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Ravi Balakrishnan

Senior Product Marketing Manager

Datacenter Solutions

Ravi Balakrishnan holds a MS in Computer engineering and MBA in Marketing from USA

Ravi has more than 20 years of server hardware and software middleware experience at Sun, HP and Oracle and 5 years of server, virtualization and networking hardware experience at Cisco where he is employed currently – Ravi has acquired rich experience in datacenter infrastructure solutions encompassing Unified Computing Systems, Unified fabric, Energy Efficient Datacenters, and other emerging datacenter topics such as Cloud computing, dynamic provisioning, and the like.

Articles

September 7, 2016

DATA CENTER

YRC Freight achieves Business Transformation with Cisco ACI and Citrix NetScaler

3 min read

YRC Freight, based in Kansas, is a leading transporter of industrial, commercial, and retail goods, specializ­ing in solutions for businesses across North America. In fact, so large is their network...

September 1, 2016

DATA CENTER

Cisco ACI – F5 iWorkflow Integrated Joint Solution – Talk of the show at F5 Agility US, Europe and Australia

2 min read

In recent weeks, I had the opportunity to attend F5 Agility US and Australia, and meet with several customers and partners of Cisco and F5. It was evident from these...

August 12, 2016

DATA CENTER

Thunder Down Under – F5 Agility rolls into Melbourne and Sydney

3 min read

In a few weeks Spring season will set in, and it’ll be a Ripper Down Under. For the IT technology geeks there is plenty of action in store to celebrate...

July 28, 2016

DATA CENTER

F5 Agility 2016 – Next Stop Chicago

4 min read

Only a few weeks remain for the Fall season to officially set in, and it’s still quite hot in Chicago. The fast approaching F5 Agility event is further adding...

July 7, 2016

CLOUD

Red Hat Summit 2016 – A Review of key moments

2 min read

Red Hat Summit 2016 in San Francisco is an ideal setting to experience the power of open source in enterprise, for customers, partners and community enthusiasts. For me personally, this...

June 30, 2016

DATA CENTER

A quick journey through all the excitement that awaits you at Cisco Live 2016

6 min read

As Las Vegas glows in the intense June summer sun, another glow is appearing on the horizon. The heat is hot and the ground dry, but the air is filled...

June 21, 2016

DATA CENTER

Choice and Flexibility in deploying L4-L7 services with Cisco ACI and Cisco CloudCenter: An in-depth Journey

5 min read

Two weeks ago, I posted a blog highlighting the growing customer momentum for Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), particularly in the context of customer successes in ACI-F5 joint deployments. I...

June 17, 2016

CLOUD

Policy-based Cloud with Cisco ACI and OpenStack, Project Contiv and the Open Source Community

2 min read

Just a month ago, I was at OpenStack summit Austin presenting Cisco technologies to our valuable customers. To me it was quite obvious that OpenStack has hit mainstream, particularly after...

June 8, 2016

DATA CENTER

Recent Customer Success Stories: Achieving business transformation with Cisco ACI, F5 BIG-IP and BIG-IQ

3 min read

To me, there is nothing more satisfying than when a customer gives glowing testimonials publicly to our products and solutions. In the last two weeks, Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI)...

May 18, 2016

DATA CENTER

What is in store at Citrix Synergy 2016 – A quick tour de force

3 min read

Las Vegas, double-headers and technology events hold a special attraction for me. Early in May, I blogged about my back-to-back events in Vegas covering EMC World and Interop 2016....

May 11, 2016

DATA CENTER

F5 Agility Vienna | Welcome to ‘The City of Dreams’ where Hi-tech Meets Tradition

3 min read

It is spring time in Vienna now, the music is pervasive, and the Stadtpark is transforming into a place of epicurean delights. I vividly remember my student days when “Ich...

April 27, 2016

DATA CENTER

Interop and EMC World – A double header in Vegas next week

2 min read

If it is May, it must be raining conventions in Las Vegas. I am heading for a double header the first week of May to be part of the excitement...

March 14, 2016

DATA CENTER

3 SDN lessons in 3 years of production – Learn from Cisco ACI and Citrix NetScaler best practices

4 min read

This blog has been developed in collaboration with Citrix. Primary Author - Steve Shah, VP Product Management. Secondary Author - Ravi Balakrishnan, storyboard, blog style and content adaptation. Bring out...

