The Evolution of Cisco’s Data Center Strategy
For the past year, we at Cisco have been altering the way businesses think about and approach their data centers. But for a much longer period of time, those same businesses have faced growing challenges. The to-do list is long and difficult to check off instantly. Manage complexity, reduce operational expenses, account for energy conservation amid rising energy costs, optimize utilization of infrastructure assets, make the business and its employees more agile and protected.
A bad dream? I tend to call it a forcing function – for vendors, partners, and customers alike. These challenges are driving a market transition that we are all witnessing. We are seeing an industry movement – make that an industry demand – toward removing cost constraints and complexity that for years have characterized data centers. I believe strongly that we are on the right path. From complexity to simplicity, rigidity to flexibility, isolation to shared infrastructures, power-hungry to power-efficient, siloed IT teams to transparent organizations, and discreet to integrated platforms – the next-generation data center won’t be as disjointed or sedentary. With unified computing and virtualization, data centers will be more scalable and agile.
Cisco’s data center strategy is unfolding. It’s gone from a focus on consolidation to virtualization to automation, particularly after the March 16 announcement of the Cisco Unified Computing System. We aren’t stopping there.
Tomorrow, we will be adding more substance to the cause. I encourage you to attend a press conference Cisco is hosting that begins Tomorrow, Wednesday June 3rd at 9:45 a.m. PDT/12:45 p.m. EDT.
We will reveal new updates to our business, technology, and go-to-market strategies. I welcome your thoughts on where we as an industry and Cisco as a vendor have come, where we are heading, and what we will be announcing. I’d like to know what you think about the press announcement, our data center strategy, and the industry movement at large. Submit your questions and comments here and I’ll do my best to answer as many as I can. Let’s chat – these are exciting times and we have a lot to talk about 
Posted by John McCool at 02:29PM PST
Joseph Jun 3, 2009
Hi John,
You mentioned that your to-do is long. What is the number one item on your to-do list and how do you prioritize one item over another?
Also, what are the biggest challenges you see coming up for Cisco in this space?
-Joseph