Cisco Blog > Data Center and Cloud
There has been huge customer and partner interest in FlexPod for VMware since its launch in November 2010. The key FlexPod values that are resonating well with the customers are:
- Flexible ITaaS platform built from simple, unified compute, fabric, and storage infrastructure
- Simplified purchase and flexible scale out model accelerates journey to private and hybrid cloud
- Cisco CVD based architectures and channel partner enabled deployment services for both the base FlexPod infrastructure and layered Tier-1 enterprise applications (Microsoft, SAP, VDI, etc.).
- Centralized management enabling streamlined operations
- Open management framework allowing simplified integration with 3rd party orchestration tools
- Streamlined response to identify and quickly solve potential issues, enabled by cooperative 24/7 support model
I want to highlight that the CVD Program has been around for over a decade and has proved its worth time and again to help design and deploy next generation network architectures across the globe.
What do Channel Partners have to say about FlexPod for VMware?
Here is a short video by Paul Sorgiovanni, Data Management Practice Manager at Empired (one of the leading FlexPod global partner based in Australia). In this video, Paul explains how FlexPod for VMware has been extremely helpful in making their customers successful, and helped Empired evolve as a trusted advisor for their fast growing customer base.
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Tags: Cisco, Cisco CVD, CVD, Exchange 2010, FlexPod, netapp, Oracle, SAP, Sharepoint, SQL Server, vdi, virtualization, VMware
Few days back I blogged about how FlexPod for VMware is a great solution that can accelerate your cloud journey and help move beyond 30% virtualized datacenter (Test & Dev workloads, infrastructure servers, web servers etc.) to virtualizing enterprise applications (e.g. Microsoft, Oracle, SAP etc.), and finally -- implement a fully automated IT as a Service solution.
In lot of customer environments, Microsoft applications (e.g. Exchange, Sharepoint, and SQL Server) support a good portion of mission critical business operations. These Microsoft applications have traditionally been hosted on siloed, underutilized IT infrastructure and operational processes that were built based on the requirements of individual applications and processes. The end result is increased total cost of ownership and inability to help business be more agile, introduce new services, and achieve operational efficiency.
Here are some of the key operational benefits to virtualizing Microsoft Apps on FlexPod for VMware:
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Tags: Cisco ACE, Cisco WAAS, CiscoUCS, cloud, deduplication, efficiency, ESMT, Exchange, FlexPod, netapp, nexus, Secure Multi-tenancy, Sharepoint, SQL Server, UCS service profiles, VAAI, virtualization, VMware SRM, VMware vSphere, VSC
As part of some current SharePoint 2010 on FlexPod work, I have been setting up some VMware ESX servers to boot from SAN. After a few quick searchs I found a few very good posts online.
BootFromSAN101 with Cisco UCS
UCS Boot Whitepaper
I thought the BootFromSAN 101 post had a good outline. So I decided to take it a few steps futher and create a video on NetApp storage provisioning, Cisco Nexus 5000 zoning and Cisco UCS boot from SAN for VMware vSphere ESXi 4.1.
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Tags: CiscoUCS, netapp, nexus, SAN, System Manager, UCS
Virtualize Tier-1 Enterprise Applications on FlexPod for VMware
In today’s competitive environment, companies have to innovate rapidly to stay ahead of their competition, improve profitability, create new services and revenue streams, and reduce risks by adopting cost efficient business models.
The increased business pressure has a direct impact on the IT organization to innovate rapidly and efficiently meet the ever demanding business needs. At the same time, CIOs are struggling with the legacy, siloed, underutilized IT infrastructure and operational processes that were built based on the requirements of individual enterprise applications and processes. The end result is increased total cost of ownership and inability to help business be more agile, introduce new services, and achieve operational efficiency.
Why move enterprise applications to Virtual Infrastructure and Private Cloud?
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Tags: Cisco, cloud_computing, Exchange 2010, FlexPod, netapp, Sharepoint 2010, SQl Server 2008, VMware, vsphere
Are you going to HIMSS next week? If so, I wanted to share the following with you. Read More »
Tags: desktop virtualization, healthcare, himss, netapp, UCS, vdi, VMware, vxi