March 7, 2016

DATA CENTER

Cisco ACI and Avi Networks deliver compelling ROI and automation to leading financial management software firm

3 min read

This Blog has been developed in collaboration with Avi Networks. Primary Author: Chandra Sekar, VP Marketing, Avi Networks.   Outline, Flow, Adaptation  by Ravi Balakrishnan, Cisco Systems. Avi Networks recently acquired a...

February 8, 2016

DATA CENTER

Cisco Live Berlin 2016, just a week away – A preview

4 min read

Making a trip to Berlin is always worthwhile. And February is especially notable, as this is when famous movie stars make their way down the red carpet for the international...

February 4, 2016

DATA CENTER

Enabling DevOps to Succeed: Go Beyond APIs

3 min read

Bio: Lori MacVittie is responsible for education and evangelism of application services available across F5's entire software suite with an emphasis on...

January 13, 2016

DATA CENTER

Network Automation and Programmability for Application deployments using Cisco Nexus 9000 and F5 BIG IP

2 min read

One of the major burdens in today’s Data Center is the management of complex IT environments. It requires considerable staff time to configure, deploy, and manage application infrastructure. Increasingly Automation...

December 7, 2015

DATA CENTER

Want to Empower your Digital Enterprise – Join Cisco at the Gartner Data Center Conference 2015, Vegas

2 min read

The year 2015 has been a very busy year for Cisco Data center Business Units. We are very pleased to end the year on a high note with the Gartner...

October 9, 2015

DATA CENTER

New FortiGate Connector for Cisco ACI Delivers App-Centric Security Automation For Data Center Agility

2 min read

Cisco’s open ACI eco-system is gaining rapid momentum in Data Centers with more than 45 leading partners developing joint solutions addressing L4-L7 network and security service use-cases along with application...

September 24, 2015

DATA CENTER

Cisco ACI – A Hardened Secure Platform With Native, Built-in Security

2 min read

This blog has been developed in association with  Javed Asghar, Insieme Business Unit The Cisco ACI Platform consists of the Cisco APIC controller and Nexus 9000 series switches connected in...

August 11, 2015

DATA CENTER

F5 Agility 2015: Next Stop Down Under

3 min read

In a few weeks Spring season will set in, and it’ll be a Ripper Down Under. For the Data Center technology geeks there is plenty of action in store to...

July 29, 2015

DATA CENTER

F5 Agility 2015, Washington DC – Exciting week awaits us

4 min read

Only a few weeks remain for the Fall season to officially set in, and it’s still quite hot in Washington DC. The fast approaching F5 Agility event is further...

July 16, 2015

DATA CENTER

Discover how Cisco ACI – AVI Networks joint solution enables faster application rollouts and continuous performan …

1 min read

The Cisco ACI partner eco-system is growing rapidly. I was privileged to see prima-facie, at Cisco Live San Diego last month, the excitement surrounding AVI’s solution announcement with Cisco ACI...

June 4, 2015

DATA CENTER

Cisco Live 2015, San Diego – A Week of non-stop technology showcase and excitement

7 min read

Cisco Live US 2015, Cisco's premier education and training destination for IT professionals worldwide, kicks off next week at San Diego....

May 17, 2015

DATA CENTER

Are you ready for F5 Agility next week – Edinburgh gets ready to play host to this exciting event

3 min read

It is a back-back, double-header for me this weekend, as I head from an action-packed week in Orlando to exotic Edinburgh,...

May 10, 2015

DATA CENTER

Looking for Action? Cisco ACI at Citrix Synergy 2015 or Disney World – or Both

4 min read

What attracts me to Orlando In the hot and humid month of May this year? There are numerous synergies from the Disney World to Orlando’s pristine nature that enhances my...

April 28, 2015

DATA CENTER

Cisco APIC wins Best of Interop 2015 award in SDN category

1 min read

The Best of Interop Awards for 2015 were announced today at 5.30 PM, at the Interop Theater. Cisco APIC won the Best of Interop award in the SDN category.

April 17, 2015

DATA CENTER

Cisco ACI and Radware – From Point Solutions to Application Centric Services

2 min read

Radware’s Alteon ADC and DefensePro integrated with Cisco ACI fabric enable IT managers drive greater value from their Cisco ACI deployment with automated tenant-based application delivery and security services. For...

April 9, 2015

DATA CENTER

Cisco APIC Makes Best of Interop 2015 Finalist

2 min read

With Interop less than three weeks away, we are excited to learn that Cisco APIC, the SDN controller for...

