Avatar

Guest post by Dennis Clark, Senior Solutions Marketing Manager – Microsoft Applications, NetApp

We are here in Charlotte this week with our Cisco friends, with the opportunity to talk with all sorts of like-minded Microsoft SQL Server individuals at the 2013 SQL PASS Summit. The conversations vary in range from things like database performance, developer issues, to private cloud and data management concerns. We’ve also had some good chats with a few data warehouse folks, which prompted me to share some thoughts on this topic.

BI Blues

We know that the data warehouse (DW) is central to a comprehensive business intelligence (BI) solution. So clearly, if our DW isn’t up to snuff, as they say, then we can forget about delivering critical analytics to a growing number of LOB managers and execs. This, in turn, negatively affects the bottom line of the business, which isn’t good for anyone. And it isn’t getting any easier. Data is growing exponentially and the problem of integrating data from multiple sources isn’t going away any time soon. These issues, along with the complex interaction of the different components of a BI solution, continue to make the design, deployment and management of data warehouses a challenge. Now you can continue to throw money at it by over-provisioning and burning up valuable data center space and power to try to keep up, or you can strive to achieve a higher level of DW nirvana with Cisco and NetApp.

Data Warehouse Nirvana

Continue reading “Get on the Fast Track to Data Warehouse Nirvana”



Authors

Gary Serda

Senior Strategic Partner Marketing Manager

Global Partner Marketing

Avatar

Intel estimates1 that one-third of the servers in production are more than four years old. At first, one might think that it is great to get this much service out of a capital investment, but the operational costs to run these outdated servers would pay for a complete technology refresh increasing performance and reliability while reducing total costs. How is this possible? With the Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v2 product family and Cisco’s Unified Computing System.

Even servers circa 2009 can be replaced to your benefit. Refreshing from Intel Xeon Processor 5500 series servers to E5-2600 v2 based servers produces a consolidation ratio of ~4:12. But all new architectures are not equal! Cisco demonstrated this with an industry leading seven world-record benchmarks with the E5-2600 v2 processors. I compared the TCO of consolidating 64 Xeon 5500 based HP ProLiant BL460c G6 servers to a new HP ProLiant BL460c Gen8 solution using Virtual Connect FlexFabric and HP ToR 10Gb Ethernet and 8Gb Fibre Channel switching or a Cisco UCS B200 M3 solution with SingleConnect. While both the HP and Cisco solution proved to be more economical than continuing the legacy environment, the Cisco solution had a payback period of only seven months compared to 18 months for HP. A Cisco UCS solution could save you over $200,000 more than continuing with the legacy HP G6 servers over three-years.

 TCO Compare of HP BL460 G6 vs. HP BL460c Gen8 vs Cisco B200 M3

The slide above summarizes the analysis conducted and the presentation below highlights additional business benefits of UCS. The legacy HP ProLiant BL460c G6 environment contains only OpEx costs and all 64 servers are replaced in year one using the 4:1 consolidation ratio.

NOTE: These results do not include the benefits of the UCS Advantage Trade-In Program where Cisco is offering customers up to a $650 credit for HP G6/G7 servers and up to a $1,600 for HP BladeSystem c3000/c7000 enclosures. Contact your authorized Cisco Partner for complete program details.

Want to learn more about the Cisco UCS differences?

 


  1. Source: Intel Planning Guide, Modernizing the Midsize Business IT Infrastructure http://www.techrepublic.com/resource-library/whitepapers/planning-guide-modernizing-the-midsize-business-it-infrastructure/
  2. Cisco analysis of average SPECint_rate-base2006 performance improvement between the Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 vs. Intel Xeon X5570 rounded up from 3.7 to incorporate other system and software improvements beyond those measured by the benchmark.

Follow @HighTechBill



Authors

Bill Shields

Senior Marketing Manager

Product and Solutions Marketing Team

Avatar

Cryptography is critical to secure, trustworthy communications. Recent questions within the tech industry have created entirely new discussions about the cryptography underpinning our communications infrastructure. While some in the media have focused on the algorithm chosen for Deterministic Random Bit Generation (DRBG), we’ve seen many more look to have a broader crypto conversation. With this backdrop, I’d like to take the opportunity to talk about how we select algorithms (not just the DRBGs) for our products.

Before we go further, I’ll go ahead and get it out there: we don’t use the DUAL_EC_DRBG in our products. While it is true that some of the libraries in our products can support the DUAL_EC_DRBG, it is not invoked in our products. For our developers, the DRBG selection is driven by an internal standard and delivered to those developers from an internal team of crypto experts through a standard crypto library. The DRBG algorithm choice cannot be changed by the customer. Our Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) confirmed this in a Security Response published on October 16.

Continue reading “A Crypto Conversation: How We Choose Algorithms”



Authors

Anthony Grieco

SVP & Chief Security & Trust Officer

Security and Trust Organization

Avatar

Now when I’m talking about safekeeping a mobile device, I’m not saying don’t use your Kindle by the pool or let your toddler play on the iPad while eating ice cream. These are dangerous things to be doing with a gadget, but today I want to focus more on the data within that device, rather than the device itself.

No matter what you do, your device may be stolen. It only takes a moment of inattention for someone to swipe your phone or tablet. Before that unfortunate event occurs, there are several things that you can do to mitigate the damage that occurs from the loss of a mobile device.
Continue reading “Practical Tips for Safekeeping your Mobile Devices”



Authors

Nicholas Leali

Security Analyst, IntelliShield

Cisco Security Intelligence Operations

Avatar

This is the latest in a series of posts featuring partner success stories where partners share how they’re helping customers achieve their goals by using Cisco technology. This week we’re pleased to feature Scott Alexander, President of Wireless, Alexander Open Systems (AOS).

