In Part 1 of this blog series, we looked at Gartner’s definition of Fabric based infrastructure (FBI). In part 2, we explored the benefits of service profiles and automation of server management. In this last installment, we will look into the benefits of fabric extension to virtual machines.
According to an IDC report (New Economic Model for the Data Center), the rate of growth of virtual machines is much higher than physical machines. The life cycle of virtual machines is more dynamic than physical servers. Virtual machines may need to be moved from one network to another for data access. Additionally, typical deployments of virtual machines have an extra layer of switching in the hypervisor. The software switches in the hypervisor emulate hardware at the expense of application performance. Cisco UCS solves these problems with the Cisco Virtual Interface cards (VICs) acting as adapter fabric extenders (fig 1) and bringing the network to virtual machines (VMs).
Another problem is that network administrators have no control on the soft switches in the hypervisor, which makes monitoring of network traffic to individual VMs very cumbersome. Cisco VICs use the VN-Tag standard in IEEE 802.1 BR standard to manage each link from the VM as if it were a Read More »
We’re doing quite a bit actually…if you’re headed to the Microsoft Management Summit 2013 show in Las Vegas in a few weeks, stop by our booth, grab a t-shirt, and see us demo our UCS Manager and Nexus 1000V capabilities and more…
Cisco’s technology investments for Windows Server 2012 & System Center 2012 center primarily on the hardware, management and networking segments with our UCS, UCS Manager, Cisco PowerTool, Nexus 1000V, and VM-FEX offerings. These investments help to drive simplification and automation for you – saving time and money.
Feel free to read and download documents from our library below:
Learn more about how Cisco can provide an optimum datacenter environment for your Microsoft investments at www.cisco.com/go/microsoft
Today marks the general availability of the eagerly-awaited Microsoft Windows Server 2012 platform. According to Microsoft, “Windows Server 2012 redefines the server category, delivering hundreds of new features and enhancements spanning virtualization, networking, storage, user experience, cloud computing, automation, and more.” Earlier Cisco blog posts discussed how Cisco has collaborated with Microsoft to achieve Windows 2012 certification for our UCS servers, as well as integrating our management tools into Microsoft System Center and PowerShell.
In this post, I’d like to highlight the integration of the Nexus 1000V virtual switch into the Windows Server 2012 platform, and particularly the Hyper-V hypervisor. We have been working closely with the Windows Server 2012 team for the past few years towards this goal, and announced Nexus 1000V and VM-FEX support for it at the Microsoft BUILD conference last year. Read More »
For Day 2 we spent more time on stage than in front of the camera but we continued to dig up some very interesting stories, updates and another announcement!
Go here for the Day 1 recap and collection of great (IMHO) video.
Right off the bat -- The NetFlow Next Generation Appliance
Jimmy Ray jumped at the chance to talk to Damien Lim about the new NetFlow Generation Appliance. Watch it here then meet scroll on down or make the jump for more videos and links to the details!
Today Cisco announced an expanded portfolio of third generation UCS Networking products that improve Datacenter scalability, performance and agility with industry leading capabilities. The announcement includes the following new products:
1. A new Fabric Interconnect (Cisco UCS 6296UP) that doubles the switching capacity of the data center fabric to improve workload density (from 960Gbps to 1.92 Tbps), reduces end-to-end latency by 40 percent to improve application performance and provides flexible unified ports to improve infrastructure agility and transition to a fully converged fabric
2. A new Chassis I/O Module (Cisco UCS 2204XP) that offers enhanced resiliency and utilization with Port Channeling, and an option for 80 Gbps, in addition to 160 Gbps, down to each chassis (from 80Gb to 320Gb to the blade) to handle workload bursts