April 6, 2015

DATA CENTER

The Power of the ACI Toolkit: The “Snapback” App

2 min read

I recently wrote in my blog about a partner, WWT, that quickly developed a network replication solution across dual DC using the programming interface on the APIC.  Our own...

March 26, 2015

DATA CENTER

Federated ACI Fabrics for Dual Data Center Deployments – A Disaster Recovery ACI use-case

2 min read

Wins, Accomplishments, Fast Action, welcome to the world of Cisco ACI. In this blog, I want to take you closer to the core of ACI excitement. Cisco Insieme Business...

February 15, 2015

DATA CENTER

New Cisco APIC Software allows stretched ACI Fabric across long distances

1 min read

In the world of Cisco ACI, there is never a shortage of excitement and action. Today, we are pleased to bring to your attention news about the latest Cisco...

January 25, 2015

DATA CENTER

Cisco ACI and Nexus 9000 Activities at Cisco Live Milan 2015

1 min read

Interested in learning more about Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure and Nexus 9000? We are hosting a myriad of activities here at Cisco Live Milan 2015! With Meet the Expert...

January 22, 2015

DATA CENTER

Cisco Live Milan 2015: Hi-Tech revisits City of Tradition and Fashion

5 min read

When I first visited Milan last year in January, the occasion was Cisco Live and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Alpine city is known as much for...

January 9, 2015

DATA CENTER

Software Defined Networks with L4-L7 ADC Policy Automation

3 min read

It appears only a short time ago we introduced Cisco ACI to the market, but it is already the one-year anniversary time. In this one-year period, we have seen...

December 2, 2014

DATA CENTER

Take One small step with the ACI Simulator, Make a giant leap in ACI Fabric deployments

2 min read

Cisco ACI is gaining momentum and mindshare in the industry as testified by the 160 plus licensees for the Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC), and 900 plus customers for...

November 11, 2014

DATA CENTER

Transform DevOps with CA Release Automation and Cisco ACI

1 min read

DevOps is gaining momentum in many enterprises today. Customers are increasingly realizing the benefits of DevOps and how it helps in breaking down barriers and helps application agility. DevOps enables...

October 30, 2014

DATA CENTER

Cisco Live Cancun – Hi-Tech visits Vacation Paradise

3 min read

Cancun in November is not your ideal spring break destination, but it feels that way as many of us are heading there next week as part of a big contingent...

September 16, 2014

DATA CENTER

Cisco ACI Policy Model spans Physical, Virtual and Container based environments

3 min read

I find Linux containers among the most fascinating technology trends of recent past. Containers couple lightweight, high performance isolation and security with the ability to easily package services and deploy...

September 8, 2014

DATA CENTER

Citrix NetScaler Device Package for Cisco ACI goes FCS

2 min read

The Cisco-Citrix partnership has expanded significantly in recent years from UCS-XenDesktop based Desktop virtualization solutions to span Mobility, Desktop as A Service (DaaS) and most recently ACI-NetScaler joint solutions. I have been...

August 19, 2014

DATA CENTER

F5 device Package for Cisco APIC goes FCS

2 min read

Recent few weeks should have been exciting if you are a customer of ACI.  First, we announced the shipment of ACI to Data Centers worldwide. Then, F5 announced that...

July 31, 2014

DATA CENTER

Cisco at F5 Agility – From Copenhagen to New York

3 min read

You are probably thinking I have the most exciting job in Silicon Valley. In June 2014, I was leading Cisco ACI at the EMEA (Copenhagen) edition of F5 Agility....

June 13, 2014

DATA CENTER

Cisco ACI at F5 Agility 2014, Copenhagen

2 min read

At F5 Agility 2014 Copenhagen this month, Applications take the central stage.  The key focus area is Application Delivery Controllers (ADC’s as Gartner calls them) and how they are...

June 12, 2014

DATA CENTER

Cisco ACI and Nexus 9000 wins Best of Interop Japan, 2014

1 min read

Success breeds success.  In April this year, Cisco Nexus 9516 won the Best of Interop at Las Vegas. Yesterday, Cisco ACI and Nexus 9000 won the Best of Interop...

June 4, 2014

DATA CENTER

OpenStack with ACI whiteboard Video illustrations by Lucien Avramov

1 min read

According to Gartner’s Andrew Lerner, many of the networking practitioners running mainstream corporate networks have only surface-level knowledge of OpenStack as evidenced in his recent blog. To assist networkers...

