Is a Data Center Transformation for You?

Migrating mission-critical applications have known benefits, which are often accorded significant attention -- and for good reason. But what’s left unsaid is how the process is successfully carried out.

Application migration can be fearful – poor execution could result in unexpected and detrimental IT issues, which may negatively impact service levels for the entire company. But simply avoiding a migration is not solving the problem, either. More than likely, you will have to face an application migration at some point, due to poor application performance, outdated technology, or compromised architecture. This is when it becomes crucial to consult the right technology, and the right people.

Cisco provides a framework to help you understand the process of undergoing a data center transformation. In the Cisco® Domain Ten Framework, Cisco Services outlines information such as network standards, management procedures, security, and outsourcing options -- just to name a few.

The Cisco Domain Ten Framework will guide you through the most important aspects of the migration process, and what you should expect. You will gain insight into your environment that will enable you to predict whether your migration will be successful, and how to best execute the transformation – whether you are working with a virtualized, automated, or full cloud environment.

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Tags: application, Cisco, data center, Domain, IT, migration, Mission Critical, services, Unleashing IT

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Our newest app release allows you to participate with high-quality two-way video on your Kindle Fire by viewing the video feeds of the participants in the web conference and streaming your own video back to them.

Join, start or schedule WebEx Meetings from your Kindle Fire!

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Tags: amazon, application, kindle, meetings, mobile, WebEX

Earlier today we had a brief press conference introducing our Cloud Connected solutions that enable you to connect users to the cloud with confidence. And you can get the meaty detail tomorrow [June 13 @ 8am PDT] when we have a special episode of TechwiseTV on CiscoLive365 with Jimmy Ray Purser and Robb Boyd showcasing these new solutions, doing a technical deep dive, and kicking the proverbial tires. You can get a sneak peek here as Jimmy Ray took a stroll through our CiscoLive demo space.  As you can see in the picture to the right, Robb is very excited for these new solutions!  [He said I could post this picture, muahaha] Read More »

Tags: application, AppNav, cloud, cloud services router, cloudconnected, control, CSR, ISR G2, router, UCS-E, visibility, waas

The Intelligent Automation Solutions Business Unit hosts user groups for our Workload Automation software customers.  Our Tidal Enterprise Scheduler  is used by many enterprises to manage the execution of business process and moving data around the data center.  We recently met many customers during our user groups in Chicago, Boston and New York City.  We see some very interesting differences in our user base  and how our customers use our product between these cities.  For example in our Chicago

user group during the winter we had some key large customer implementation and many customer s who were deploying job scheduling for department level deployments and wanting to drive the usage throughout their enterprise.  It is very common to start using Workload Automation in one key area and then expand into other areas as the success multiplies.  It was good to see old friends who have used our scheduler for almost a decade as well as new users learning how to use our software product to accomplish cool new technical use cases.

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Tags: analytics, application, enterprise job scheduling;, intelligent automation, job scheduling, Tidal Enterprise Scheduler, workload automation

Cloud Expo was indeed a very interesting juxtaposition of people espousing the value of cloud and how their stuff is really cloudy.  You have a group of presenters and expo floor booths talking about their open API and how that is the future of cloud.  Then you have the other camp that tells us how their special mix of functions is so much better than that.   All of this is a very interesting dialog.  APIs are indeed very important.  If your technology is indeed a cloud operating model then you must have an API.   Solutions like Cisco’s Intelligent Automation for Cloud rely on those APIs to orchestrate cloud services.   But APIs are not the end all.   The reality is that while the cloud discussions tend to center on the API and the model behind that API, the real change enabling the move towards cloud is the operating model of the users who are leveraging the cloud for a completely fresh game plan for their businesses.

James Urquhart’s recent blog:   http://gigaom.com/cloud/what-cloud-boils-down-to-for-the-enterprise-2/ highlights that the real change for users of the cloud is modifying how they do development, test, capacity management, production operations and disaster recovery.  My last blog talked about the world before cloud management and automation and the move from the old world model to the new models of dev/test or dev/ops that force the application architects, developers, and QA folks to radically alter  their model.   Those that adopt the cloud without changing their “software factory” model from one that Henry Ford would recognize to the new models may not get the value they are looking for out of the cloud.

At Cloud Expo I saw a lot of very interesting software packages.   Some of them went really deep into a specific use case area, while others accomplished a lot of functional use cases that were only about a inch deep.   As product teams build out software packages for commercial use, they have a very interesting and critical decision point that will drive the value proposition of the software product.  It seems to me that within 2 years, just about all entrants in the cloud management and automation marathon will begin to converge on a simple focused yet broad set of use cases.   Each competitor will be either directly driving their product to that point, or they will be forced to that spot by the practical aspects of customers voting with the wallets.  Interestingly enough, this whole process it drives competition and will yield great value for the VP of Operations and VP of Applications of companies moving their applications to the cloud.

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Tags: API, application, automated provisioning, cloud, data center provisioning, devops, devtest, intelligent automation, monitoring, private cloud, service assurance