It was just a short time ago that I was on SP360 writing about cloud services and the impact it will have on the SP services market. This was in reference to the launch of Cisco’s Unified Service Delivery solution, and cloud computing certainly is one of the main topics that Cisco is aiming to address with USD.But that’s not the only area I’m looking at with USD. Making an almost 90-degree turn from cloud computing and business services for IT, I’ve now got a unique opportunity to deliver a “one-two” punch to demonstrate the power of the Cisco Unified Service Delivery solution -- this time talking about media and video services which generally target the consumer/residential market.If you’re a follower of the SP360 space, you’ve seen a couple of my colleagues commenting recently on the “Medianet Mega Test” conducted by Light Reading and EANTC. (See Experience Provider Mega Test Meets the Zettabyte Challenge and The Medianet Mega Test -- Walking the Talk!)In brief, Light Reading approached Cisco to see if there was any meat on the bones of our vision for next-generation, media-enabled networks -- dubbed a medianet. They proposed to commission EANTC to test that vision. And so the “Medianet Mega Test” odyssey began. Cisco built the environment, EANTC came in and provided independent, third-party testing, and Light Reading documented the results.Today, Light Reading delivered their third report in the series on the data center, or Unifed Service Delivery.I’m very pleased to see that the test results validate the very essence of the case that Cisco has been making for Unified Service Delivery, as well as the Cisco vision for the service provider medianet.Carsten Rossenhovel, Managing Director at EANTC, says the following about the data center as it relates to media-centric services:

While the network is the backbone of these IP video deployments, the data center is the brains. Without content, the backbone is going to be a pretty boring place.So service providers, having to accommodate the plethora of services and the disk-space-hungry applications, must extend their data centers, and we saw that Cisco is positioned to support their needs. The Cisco story here is clear.

The Cisco story, it’s precisely what we announced with Unified Service Delivery -- that service providers can combine the power of a Cisco IP Next Generation Network with Cisco’s Data Center 3.0 architecture to deliver compelling new offerings in a transforming consumer services market.Specifically, what did EANTC test and what did those tests prove?

• That Cisco can automate a virtualized server environment with network-based intelligence (Nexus 1000V) to bring the benefits of server virtualization to video delivery, increasing the flexibility and reducing the expense of experience provider operations.
• That Cisco’s Unified Fabric and storage consolidation offerings (Nexus 5000, MDS) further optimize the infrastructure underlying video applications, especially as content demands grow exponentially. This helps reduce the capital expense involved in delivering long-tail, user-generated new-media content while simplifying the operating environment.
• And that Cisco’s data center switching and peering products (Nexus 7000, CRS-1) have truly delivered on the carrier-class performance and availability features required for non-stop operations in delivery of mass-market video and media services, improving reliability and overall quality-of-experience.

The bottom line is that data center technologies are now “ready for prime time” (pun intended) as part of a platform for media-rich and increasingly interactive user experiences -- and Cisco is leading the way in delivering that platform.I’m very happy to see this news coming out from Light Reading and EANTC. It’s a “one-two punch.” First in terms of validating the Cisco vision for medianet, in both IP video infrastructure and IP service delivery, and secondly it provides a strong endorsement for Cisco’s Unified Service Delivery solution. Wow! As they say, “…and the hits just keep on coming!”