May 15, 2014

DATA CENTER

ACI Walkabout at CiscoLive 2014, San Francisco

6 min read

In a few days at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of Cisco Live. This year we are expecting record attendance exceeding...

May 6, 2014

DATA CENTER

Cisco ACI’s Multi-Hypervisor + BareMetal Interop with VLAN and VXLAN Routing and Bridging Demonstration

1 min read

In November last year, I introduced via my blog, the powerful capabilities of the ACI Fabric and the unique hardware based VXLAN implementation in Cisco Nexus 9000...

May 1, 2014

DATA CENTER

IT Brand Pulse recognizes Cisco as Innovation leader in 7 Data Center Categories

1 min read

Cisco ACI has been making waves in the industry since its launch in Nov 2013. At Interop, Las Vegas in April 2014, Cisco Nexus 9516 bagged the Best...

April 22, 2014

DATA CENTER

Cisco ACI with OpenStack at Redhat Summit – A perfect Pairing

2 min read

Last week at Redhat Summit in San Francisco, Cisco Data center was well represented in speaking sessions, and solutions expo. I saw lots of traffic at our demo...

April 1, 2014

DATA CENTER

Cisco Nexus 9516 wins best of Interop award

1 min read

The Best of Interop Awards for 2014 were announced today at 5.30 PM, at the Interop Theater. Cisco Nexus 9516 switch won the Best of Interop award in the Data...

March 30, 2014

DATA CENTER

Cisco Data Center at Interop 2014 – Rebecca’s Keynote, Best of Interop Finalist, Customer Luncheon and many …

2 min read

Finally, Interop 2014 is around the corner and Las Vegas is heating up belying the wintry conditions as I step out of the airport. Two weeks ago, two of...

March 24, 2014

DATA CENTER

Best of Interop Finalist 2014 – Meet Cisco Nexus 9516 the new big, bad boy of Nexus 9000 Family

3 min read

The Nexus 9516 is the latest addition to the Nexus 9000 family of switches and it is already making headlines everywhere. The crowning moment came two weeks ago, when the...

January 22, 2014

DATA CENTER

Cisco Live Milan 2014: Where Hi-Tech meets Fashion and Tradition

6 min read

I am neither an AC Milan soccer fan nor a connoisseur of haute couture, so it will be no surprise if you wondered what I am doing in Europe’s fashion...

December 6, 2013

DATA CENTER

Cisco Nexus 9000 Community on GitHub

1 min read

If you are an open source fan, in particular GitHub, I have good news for you. Yes, we now have a Cisco Nexus 9000 community on GitHub. While...

November 11, 2013

DATA CENTER

Close Peek at Cisco ACI : Network Abstraction, VXLAN, Programmability

4 min read

Last week was a memorable one for me in more ways than one. First, the unveiling of Cisco’s Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) specifics by John Chambers and his Executive Management...

October 2, 2013

DATA CENTER

Cisco UCS Rocks at Oracle Open World

1 min read

You must be thinking I am joking, when I say that there is an affinity between me and San Francisco Moscone center. Yes, August end, I was there for VMworld...

September 6, 2013

DATA CENTER

My Experience at VMworld, San Francisco, 2013

1 min read

This year at VMworld, San Francisco, I had a choice, to attend either as a Visitor or as a Demo Booth staffer. I quickly chose the latter, as I could...

August 4, 2013

DATA CENTER

Will your Citrix XenApp infrastructure perform for thousands of mobile users?

2 min read

The number of mobile devices in our companies are exploding  - and one of the fastest and best ways to deliver all those existing Windows-based apps to these devices is...

June 21, 2013

DATA CENTER

Citrix at CiscoLive – From Disneyland to Disneyworld

3 min read

You’re probably thinking I have the best job in Silicon Valley. Last month I was running the Cisco UCS – with Citrix XenDesktop demos at Citrix Synergy in Anaheim....

June 13, 2013

DATA CENTER

Title: Citrix XenDesktop 7 and FlexPod – a Perfect Pairing

2 min read

Hot on the heels of a hopping Citrix Synergy two weeks ago, Citrix just broadcast on June 11, a fascinating discussion between senior Citrix, NetApp and Cisco executives on the...

May 19, 2013

DATA CENTER

Looking for Action? Citrix Synergy or Disneyland – or Both

4 min read

I am looking forward to next week’s Citrix Synergy conference in Anaheim, Los Angeles with sense of great anticipation. If you are fortunate enough to be attending, I am sure...