As part of the comprehensive desktop virtualization portfolio, Cisco is providing a solution for the small and medium business customers, typically up to 500 desktops environment. The Cisco Solution for Citrix VDI-in-a-Box offers a simple and affordable desktop virtualization solution combining the benefits of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack servers with Citrix VDI-in-a-Box software.

SMB businesses account for more than 70% of the PC install base and significant proportion of these are potential candidates for desktop virtualization. Many of the SMB environments have uniform workload, defined workload characteristics and nominal application requirements.

The Cisco Solution for Citrix VDI-in-a-Box integrates connection brokering, load balancing, desktop provisioning, HA, and management functions in a single software appliance that runs on Cisco UCS C260 M2 server – this server is based on Intel Xeon processors and provide expanded memory configurations for the most demanding VDI workloads.

There are 2 defined solutions – Balanced Configuration targeting 60 to 70 users and Performance Configuration targeting 140 to 150 users per server node. Customers can scale either of these solutions by adding servers in a grid or cluster fashion. Cisco provides simplified single SKU ordering process for the Balanced and Performance configurations.

This solution is apt for small service firms, healthcare institutions, educational institutions, state and local government organizations.

For more details on the solution, please refer to the Solutions Brief and for Cisco desktop virtualization offerings please visit http://www.cisco.com/go/vdi

Tags: Cisco UCS, Citrix VDI-in-a-Box, desktop virtualization, smb, UCS, vdi, virtualization

I am pleased to be kicking off this Ask the Data Center Security Expert series at Cisco. This series is aimed at security professionals, partners, data center teams, and IT business decision makers and will address key security issues around virtualization, cloud and anticipated issues associated with trends such as the Software Defined Data Center. The series will take the form of blogs, videos, NetSec chats, and webinar panels. I have an array of expertise lined up ranging from key reseller and technology ecosystem partners, industry leaders and luminaries and internal Cisco experts. Stay tuned for the first in this series coming to you next week out of Singapore.

To get started, a little about me -- I was very excited to commence a data center and security solutions marketing role at Cisco 3 weeks ago.  I have over 12 years experience developing holistic security solutions and have been focused on data center and cloud for the last 3 years.  I currently chair the Cloud Security Alliance Cloud Controls (CCM), an industry effort dedicated to harmonizing regulatory controls for decreased compliance complexity and also have been bridging efforts with other industry associations such as the Open Data Center Alliance. Read More »

Tags: data center, data centes, hypervisor, private cloud, Public Cloud, security, virtualizarion, virtualization

Enterprise trends driving SDN and Network Programmability are becoming clearer.  The skyrocketing number of virtual/cloud devices is making human configuration infeasible.  A natural result will be that networks will move from being integrated based on physical box boundaries to being integrated based on software boundaries.  Put another way, traditional box based network integration will be overwhelmed by device proliferation.  Therefore businesses must adopt new approaches to device configuration and control.  This will include a new layer of network software which will instantiate, orchestrate, and dismantle virtual networks.

But what does this really mean?  Read More »

Tags: API, Borderless Networks, Cloud Computing, controller, Enterprise, intent, interface, onePK, partner, SDN, software, virtualization

The constant need for more speed, mobility, and insatiable demands for access to information, continues to strain the capacity of service provider networks around the globe. In essence, whatever capacity made available will be consumed.

An open question on the minds of the operators -- how can they leverage SDN to not only keep up with these demands but maintaining a highly profitable network business? Such was the topic of conversation amongst operators and our CTO, David Ward, during a panel discussion at the recent Broadband World Forum (BBWF) in Amsterdam.

What lies in the balance for operators — a plethora of Read More »

Tags: broadband, Cisco, cloud, digital economy, innovation, ONE, Open Network Environment, SDN, Service Provider, virtualization

Talking with customers in various segments, one common trend seems to be emerging for branch deployments:  customers are trying to strike the right balance between 2 opposite ideals. On one side they want to deliver great user experience and drive employee productivity but on the other side they are being asked to reduce cost and operate more efficiently. It is becoming increasing challenging to strike this right balance, especially with newer technologies like virtualization, BYOD and Cloud.

Read More »

Tags: ASR1K, byod, cloud, CSR1000v, ISR G2, strategy, virtualization