Increased innovation in virtualization, compute and networking technology is steadily increasing the growth and adoption of VDI. Many enterprises are extending VDI deployments to their remote offices and branches but many are also apprehensive of running VDI across the WAN link due to concerns that a single point of failure could disrupt the entire business at a remote location. Similarly, small and medium businesses (SMBs) are exploring VDI.  For them to adopt VDI the offered solution needs to be simple, reliable, and able to incorporate other business needs like office communications, PCI compliance, business continuity, etc. They prefer solutions that provide a healthy TCO and can also be deployed and managed easily. 

Read More »

Tags: ISR G2, UCS-E, UCS-E Series, vdi, VMware, vmworld

If you’d like to learn more about the evolution of the data center, and how Cisco is supporting that mission, it’s a great time to be in Barcelona. VMworld Barcelona kicks off full force today, and there is a great deal to experience.

Get your I Speak Geek button from a roving reporter here at VMworld Barcelona!

Here’s a quick overview of Cisco’s presence in Barcelona in booth D200 and beyond.

For the first time, we’re taking the Roving Reporters and Engineers Unplugged abroad! This event will be covered by Josh Atwell (@Josh_Atwell) and myself, and we’re shooting several episodes of our new video podcast, which we’ll be releasing every Wednesday.

Read More »

Tags: barcelona, cloud, evolution of the data center, UCS, vdi, VMware, vmworld, vxi

Despite all the rumblings in the media about the future of the Cisco and VMware relationship, the two companies announced at VMworld last week that they will expand their strategic partnership to deliver next generation cloud infrastructures.  Hear directly from Rahul Tripathi, Director of Product Marketing at Cisco and Nitin Brahmankar, Senior Director of Strategic Alliances at VMware, about latest joint product offerings at VMworld 2012 in San Francisco: Cisco UCS E-Series, which takes virtualization to branch offices and Cloud Services Router (CSR) 1000V, which seamlessly extends enterprise networks into external clouds.

Read More »

Tags: CSR1000v, UCSE, vblog, VMware, vmworld

VMworld last week was a great success for Cisco (well, if you don’t count the #v0dgeball challenge). Leading up to the show we announced that the ASA 1000V cloud firewall was shipping, we announced a new major release of the Nexus 1000V virtual switch, and a new version of our Virtual Network Management Center.

Talking to customers is always the best part of the show, hearing what their challenges are, and positioning our technology to fit their needs. On Wednesday, I met up with Paul O’Leary, an Infrastructure Specialist with the international law firm of King & Wood Mallesons. Paul is a big fan of the Cisco Nexus 1000V and shares why his networking team loves it so much, and how it consistently saves them time in managing their network policies.

We showed Paul some of the features coming out in our next release, like the vCenter plug-in, and vTracker for viewing statistics on the virtual fabric, et al., and he was really excited. Anyway, Paul was good enough to let us share his thoughts with you rather spontaneously, so without any further ado, let’s roll the video:

But wait, there’s more…  Read More »

Tags: Cisco ONE, Nexus 1000v, OpenStack, vmworld, VXLAN

Cisco CVD’s are published…Giddy up!

Cisco Solution for EMC VSPEX…the overview

Yesterday Cisco and EMC announced new milestones in our collaboration on IT Transformation with VCE Vblock and with EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructures.  The announcement includes two new Cisco Validated Designs (CVD) along with aligned channel partner incentives and customer support for VSPEX.  Through these advancements, and a decade long partnership, Cisco and EMC are working closer than ever together to accelerate IT transformation and the journey to the cloud.

3 Paths to the Cloud

Cisco and EMC together offer customers a flexible set of choices.  We refer to it as the three paths to the cloud.  The choice is fairly simple.

* Implement a customized design with best of breed products.

* Purchase a pre-integrated converged infrastructure with VCE Vblock System.

* Install a validated, easy to deploy reference architecture with Cisco Solutions for EMC VSPEX.

Read More »

Tags: EMC, nexus, UCS, vmworld, vspex