In Part 1 of this blog series, I introduced Gartner’s definition of Fabric based infrastructure (FBI). I explained the benefit of data center fabrics with the promise of continuing in a follow on blog. Some readers rightly pointed out to me that I had not yet touched on the automation benefits. This video featuring Gartner analyst, Donna Scott and Cisco CTO Paul Perez provides a great overview of the benefits namely:
Capital cost savings with infrastructure consolidation
Lower operating costs with automation
Speed of implementation and infrastructure deployment
Better SLAs with faster recovery or migrations
Let’s dig a bit deeper and start by looking at the difference between a FBI server and a run of the mill server. FBI essentially lets us define the profile of a server in software. The profile here refers to as many as 120 attributes of a physical server stored as meta data in a profile. These attributes include BIOS version, LAN connection parameters, SAN connection parameters, UUID, MAC Address etc.
In the case of run of the mill servers some of these attributes remain the same throughout the life of the physical server. You may be able to alter other attributes with manual operations through proprietary user interfaces. As shown in the figure above, the server identity (service profile) of a FBI server is abstracted from the physical server.
More than 1,100 gaming establishments worldwide come to Global Cash Access (GCA) for ideas and innovation. GCA is a global leader in providing tightly integrated solutions to the gaming industry by optimizing cash access processes. These services allow gamblers to access cash through ATM withdrawals, credit card and debit card transactions, check verification, and money transfers. When 60%-70% of the money on a casino floor comes from these devices, a reliable network infrastructure is imperative. In 2011, GCA processed more than 90 million transactions and dispensed more than $19 billion in cash. In this industry, minutes of down time translate to hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed transactions.
With over 8000 patron touch points around the world, GCA needed a data center infrastructure that could support their current needs but scale to be the foundation for future growth. GCA engaged Nexus IS, a Cisco Gold Certified partner with Master specializations in Security and Unified communications, to help them design a data center architecture flexible enough to add new devices and enable new services for GCA to provide to their customers.
Watch as Scott Betts, CEO of GCA, and Jim King, Vice President of IT at GCA, discuss how Nexus was able to provide a strong foundation of one unified IP-based infrastructure to help GCA meet the uptime and reliability necessary to their business.
