Articles
Cisco UCS C4200 multinode rack server deeper dive
3 min read
Other server vendors offer multinode servers, only Cisco offers you a system: UCS is a fabric-centric architecture with a centralized management model, manageable with a single tool, Cisco Intersight.
Cisco UCS – Helping You Laugh All the Way to the Bank
1 min read
How much could you save by switching to Cisco UCS? Our Public TCO Tool can give you guidance.
Scaling Networks Automatically with ACI
2 min read
Many of you know Lauren Malhoit our incredible co-host of TechWiseTV. She asked for my help getting this blog out and who am...
It’s OK to be fashionably late when you bring 3 more Cisco UCS world records
1 min read
When we announced our new M5 servers, we posted six new world record benchmarks. This late last week received confirmation of three more world records. SPECjBB®2015 MultijVM – #1 4-socket server result for critical-jOPS. The Cisco UCS C480 M5 delivered 229,029 – a 78% increase when compared to Cisco’s previous result #1 result.1 […]
Cisco UCS M5 C-Series Rack Servers – Evolution and Revolution
2 min read
Tuesday we announced our fifth generation of Cisco UCS servers. Today, I want to take a deeper look at the M5 rack servers. If you are interested in our new blade offerings, check out my blog from yesterday. We put our hard drive sleds on a diet and the C220 M5 bulked up. Customers asked […]
More of everything you love with Cisco UCS M5 Blade Servers
2 min read
Yesterday we announced our fifth generation of UCS servers. Today I want to take a deeper look at the M5 blade servers. Tomorrow, I’ll tackle the M5 rack servers. More! More! More! The B200 M5 Blade Server has more of everything you love. More cores, more memory, more GPUs. Based on the Intel® Xeon® Scalable […]
Cisco UCS continues its world record tradition!
3 min read
Contributing author: Vijay Durairaj Today we are announcing our latest generation of UCS servers based on the Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor family and 6 industry standard world record benchmarks. Since Cisco first entered the server business, we’ve been setting records and our new M5 servers are no exception. For details on the new Cisco UCS M5 […]
Cisco HyperFlex vs. Public Cloud
5 min read
Late last year, I compared Cisco’s S3260 Storage Server to Amazon’s S3 service. The results shocked a lot of people and spurred a lot comments on the blog.
Do you need more storage but fewer servers?
1 min read
Last week, I discussed the economics of on-premises storage using the S3260 Storage Server vs. the cloud. Net net, the S3260 is 56% less expensive. Today, I wanted to talk about server consolidation of multiple 2RU rackmount servers on to a S3260. Yes, I’m going to try and sell you fewer servers. 2RU rackmount server […]
Understanding the Cost Premium of Public Cloud for Active Data
2 min read
If you’ve read any of my past blogs, you’ll know I focus a lot on the economic impact of Cisco UCS. Today I’m comparing the TCO of hosting data intensive workloads on-prem vs. in the public cloud. What started out as a 2RU rackmount consolidation discussion (more on that next week) turned into a public cloud […]
Video Transcoding with the Intel Xeon E3-1285L v4 Processor
1 min read
Intel® recently released a white paper on FFmpeg Linux transcoding performance with Intel Quick Sync Video using the Intel Media Server Studio on the Intel Xeon® E3-1285L v4 processor.
Processor Updates to UCS Mini and M-Series
1 min read
Yesterday, Girish blogged about the new Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v4 product family and Cisco’s world record benchmark performance. Today, I want to update you on the changes to UCS Mini and our M-Series Modular Servers.
UCS Mini with StorMagic SvSAN
1 min read
Do you need a server and storage solution for your remote sites, to ensure that your business critical applications are always available? Cisco and StorMagic have a solution for you.
Cool Updates to UCS Mini and M-Series
1 min read
Tuesday Girish blogged about the new UCS Innovations and at the end of this post there is a list of other blogs with more details on other updates. Today I’ll go a bit more in-depth on what’s new for UCS Mini & M-Series Modular Servers.
UCS M-Series and Citrix XenApp Bare Metal Deployments
1 min read
If you are one of the 330,000 organizations using Citrix XenApp (or if you are considering it) you need to consider Cisco’s UCS M-Series modular servers. What are M-Series modular servers? M-Series servers are composable infrastructure that disaggregates storage and networking from the CPU/memory complex allowing workloads to be optimally matched to resources. An ideal […]
Cisco UCS Mini Customer Success Stories
2 min read
When we launched UCS Mini, it pushed us into new territory with an exciting offering that bundles servers, storage and networking into a single solution — much like the traditional UCS — but in a smaller form factor and lowered the cost of entry to a UCS solution. It allows customers of any size (SMB, […]
Latest additions to the Cisco UCS M-Series Modular Server Portfolio
1 min read
Cisco UCS M-Series Modular Servers deliver exceptional value for online content delivery like gaming, web serving, transcoding, and HPC. Built around Cisco’s virtual interface card (VIC) technology and the policy-based management of UCS Manager, this new design brings the award-winning architecture and management of Cisco Unified Computing to the world of parallelized workloads.
