologies such as a solid core infrastructure, wired and wireless networks that enable ubiquitous connectivity, collaboration tools that provide seamless and robust communications, and new social collaboration platforms that support and extend the interaction of multiple communities, and ultimately, create a federated higher education society.

Continue reading “Systematic Transformation in Higher Education: The Intersection with Technology in a Journey Toward the Future (Navigati …”



Authors

Avatar

Renee Patton

Former Global Director of Education and Healthcare

Global Industry Solutions Group

March 22, 2013 3 Comments
Avatar

Social Marketing for Savvy Marketers Event: April 18-19, 2013

As a busy social media or digital marketing professional, you don’t have time for theory and nifty ideas for 2023.  You  have deliverables and objectives and programs today.  You want to know what’s available right now, what’s going to work best for different types of programs, what other companies are doing, and all that good stuff.  You don’t want to hear how great we are…You want to know how great YOU can be.

We hear you loud and clear!  Join Cisco in San Jose, CA April 18 & 19, 2013,  as we present a special social media event geared toward next-level marketing strategies:  Social Media for Savvy Marketers!  

This free event will feature presenters from Cisco along with panelists from leading B2B and B2C companies, such as:   Twitter, LinkedIn, Performics, ABC, Flipboard, Fullscreen, Digby, Kiip, BlinQ Media, Realtime Media, Buzzfeed, Bunchball, SAP, Citrix, EMC, VMware, Percolate, Salesforce,  Kaiser Permanente, Food Network, Turner Networks and Engauge.  See our session descriptions here:

Register today!  Register for the live webcast here.  Questions?  Contact our social media training team.

Please see the full agenda listed below, as well as information on our speaker lineup:

Continue reading “Social Marketing for Savvy Marketers Event: April 18-19, 2013”



Authors

Avatar

Cecelia Taylor

Leave a Comment
Avatar

Cisco CTO of Engineering David Ward from MPLS & Ethernet World Congress 2013

SDN has become a popular topic – so much so that this year’s MPLS/Carrier Ethernet/IPv6 World Congress in Paris added an SDN Summit component. It’s an area of high interest for Cisco as we develop our Open Network Environment, a portfolio of Cisco technologies and open standards which brings programmatic control and application awareness to the network, combining the benefits of hardware and software across physical and virtual domains. Continue reading “Cisco CTO of Engineering David Ward from MPLS & Ethernet World Congress 2013”



Authors

Avatar

Stephen Liu

1 Comment
Avatar

How Are You Going to Secure Your Cloud Network Infrastructure?

BirenProfilePicture-e1349971468612-300x369By Biren Mehta, Senior Marketing Manager, SP Marketing in Routing and Switching, Cisco

Cloud computing brings a significant shift in how IT services will be deployed, delivered and consumed.  This promises to bring significant benefits to both consumers and suppliers in terms of agility, automation, and cost.  However, security remains a key barrier to realizing these advantages as enterprises question data security, trust, visibility, and control issues over the provider’s network.

Last week, Continue reading “How Are You Going to Secure Your Cloud Network Infrastructure?”



Authors

Avatar

Stephen Liu

2 Comments
Avatar

Cisco Hosting Amsterdam 2013 FIRST Technical Colloquium

There is still time to register for the upcoming FIRST Technical Colloquium April 2-3 2013. The event has a very exciting program covering, bitsquatting, webthreats, RPZ, Passive DNS, Real-world monitoring examples, Spamhaus, SIE, Cuckoo Sandbox, Malware Analysis and many more current issues facing the incident response community.

The event’s line-up includes notables from Cisco Security Intelligence Operations (SIO), Internet Systems Consortium, Shadowserver foundation, KPN-CERT, NATO, MyCert and ING amongst others. Program details can be found here.
Continue reading “Cisco Hosting Amsterdam 2013 FIRST Technical Colloquium”



Authors

Avatar

Gavin Reid

CyberCzar/Director

Public Sector

Leave a Comment
Avatar

Update – Dubai Education Conferences

I was delighted to attend in the last few weeks two extremely interesting conferences, both of them hosted in Dubai, my home city. The first was the Iraq Education and Technology Summit, which ran from 23-24 February at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

This conference brought together a very interesting group of senior people from the Iraqi Government, NGOs and the private sector.  Among the speakers was H.E. Ali Al-Adeeb, Iraq’s Minister of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MoHESR) and Mr Ali Musa’ad Al-Ibrahimi, Iraq’s Deputy Minister of Education.

The background of the summit was the fact that Iraq’s Parliament is in the process of passing a new Infrastructure Law, which will become a key component of Iraqi Government strategy. The summit aimed therefore to establish and strengthen relationships between the Iraq Government and leading international organisations which can help accelerate Iraq’s development in technology, training and management skills.

Continue reading “Update – Dubai Education Conferences”



Authors

Avatar

Kevin Dunseath