Effective customer service stems from anticipating and understanding a customer’s needs. Working with customers ranging from the State, Local Government and Education (SLED) verticals to the Small and Mid-sized Business (SMB) market, our company strives to meet the needs of a unique customer base.

Alexander Open Systems (AOS) covers a 10-state region spanning from North Dakota to Texas. With locations in northwest Arkansas and central Missouri, this midwestern locale generates a major component of business with the SMB market which often, in both budget and staff, requires unique positioning to take advantage of the offerings provided through our technology partners, including Cisco. Managed services have played a pivotal role in accommodating the needs of our customers on a scale that is most beneficial to their organization. Continue reading “Leveraging the SMB Market with Managed Service Offerings”



Authors

David Durham

Content Strategist

Channels

Avatar

Recently, I was chatting with Hugo Vliegen, Director of Technical marketing, Enterprise Networks, and he was telling me all of the questions he had been getting from customers about the Cisco UCS E-Series.  Questions such as:

  • What’s this rumor I’ve heard that Cisco has a server that sits on a branch router?
  • You’re telling me the UCS E-Series is enterprise-class? What does that even mean?
  • What’s new on the Cisco ISR series?

So I suggested we do an interview series with Hugo – something short and fun where he could get the Cisco experts on the record and help our customers learn a little more about the UCS E-Series. Continue reading “Inside the Branch: UCS E-series 101”



Authors

Allison Park

Product Marketing Manager

Enterprise Networks

Avatar

One of the basic tenants of enterprise mobility is its direct influence on “now”.

When organizations implement mobile policies like BYOD and virtualized desktops, day-to-day operations can immediately improve. In most cases, the rate of return on seeing change is direct. However, the impact of enterprise mobility is not short-lived.sixsteps

Recently, we counted down the “Six Essential Steps for Unleashing the Power of Enterprise Mobility.”  Throughout the series, we provided a guide for enterprises to follow to implement broader mobility. We discussed how businesses could benefit now by untethering their global workforce and increasing productivity. The series highlighted a tactical approach to mobility, yet we would be amiss not to discuss the long-term transformational impact mobility can have on businesses. How can mobility be a catalyst for organizational growth and innovation?

Last week, I read an IT Web article by Johannesburg-based Lebo Mashiloane that discussed how BYOD and mobility are fueling enterprise growth. The article brought up a concept that is always important to keep top-of-mind: How today’s technology solutions are changing the landscape of tomorrow. Continue reading “Beyond Today’s Productivity and Efficiency: Enterprise Mobility Enables Long-Term Growth”



Authors

Prashanth Shenoy

Vice President of Marketing

Enterprise Networking and Mobility

Avatar

Guest post by Txomin Barturen, Senior Consultant – CTO Office, EMC Corporation

SQL Server provides customers with a vast array of technology options to address a diverse range of data and reporting requirements including extremely high throughput OLTP environments to bandwidth and time-sensitive reporting and DSS systems.  With choice comes the inevitable complexity of defining and building solutions.  Customer IT teams are invariably dealing with Service Level Agreements (SLAs) from their in internal customers.  Time and financial constraints often limit the ability of internal IT teams to spend significant amounts of time in defining, testing and implementing the broad range of environments that they need to deploy.

Jointly, Cisco and EMC have partnered with Microsoft to deliver a set of solutions that are pre-validated to deliver the requirements for customer SQL Server environments.  These solutions implement the collective best practices for server, network and storage, ensuring that customers implement a known valid configuration without the guesswork.

Fast Track Data Warehouse

Dealing with data warehouse requirements requires that solutions be designed to meet the ideal balance between performance, DW size, and cost. Design guidance from the SQL Server team dictates that the total data warehouse size be finely balanced by storage system configuration, server system consumption rate (how fast the CPUs are able to process the data) as well as the interconnectivity between server and storage to deliver at the required rate.  To match server configuration, the interconnectivity (including HBAs) and the storage infrastructure requires much design, calculation and testing across a number of disciplines.

Continue reading “SQL Server – Cisco & EMC leading the charge”



Authors

Gary Serda

Senior Strategic Partner Marketing Manager

Global Partner Marketing

Avatar

The We’re Listening blog series has tracked some of the new programs and capabilities Cisco is introducing to make it easier to do business with us. The corporate Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) Program drives many of these improvements, so I’ve invited EoDB executive lead (and Cisco EVP of Operations) Randy Pond to discuss some of the accomplishments and upcoming plans that will make it easier for our customers and partners to do business with Cisco.  Among those are:

  • Improvements to software licensing, including big changes to the product license registration page that allow customers to complete more self-service licensing transactions, and the roll out of the new Cisco Software Central portal, a one-stop shop for all your software licensing needs
  • Creating a more consistent negotiation and deal approval process globally
  • A renewed focus on our partners’ experience
  • Stronger focus on the role of User Experience design and philosophy in every Cisco product, policy, and process

pond_crop By Guest Contributor Randy Pond

We’ve made it no secret that Cisco aims to become the #1 IT company. And while our development teams are hard at work to bring you exciting new technological offerings in software, cloud and security, there’s another critical piece of the equation – delivering an exceptional customer experience. This is a huge priority for John Chambers and the entire leadership team, and it boils down to consistency and simplicity. Over and over again, I’ve heard customers say that doing business with Cisco can be a mind-warp of changing policies, too many steps and new obstacles to deal with. This has to change. Today, we have teams across every function at Cisco concentrated on finding and making the changes that will have the biggest impact on your customer experience.

Read the full article: The We’re Listening Blog: How We’re Making It Easier to Do Business with Cisco.



Authors

Curt Hill

Senior Vice President

Customer Assurance