Find and Fix Problems Faster with New Splunk Integration for Cisco UCS
2 min read
IT infrastructures are increasingly complex and include a broad range of technologies and platforms hosted in physical, virtual and cloud environments. Cisco UCS has become a world leading server platform in large part because the unique UCS architecture enables organization to harness the power of virtualization and dramatically simplify infrastructure management. Splunk is a great […]
Cisco UCS Mini for SAP and SAP HANA
1 min read
On the way to tradeshow week (May 4th), I decided to do a brief blog series on UCS Mini tied to these shows. Last week was Microsoft Ignite. This week SAPPHIRE NOW and ASUG Annual Conference in Orlando and the discussion of UCS Mini for SAP and SAP HANA.
Cisco UCS Mini Finalist for Best of Interop Awards 2015
2 min read
When we launched UCS Mini back in September, it pushed us into new territory with an exciting offering that bundles servers, storage and networking into a single solution — much like the traditional UCS — but in a smaller form factor. It also allowed Cisco to effectively target branch or remote offices and the mid-market with […]
Cisco UCS Mini and Citrix Desktop Virtualization
1 min read
This week, Cisco is at three industry tradeshows (Microsoft Ignite booth #122, SAPPHIRE NOW and ASUG Annual Conference booth #330, and EMC World booth #221). Next week is Citrix Synergy in Orlando.
Cisco UCS Mini and EMC Storage
1 min read
On the way to tradeshow week (May 4th), I decided to do a brief blog series on UCS Mini tied to these shows. I’ve covered Microsoft Ignite and SAPPHIRE NOW in the past two weeks. Last up, EMC World in Las Vegas.
Cisco UCS Mini – Powering Microsoft Applications
1 min read
Since Cisco UCS Mini launched last September, Cisco and our partners (Citrix, EMC, Microsoft, NetApp, Nimble Storage, Oracle, SAP, and VMware) have been hard at work putting together a wide variety of solutions. On the way to tradeshow week (May 4th), I’ll be doing a brief blog series on UCS Mini tied to these shows.
Cisco UCS Manager Plug-In for Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c
1 min read
Cisco is pleased to announce the latest version of the UCS Manager Plug-In for Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c (OEM). This new version (12.1.0.9.0) is posted on the Cisco Communities website. The plug-in provides health monitoring and status checking.
Cisco Voted Top Platinum Sponsor – JDE Summit 2015
1 min read
The JD Edwards Summit brings together over 700 business partners from around the world for a week of product updates, industry discussions and intense training. A number of vendors were asked to present solutions that are specific to this customer base. Cisco and Nimble Storage presented the UCS Mini based SmartStack solution where the entry […]
Cisco UCS Mini Wins infoTECH Spotlight Award
1 min read
Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) announced the winners of the 2014 infoTECH Spotlight Data Center Excellence Awards today. Cisco is honored that UCS Mini is one of the recipients! To quote from the TMC press release: “The 2014 infoTECH Spotlight Data Center Excellence Award recognizes the most innovative and enterprising data center vendors who offer infrastructure […]
The Economic Impact of a VersaStack Solution
1 min read
I’ve written a number of blogs on the economic value of Cisco UCS and how it is changing the economics of the datacenter. Now, for the first time we performed a TCO comparison of our new VersaStack solution and how it stacks up versus the competition. The VersaStack solution combines the innovation of Cisco UCS […]
Cisco UCS Mini – Edge-Scale Computing
2 min read
Cisco’s Unified Computing System, originally designed for the datacenter is now optimized for Branch Office / Remote Office (ROBO), point-of-sale, and smaller IT environments with the announcement today of UCS Mini. This solution delivers servers, storage, and 10 Gigabit networking in an easy to deploy, compact form factor. Expandable to 15 servers, UCS Mini provides […]
Cisco UCS PowerTool Scripting Contest – Winners Announced
1 min read
To highlight the power and ease of use of the UCS PowerTool SDK and XML, a Windows PowerShell scripting contest was run from March 27th to May 11th. Championed by Technical Marketing Engineers Eric Williams and Jeff Foster, the contest exceeded its goals with 24 scripts submitted. The most popular category was configuring a new […]
Cisco UCS Power Scripting Finalist & Update #4
2 min read
The UCS Power Scripting Contest closed on May 11th and the five finalists were announced at Microsoft TechEd today. They are:
Cisco UCS at Microsoft TechEd 2014
1 min read
If you are coming to Houston next week for Microsoft TechEd, please set aside some time to stop by the Cisco booth (#701) and attend our sessions to learn how we are partnering in the datacenter.
Cisco UCS Power Scripting Contest Update #3
2 min read
Many IT organizations use Microsoft PowerShell to automate and accelerate data center management tasks. The Cisco UCS PowerTool module for PowerShell provides users a comprehensive list of cmdlets to manage all components of Cisco UCS. Users can use these cmdlets to write PowerShell scripts to simplify, speed up, and error proof UCS management and deployment.
Cisco UCS Power Scripting Contest Update #2
2 min read
A number of useful scripts have been entered in the UCS PowerTool/PowerShell contest. Here is what’s been happening since the 11th.
Cisco UCS Changing the Economics of the Datacenter at Cisco Live!
1 min read
For those of you who follow the Cisco Data Center blog in general and my blogs in particular, you’re probably thinking it is time I updated you on this topic. You’re right! But it is almost time for Cisco Live and I will be presenting it there.
Cisco UCS Power Scripting Contest Update #1
1 min read
The scripts have started rolling in and I wanted to update you on what’s been posted to date. Maybe you could use them in your environment? To review these scripts and participate in the contest, head over to the Cisco Communities.
Simplifying Cisco UCS Management with Microsoft PowerShell
1 min read
Many IT organizations use Microsoft PowerShell to automate and accelerate data center management tasks. The Cisco UCS PowerTool module for PowerShell provides users a comprehensive list of cmdlets to manage all components of Cisco UCS. Users can use these cmdlets to write PowerShell scripts to simplify, speed up, and error proof UCS management and deployment. […]
Cisco Volunteers Helping to Feed the Hungry
1 min read
Little known to most people, including residents of Houston, Texas, there is a peanut butter cannery here, and it is capable of producing over 1 million jars of peanut butter a year. Thanks to the coordination efforts of Terry Edge, a Cisco Channels Manager, two teams of Cisco employee volunteers produced 12,595 jars — 21,254 pounds — of peanut butter this […]
Cisco UCS – Year End TCO Wrap-up
1 min read
As the year comes to a close, I wanted to revisit the economics of Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS). Cisco UCS has fantastic technology. Technology that technical decision makers are demanding. But what about business decision makers? The question for them is how will UCS save them money?
Now is the time to refresh to Cisco UCS!
2 min read
Intel estimates1 that one-third of the servers in production are more than four years old. At first, one might think that it is great to get this much service out of a capital investment, but the operational costs to run these outdated servers would pay for a complete technology refresh increasing performance and reliability while […]
Cisco UCS vRack on Full Display at PASS Summit
1 min read
Cisco is proud to be a Platinum sponsor and exhibitor at PASS Summit this year. If you aren’t familiar with PASS Summit, it “is the world’s largest, most-focused, and most-intensive conference for Microsoft SQL Server and BI professionals.” Gary Serda has done an excellent job in detailing what the Cisco UCS team will be sharing […]
Cisco UCS Changing the Economics of the Datacenter at Oracle OpenWorld
1 min read
Next week at Oracle OpenWorld, I will be giving an abbreviated theater presentation on how Cisco UCS is changing the economics of the datacenter (full presentation below). If you will be at OOW, please stop by the Cisco booth (#1021 – Monday 9/23 @ 12:30pm, Tuesday 9/24 @ 4pm, & Wednesday 9/25 @ 2:30pm) for […]
A Brief IDF Recap from a First Time Attendee Representing Cisco UCS
1 min read
Given the diversity of the attendees, I wasn’t sure what to expect at Intel® Developer Forum (IDF) having never been to one before. Now I’m very glad to have the opportunity to discuss our updated blade and rack servers with Intel’s Xeon® E5-2600 v2 series of processors (aka Ivy Bridge v2) with potential customers, analysts, […]
Redux: Yes, Cisco UCS servers are that good
1 min read
Almost a year ago, I wrote my first blog post detailing what customers have been saying about their UCS experiences in our Case Studies, Solution Briefs, etc. The findings have been updated with the latest studies. While the percentages haven’t changed much, the number of customers reporting similar results (like Cisco’s market share) has gone […]
Relationships, Relationships, Relationships: Cisco at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference
1 min read
When I think of why technology solution providers should attend Microsoft’s WPC, I decided to pay homage to one of Steve Ballmer’s mantras with my blog title. Last year, at Microsoft’s WPC in Toronto, I was approached by KEMP Technologies (a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner). They gave me an elevator pitch on their products and […]
Cisco UCS vs. IBM Flex System: Complexity and Cost Comparison
1 min read
Complexity and Cost Comparison: Cisco UCS vs. IBM Flex System is report recently published by Principled Technologies. They evaluated both the technologies and costs of each solution and found a UCS solution is both less expensive to deploy and less complex to manage than an IBM Flex System. Off all the ways Principled Technologies shows […]
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